Adrien Brody was spotted riding the New York City subway on Monday, blending in with fellow commuters in an all-black outfit.
The Oscar winner, 53, kept a low profile in a baseball cap, T-shirt, pants and sneakers for the underground outing with a friend.
Brody has been a familiar face around the city in recent months while starring in his Broadway debut as real-life death row inmate Nick Yarris in “The Fear of 13.” The limited-run show held its official opening night on April 15 at the James Earl Jones Theatre, and Brody gave his final performance on June 28.
Despite wrapping the production, the Queens native continues to split time between NYC and his historic Stone Barn Castle in upstate New York, where he lives with partner Georgina Chapman.
Born in Woodhaven and raised in Jackson Heights, Brody has long credited his New York upbringing with shaping both his character and his craft. Last year, he spoke warmly about the foundation it provided.
“I grew up in New York City. I grew up in Queens. I took the train all the time,” he said in February 2025. “I had to take four trains each way to go to drama school. I got accepted to Performing Arts, and it was a public school, but it gave me a wonderful foundation early on.”
That daily commute to LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts on the Upper West Side — which counts Timothée Chalamet, Jennifer Aniston and Al Pacino among its alumni — became something of an unexpected classroom for the young actor.
Back in 2009, Brody told Fade In magazine that the subway may have taught him more than the prestigious school itself.
“I feel like my real acting training came from going to and from school on four different trains each way, because of how many human beings I’ve encountered, between homeless people and immigrant workers and shark businessmen and every kind of human being — every kind of human being every other step,” he said.
He continued, “My natural fascination was that I gravitated toward their mannerisms — not to use as an actor, just because I’m curious, I guess. And rather than capture the image with photography, I feel like I capture it somehow and remember details very specifically, and I retain things very easily and evoke them later.”
The “Brutalist” star also found time to celebrate his Broadway run while it lasted. In May, he closed out Estelle’s in the Meatpacking District for an intimate dinner with castmates, friends and family, the outlet exclusively reported.
Brody next appears in the Apple TV+ series “The New Look,” which premiered its second season in 2025.
