raffey cassidy
Image: Denis Makarenko/Shutterstock

Raffey Cassidy’s long road to The Brutalist

27 Jan 2025 | | By Gregory Wakeman

The British actress is about to hit the big time – with a strong foundation to stand on

Despite being just 23 years old, English actress Raffey Cassidy has already starred in a captivating mixture of major Hollywood productions and intriguing indie fare. After gaining recognition in Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows, she was directed by Brad Bird in Tomorrowland, starred in Robert Zemeckis’ Allied alongside Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard, before appearing in Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Killing Of A Sacred Deer and Noah Baumbach’s White Noise. Not a bad squad of directors to have fighting your corner in a casting call, I think we can all agree.

Writer and director Brady Corbet was particularly struck by the young Mancunian’s screen presence when they worked together on Vox Lux. So much so that, at the after party for the 2018 musical drama, he offered her a role in his next project, The Brutalist. “He had just started to cast the film. He asked me to read it and see if I liked it. I already knew I’d want to star in it. I’d do anything with him,” Cassidy tells me over Zoom.

Corbet and Cassidy didn’t know it at the time but there would be so many obstacles to The Brutalist’s production that it would be six years before the film’s premiere at the Venice International Film Festival. When it did screen there, though, the period epic was met with such a euphoric response that it immediately became an awards season contender. At the Golden Globes it won three prizes, including Best Picture for a Drama, Best Director for Corbet, and Best Actor for Adrien Brody, while it also earned ten Academy Award nominations ahead of the ceremony in March.

Critics and film industry professionals have been entranced by its story of László Tóth (Brody), a Hungarian-born Jewish Holocaust survivor who emigrates to the United States and struggles to find work. When wealthy industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce) discovers Tóth was once a renowned architect, he gives him his dream job – at a cost.

The Brutalist has also drawn attention for its 3 hour 45 minute running time and its mandatory 15 minute intermission break. “There’s such a big thing about the running time, but, when I think back to reading the script, I don’t remember it being particularly long,” recalls Cassidy. “I was just really immersed in it. It doesn’t matter if the script is 80 pages or 170 pages if it’s good writing.”

Cassidy was so struck by the depth and detail of the script that she actually thought it was a biopic but what really attracted her to The Brutalist, however, was the character of Zsófia, László’s orphaned teenage niece who remained in Europe after the war to care for his wife, Erzsébet (Felicity Jones). Zsófia is mute because of the suffering she experienced during the Holocaust. “There was so much I could really delve into and research with the character,” says Cassidy. “The older I get, the more fun I have doing background work and research.”

Thanks to the aforementioned production stumbles – the Covid-19 pandemic, a prolonged search for financiers, scheduling conflicts, and a change in its lead actors – Cassidy had plenty of time to prepare for her role. “Every year it would have a different release date,” she notes. At one point, it even looked like Cassidy wouldn’t be able to star in it as she was in the middle of another project: “That was the worst news ever but, thank God, they were able to work it out.”

Eventually, production on The Brutalist took place in Budapest between March and May 2023, with Cassidy joining filming around two weeks after it had begun; “That was perfect, because it felt like me and Felicity were arriving together, which is what happens in the film.” Unsurprisingly, Cassidy was a little intimidated to be joining such an esteemed cast of Hollywood heavyweights, especially as they had already settled into their roles. “It was like your first day at a new school.”

When it came to learning from the likes of Pearce, Brody, and Jones, Cassidy was struck by how much of themselves they put into their characters and the film but, when Corbet shouted cut, they were able to switch off and be normal. “No one was method acting. We were able to have normal conversations. Watching the film now, it shocks me what they were able to achieve while still remaining nice.”

Cassidy finally got to really experience The Brutalist for the first time at its premiere in Venice in September 2024. While she’d previously seen footage on smaller screens, watching the final cut on such a huge scale, at a film festival that was eager to celebrate such artistry, was a very transportive experience for Cassidy. “It felt like I was in a different universe. Seeing the film with hundreds of other people, and them all having the same reaction, it was so emotional and exciting. It was very infectious.”

raffey cassidy venice film festival 2018
Stacy Martin, Natalie Portman, Raffey Cassidy and Brady Corbet at the 'Vox Lux' screening during the 75th Venice Film Festival, 2018. Image: Matteo Chinellato/Shutterstock

For Cassidy, The Brutalist has struck such a chord with critics and cinephiles because of the risks that Corbet and his co-writer, Mona Fastvold, took. “It’s so refreshing to see a film that’s so different. Some films have become a bit stale and stick to boundaries,” she explains. But while Cassidy is delighted to see that viewers have connected with The Brutalist so strongly — especially for Corbet and the films he should now be able to direct as a result of the critical response and awards nominations — she also doesn’t think that such success is what’s important to the filmmaker. “He doesn’t necessarily need global success. That’s not what it is about for him. It’s just really nice to see that he stuck to his vision and that people love his work.”

As Cassidy’s CV proves, she’s clearly attracted to filmmakers with distinctive voices and points of view. Later this year, she’ll be directed by Sophie Edelstein and Antonia Campbell, while she already has her eyes set on collaborating with Andrea Arnold, who she name-checks as one of her favourite filmmakers. “I’m just drawn to really brave directors,” she explains. “I just want to carry on working with directors who have really strong visions, who are good people, and who make good films.”

The Brutalist is in cinemas now.

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