Marlon Brando: "What Are You Rebelling Against?!" "Whadda You Got?"
How the original Method Man played the Hollywood game on his own terms and won. Sort of.
1 - If Marlon Brando’s known for one thing, it’s turning down his Best Actor Oscar for The Godfather. Funny thing is, his protest worked. Sure, sending Sachin Littlefeather on stage to reject the award in protest at Hollywood’s portrayal of Native Americans was rather unorthodox but it’s now very rare indeed to see Indian peoples portrayed disrespectfully on screen.
2 - Despite the ruckus over his Godfather gong, the Academy later offered Brando a Lifetime Achievement award. Naturally, the actor told the body where they could insert their special Oscar.
3 - When not crossing swords with the Academy, the great man was apt to give short shrift to Hollywood - “a cultural boneyard” - and fellow celebs such as Lee Marvin, whom he imaginatively rechristened “Lee Moron”.
4 - After approaching Stanley Kubrick to shoot the western One-Eyed Jacks, Brando became so frustrated with the director’s long-windedness during meetings that he’d bang a gong whenever he felt Kubrick had gone on too long. Amazingly, the director soon quit the project, leaving Brando to make the movie himself.
5 - While filming Jacks, Marlon proved such a perfectionist that he spent days filming the sea waiting for the perfect wave.
6 - Likewise, whenever the script called on Brando’s character to be drunk. the Method legend went on a massive production-delaying bender.
7 - Asked how he found the experience of directing, the actor undiplomatically described the process as “an ass-breaker”. He also said that the studio executives had left him feeling like “an old whore in a lumber camp who’s been fucked till she can’t see straight.”
8 - Marlon was a good one for helping out his mates. To the studio’s chagrin, he promised to pay good buddy Karl Malden $10,000 a week to co-star in One-Eyed Jacks. The wonky-nosed actor proceeded to buy a property that he christened “the house that Jacks built”.
9 - To promote action thriller Morituri, Marlon conducted 71 interviews in one day in New York City. But rather than selling the film, the great man used his time to warn audiences of the dangers of studio propaganda.
10 - Documented by the Maysles Brothers in their short film Meet Marlon Brando, the actor’s behaviour during the Morituri junket - and in particular his refusal to blindly promote the picture - seems extraordinary in our hype-heavy days. Standard exchange - Journalist: “Tell us about your new movie?” Brando: “Why?”
11- While filming The Nightcomers, Brando and director Michael Winner got into an argument over the pronunciation of the word ‘integral’. To resolve the matter, Marlon suggested both a bet and a forfeit. Cue Winner wandering around Piccadilly Circus selling condoms to bemused tourists.
12 - Although his star power was on the wane around the time he made The Godfather, Brando still packed enough clout to prevent Burt Reynolds from being cast as Sonny Corleone.
13 - Contrary to popular belief, Brando didn’t suggest the sex scenes in Last Tango In Paris be done for real. In fact, he used concerns over his weight to overturn Bernardo Bertolucci’s insistence on unsimulated intercourse.
14 - Not content with showing up on the set of Apocalypse Now badly out of shape, Marlon Brando repeatedly refused to shave his head, despite director Francis Ford Coppola’s desperate requests.
15 - What’s more, Marlon claimed not to have read Apocalypse Now’s source novel, Heart Of Darkness. Coppola proceeded to take Brando on a river cruise during which he read Conrad’s novel to the actor. Such was the size of Marlon’s salary, this excursion cost the director over $500,000.
16 - Arriving on the set of Superman, our man asked co-star Terence Stamp what the script was like. “Haven’t you read it yet?” frowned the bemused Brit. “No,” smiled Marlon. “I was worried that it might be shit.” Such an oversight was forgivable given that the actor was only making $4 million for his efforts.
17 - Brando didn’t care for Frank Oz, the director of The Score. And how did the actor make his displeasure known? By turning up on set minus his trousers and constantly referring to Oz as “Miss Piggy”.
18 - He didn’t ‘do’ political correctness, Marlon Brando. Appearing on Larry King Live, he said that it was grossly offensive that every minority group had been seen on screen except “the k*ke’. The Jewish community was understandably appalled.
19 - While few stars muddied themselves in the Civil Rights controversies of the 1960s, Marlon Brando not only walked behind Martin Luther King but also attended the funerals of slain Black Panthers.
20 - Marlon Brando claims that his indifferent attitude towards the film industry was cemented by a Tahitian woman he met while shooting Mutiny On The Bounty. Bored with filming, the lady asked to be released. When the studio demanded compensation, she offered the producers two pigs and two dogs and then swam off to her island home. “That’s how life should be,” the movie legend concluded.