“I’m not a ventriloquist!” : An enraged Marlon Brando wanted to leave the screening of this film

“I’m not a ventriloquist!” : An enraged Marlon Brando wanted to leave the screening of this film

We no longer represent the absolute Hollywood icon that was Marlon Brando. If Brando was a fabulous actor, although he suffered a lot in his personal life, he also earned a solid reputation for being often unruly on set, with a moony demeanor.

For example, on The Merciless Pursuit, Arthur Penn’s masterpiece, he played Sheriff Calder, responsible for arresting Robert Redford. Brando hated making the film, in addition to having little regard for his character, however fabulous. While doing minimal duty, she stated that she was happy with her character’s spin on the set…

A book recently translated into English, published in Italy in 1982, reveals a vivid anecdote about the actor. Article from the Guardian (via term). under the name Hollywood on the TiberThis book was written in the late 1970s by Hank Kaufman and Jean Lerner, an American couple who arrived in Rome in 1953 and became agents, friends and confidants of some of the biggest movie stars, including Anita Ekberg, Ava Gardner or Simone. Signoret.

“I’m an actor, not a stupid ventriloquist!”

In 1954, in Elia Kazan’s Dockyard, Marlon Brando, playing dock worker-boxer Terry Malloy, won an Oscar for Best Actor; One of eight statues earned by this absolute classic of American cinema.

In the same year, the actor was in Rome, Italy, for the premiere of the film. He was also placed next to a young and rising 19-year-old actress: Sophia Loren. When he discovered that his voice had been dubbed into the Italian version, Brando was furious.

“Why didn’t anyone tell me I was going to see a dubbed version?” He was confused. His agent, embarrassed to have been waiting for the original English version, explains in the book that Brando “He stood up like he had a heart attack”He whispers angrily: “Get me out of here!”

“I’ve never seen myself dubbed. I’m an actor, not a puppet for some stupid ventriloquist. Can you imagine what it’s like to hear someone else’s voice come out of my mouth? You’re going to feel sad on the show. Damn, why didn’t anyone prepare me?

When Brando tried to leave the room, Gene Lerner told him: “If you do that, everyone will write about you leaving. They’ll say they hated you for turning down the film, whatever. They’ll write a lot of things and say nothing about the quality of the film.”

After going out for a drink at a local bar to calm down, Lerner still convinced him to return to his room five minutes before the end of the movie. so that no one noticed his absence in the dark: “When the lights came up in the theater, Brando stood leaning on the mezzanine railing to respond to rapturous applause and cheers.”

Source: Allocine

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