“It was kind of claustrophobic and dangerous,” Brody says. In the miniseries Brody, as Houdini, is locked up in chains, tied to the front end of a cannon and lowered head-first into a replica of the famous Chinese Water Torture Cell. Abrams, the real Harry Houdini looked more like “Sean Penn did 20 years ago,” but Brody’s charm, and the ease with which he performs the role’s strenuous stunts, make any physical discrepancies fall away. He escaped poverty, anti-Semitism and being an immigrant to becoming the most iconic performer of his time.”Īccording to “Houdini” executive producer Gerald W. “In portraying him I gained a much deeper understanding.

He faced death regularly and conquered it,” he says.Īlthough physically very different from Houdini, Brody’s experience with sleight-of-hand gave him the inside track to playing the escape artist in “Houdini,” the two-part miniseries premiering Monday on History.īorn Ehrich Weiss in Budapest, Hungary, Houdini emigrated with his family to Appleton, Wis. “I remember being so impressed by him and his fearlessness and his bravery. Me breaking a pencil with a dollar bill.” Adrien Brody as Harry Houdini History ChannelĪs a boy, he idolized Harry Houdini, the great magician and escape artist. When Adrien Brody was growing up in Queens, he did magic tricks at kids’ birthday parties.īilled as “The Amazing Adrien,” he says, “I did pretty advanced stuff. 'Tool Time' returns in new series with Tim Allen and Richard Karn

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