Brady Corbet, the acclaimed director of "The Brutalist," is now declaring that his critically praised film has not earned him a dime despite its strong $31.1 million global box office take.

On Marc Maron's "WTF" podcast, the 36-year-old filmmaker opened up about how he just finished directing three commercials in Portugal — his first paycheck in years. He further revealed that in the last two films, he made zero dollars, adding, "Yes, actually zero. So we had to just live off of a paycheck from three years ago."

Recent directorial credits have included "The Brutalist" in 2024, three episodes of Apple TV+'s miniseries "The Crowded Room" in 2023, a Maya Hawke music video in 2022, and the short film "30/30 Vision: 3 Decades of Strand Releasing" in 2022.

He clarified that sustaining a filmmaker in this business becomes difficult as the promotion of a film requires funds.

He said that was almost a year ago, as you can see from some of the films shown at Cannes. Their movie, The Brutalist, came out in September.

"So I've been doing this for six months. And had zero income because I don't have any time to go to work. I can't even take a writing job at the moment."

'The Brutalist' Success

"The Brutalist" stars Adrien Brody as a Hungarian-Jewish Holocaust survivor who comes to America to start anew with his life, career, and marriage. The film has proven to be a commercial and critical success, winning four BAFTAs (including best director for Corbet at both ceremonies) and three Golden Globes.

The film has also been nominated for 10 Oscars — Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress.

Corbet's anecdote was alarming but not necessarily surprising. The director pointed out, "many filmmakers with films nominated this year who can't pay their rent."

Even as Corbet earns accolades for his endeavor, he confesses that there were moments he wished he hadn't taken on such a colossal project—one that took almost a decade to produce and pulled him away from his 10-year-old daughter, Ada.

"Years of my life have been eroded as a result of the stress of making the film, of protecting the flame of the film — even though the film has been so impactful and even commercially viable, which is kind of amazing."