'I Didn't Know What It Was About': Marlon Brando Was Totally Confused By One Of His '70s Movies

This article includes discussion of sexual assault. 

Marlon Brando was already one of the most recognizable faces in the world by the 1970s, but in 1972, the Oscar winner cemented his unrivaled acting status by starring in not one but two of the most talked-about films in history. In March, "The Godfather" was released, and before the year ended, Bernardo Bertolucci's "Last Tango in Paris" had critics doubting whether Vito Corleone truly was Brando's best work. The iconic star is Paul, an emotionally unravelling widower who gets into an anonymous affair in an empty Paris apartment. The film was raw and strange, in a way that unmistakably read Bertolucci, one of the industry's noted provocateurs. 

It's not clear if it was meant to be a psychological study or simply a deeply uncomfortable, explicit story, but the film kept people talking for decades afterward regardless. As it turns out, the man at the center of the story, Brando, couldn't quite wrap his head around its meaning either. In a Rolling Stone profile published on May 20, 1976, the Hollywood legend confessed that he'd finished the entire movie without really understanding any of it. "I don't think Bertolucci knew what the film was about," he argued. "And I didn't know what it was about." 

In fact, Brando recalled that the director spent his time announcing to anyone within earshot that it was really a tribute to a certain part of his own anatomy. "I have no idea what that picture was about. I mean, most pictures are the extensions of people's fantasies," the actor added. Some classic films have that one messed up thing that you can't unsee once you know it. In "Last Tango in Paris," it came at a real cost to the teenager sharing the screen with Brando.

Perhaps the strangest part about Marlon Brando's "Last Tango in Paris" admission is that a good chunk of Paul came from himself. As the explained to Rolling Stone, Bernardo Bertolucci asked him about his childhood and then threaded those memories into the character. The interviewer noted what he perceived to be a look of revulsion from Brando when he dwelled too deeply on it. "I don't know," he confesses at one point, with a sense of finality. But his shrug lands very differently once you consider the experience of co-star Maria Schneider. The actor was just 19 when she appeared in the film. The screenplay called for a scene of simulated sexual assault, but the detail that made it notorious notably didn't appear in the text. Bertolucci later acknowledged that he and Brando hatched the idea on set, just before the cameras rolled, and chose not to warn Schneider. 

The point, he asserted in a 2013 interview, was to capture something genuine rather than performed. The actor's reaction — or as Bertolucci put it, "the rage and the humiliation" — had to be real. Schneider confessed to the Daily Mail in 2007, "I felt humiliated and to be honest, I felt a little raped, both by Marlon and by Bertolucci. After the scene, Marlon didn't console me or apologize. Thankfully, there was just one take." "Last Tango in Paris" endured, even if it's one of those movies that became classics for strange reasons. Schneider and her co-star maintained a friendship of sorts too.  Although it was hardly Marlon Brando's most tragic relationship, it took them a while to patch things up. For him, the film remained a mystery. For Schneider, there was nothing abstract about it.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).