It’s the day before Thanksgiving when I meet Stacy Martin at the Oaks Cafe. Christmas music has already permeated all corners of what seems to be every shop in Los Angeles. To the tune of some warbled Vince Guaraldi track, the French actor and I order coffees and take refuge under the umbrellas on the patio.

Stacy Martin has long been a fixture of the independent film scene on both sides of the Atlantic. Since her debut as Young Joe in Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac: Volumes I and II, she has built a career marked by her deliberate selection of roles, and her measured, thoughtful enactment of them. Over the past 11 years, the now 34-year-old has appeared in an eclectic range of projects and has served as an ambassador for Louis Vuitton since 2021.

In her latest venture, The Brutalist, Martin steps into the role of Maggie Lee Van Buren, daughter of wealthy industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce). The film follows Adrien Brody as László Tóth, a Jewish Hungarian revolutionary architect who survives the Holocaust and immigrates to the United States, settling in Pennsylvania where his talents are recognized by Harrison Lee Van Buren. Co-starring Felicity Jones, Joe Alwyn, and Raffey Cassidy, the film explores post-war resilience, ambition, and the human toll of chasing ideals— thematic terrains Martin navigates with quiet intensity, made all the more vivid by her own experiences as a woman and an American immigrant.

“You catch them in 1947,” she says. “It’s a time where women weren’t given as many possibilities as men. And things, especially in American society at that time, I think, were quite contrived for women. And even though she [Maggie] comes from a very wealthy family and her father [Harrison] loves her very much, she still has a place, and you meet her where she’s beautiful and everything’s possible, but within the remit of that society at that time. I wanted to show the conflict of someone’s youth, and also the desperation of not being able to do anything.”

The Brutalist marks Martin’s third collaboration with director Brady Corbet, who co-wrote the screenplay with his partner, Mona Fastvold. “[Corbet] is such a visionary and a cinephile. That, combined with his tenacity to make films, is really exciting for me. In terms of this specific story—it’s such an epic, because it starts in 1947 and ends in the 80s. I was really curious to see how he would actually tell that story and adapt at times, because the way that films were filmed in the 50s to the 80s is so different, and he took that into account in how he filmed, in the dialogue and the music.”

Since her 2013 inauguration onto the silver screen in Nymphomaniac, Martin has worked with a number of unique arthouse directors, among them Lars von Trier, Matteo Garrone, and Michel Hazanavicius. She compares the approaches to film she’s learned from each director, sharing, “Brady—he’s made me very aware of the sort of building an image, narratively to say something. Lars, he taught me to not even think about the camera. He was like, ‘You have to fight the camera. Don’t be so nice. Don’t help it. Fight it.’ They’re completely different opinions. But in a way, staying flexible and staying curious about the processes is the best part.”

In The Brutalist, the technical process that goes into story is equally as important as its execution. The film not only delivers a profound historic exploration of post-war America, alienation, identity, and art, but it does with a technical mastery that’s rare in the current age of filmmaking. Shot on VistaVision, a high resolution format that’s projected in 70mm, The Brutalist is an immense undertaking in length, theme, and literal heft—it exists on four miles of celluloid that weighs nearly 260 pounds.

“Brady is very interested in shifts in human psychology after a major event. In Vox Lux it was a school shooting. In [The Brutalist], it’s the Holocaust and the wars later. How does that impact people’s psychology, and what are the creative movements that come from it?”

The Holocaust gave rise to a profound number of movements in art and architecture—movements like Abstract Expressionism, (think: Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman) reflected the inner turmoil and existential questioning of a post- Holocaust world. Similarly, movements like Neorealism in European cinema sought to capture the stark realities of life after such devastation. In architecture, the modernist ideals of the Bauhaus evolved, emphasizing functionality and renewal in the wake of destruction.

Brutalism emerged as an architectural response to World bWar II, reflecting the need for solidity, permanence, and functionality in a fractured world. With its raw concrete forms and unadorned honesty, Brutalism embodied both the stark realities of the time and a hope for rebuilding from the ruins. “Everything, all the actions of each character and what they do and what happens to them, it all mirrors the grander scale of what the film is trying to say,” Martin says. “I think [Brutalist architecture] is a fascinating movement...you can’t not be fascinated by it. They’ve used its duality, but it’s also showing just how brutal, for lack of a better word, we are as human beings towards each other. For Maggie, you don’t see her being necessarily manipulative, but she’s still complacent in a system that is at that point in her life giving her what she wants.”

With a runtime over three hours long and a storyline that spans over 30 years, the cast faced the challenge of building characters that change along with the period as the film progresses throughout the decades, from the late 40s till the 80s. As an answer to this challenge, Martin grounded her portrayal in relatable, pragmatic choices that allowed her character to discover her path organically. In Maggie, Martin channels a light-heartedness that becomes a cornerstone for her family, even as they fail to fully appreciate her presence.

“You have to accept that these characters are not aware of what they’re doing, and you have to give them the freedom to discover,” she says. “I didn’t want to do something that was too intellectualized. Especially with Maggie—she’s such a source of joy that that family relies on at the beginning and sadly, they just don’t really take it in as much as they should. But I try to find ways that are applicable to me in a, maybe, simpler way that doesn’t feel like I’m teaching a PhD—it has to be attainable and it has to be relatable. Inner conflict, and what that creates in a person, for me, is the most interesting. So how can I find that in the characters that I play?”

Growing up between Paris and Tokyo, Martin navigated different languages and traditions from a young age. She found a real sense of place and self in London, and she’s recently moved to Los Angeles. Her international upbringing gave her a unique perspective on identity and adaptability. In The Brutalist, a film that explores themes of migration and resilience, Martin’s personal understanding of cultural shifts adds a subtle depth to her portrayal, enriching the emotional landscape of the story. “We always moved. We always had to adapt. We always had to be curious about where we were. I find that actually, when you’re talking about immigration, it’s such a topic of controversy. Immigration is something that is accepted, but also not accepted in different forms. I just immigrated to America. No one’s giving me hardship, but someone else will immigrate to England from Africa, and they’ll be seen differently as me. Why is that? What is that? I’ve always been interested in how one can assimilate but without also losing their own identity. Who am I within this country? Who is Adrien Brody, László Tóth? Who is he outside of just trying to reach the American Dream?”

An ambulance screams by the cafe, and Martin watches as it passes, listening intently. “I’m still trying to learn all the sirens,” she explains.

Perhaps it’s the rare lack of traffic in Los Angeles due to the holiday, or the bustle of customers across the market parking lot, turkeys and sweet potatoes pouring out of their grocery carts, but our conversation takes a turn toward the American Dream.

“It’s ironic saying this the day before Thanksgiving, but the American Dream is built on colonization,” she says. “There are two sides of the coin. It’s a scary dream, because for me, I think it feeds on hope, but that hope is different for every person. When someone gets to the place that they want to get, whether it’s America or England or wherever, the reality is never what they were promised. Historically, I think immigrants are just never welcomed into new countries. There’s this idea that they’re going to go to America and make it big, and then be faced with: ‘Well, no, only Americans make it big, which is really devastating.’”

At the start of the film, Maggie is arguably the epitome of the American Dream. Young, beautiful, and wealthy, her life is filled with promise and possibilities. But as the film traverses across mid-century America, Maggie is faced with a harsh reality of the limitations imposed upon her by the system she was born into.

“The value of working hard and committing to something—that I like. This concept that it’s attainable to everyone, I think that’s maybe where the lie is. Because, yes, everyone can work really hard, but we’re all given different cards at the beginning of a game. Those cards are never the same.”

A monumental feat in the oft-overlooked world of independent cinema, The Brutalist uses the hand it was dealt to create something rare, special. It’s an epic historical drama that gives its characters space to grow and trusts the audience to grow alongside them. As our conversation winds down, and we prepare for an inundation of American-flavored gratitude and corporate-sponsored holiday cheer, Stacy Martin’s candid, informed approach to her craft feels particularly refreshing. Whether she’s playing a conflicted character in an epic drama or contemplating the dualities of art and society, her approach remains grounded, intelligent, and unflinchingly honest. 

Photographed by Ricardo Gomes

Styled by Christopher Campbell

Written by Isaac Dektor

Hair: Cervando Maldonado at The Wall Group

Makeup: Francie Tomalonis at The Visionaries Agency

Nails: Tracy Clemens at Star Touch Agency

Flaunt Film: Jonathan Ho

Lighting: Yolanda Leaney

Digi Tech: Michael Seeley

Lighting Assistant: Justin Seeley

Location: Vision Studios

Production Assistant: Isa Luzarraga

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