section_path: Career/1989 – 2002: Beginnings and breakthrough
section_name: 1989 – 2002: Beginnings and breakthrough
paragraph_text: 1989 – 2002: Beginnings and breakthrough
  
  Taking acting classes as a child, by age thirteen, Brody appeared in an Off-Broadway play and a PBS television film. His breakthrough came with a supporting role in Steven Soderbergh 's King of the Hill (1993), a critically acclaimed drama often recognized as a pivotal moment in his early career, with both critics and Brody himself citing it as his big break. In 1996, he starred alongside Tupac Shakur and Mickey Rourke in Bullet. Brody hovered on the brink of stardom, earning an Independent Spirit Award nomination for his performance in the 1998 film Restaurant and receiving praise for his roles in Terrence Malick 's The Thin Red Line and Spike Lee 's Summer of Sam (1999).
  
  Director Roman Polanski, impressed by Brody's work in Harrison's Flowers (2000), cast him the lead role in The Pianist (2002). To prepare for the role, Brody withdrew from public life for months, gave up his apartment and his car, and took piano lessons for four hours a day until he could master passages from some of Chopin 's finest works. At 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) tall, he lost 30 pounds (14 kg), dropping him to 130 lb (59 kg). The role won him an Academy Award for Best Actor, making him, at age twenty-nine, the youngest actor ever to win the award, and, to date, the only winner under the age of thirty. He also won a César Award for his performance. The role also earned him Best Actor nominations at the BAFTA, Golden Globes, and SAG Awards; Brody did not win any of these prizes, making him one of few actors to win an Oscar and no major precursor awards for a performance.
  
  Taking acting classes as a child, by age thirteen, Brody appeared in an Off-Broadway play and a PBS television film. His breakthrough came with a supporting role in Steven Soderbergh 's King of the Hill (1993), a critically acclaimed drama often recognized as a pivotal moment in his early career, with both critics and Brody himself citing it as his big break. In 1996, he starred alongside Tupac Shakur and Mickey Rourke in Bullet. Brody hovered on the brink of stardom, earning an Independent Spirit Award nomination for his performance in the 1998 film Restaurant and receiving praise for his roles in Terrence Malick 's The Thin Red Line and Spike Lee 's Summer of Sam (1999).
  
  Director Roman Polanski, impressed by Brody's work in Harrison's Flowers (2000), cast him the lead role in The Pianist (2002). To prepare for the role, Brody withdrew from public life for months, gave up his apartment and his car, and took piano lessons for four hours a day until he could master passages from some of Chopin 's finest works. At 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) tall, he lost 30 pounds (14 kg), dropping him to 130 lb (59 kg). The role won him an Academy Award for Best Actor, making him, at age twenty-nine, the youngest actor ever to win the award, and, to date, the only winner under the age of thirty. He also won a César Award for his performance. The role also earned him Best Actor nominations at the BAFTA, Golden Globes, and SAG Awards; Brody did not win any of these prizes, making him one of few actors to win an Oscar and no major precursor awards for a performance.