The director of “The Last Tango in Paris” has responded to the outrage over *that* scene
Following the outcry earlier this week, the director of The Last Tango in Paris, Bernardo Bertolucci, has released a statement defending the controversial rape scene involving Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider.
Last week, an old interview of Bertolucci discussing the scene, which sees Brando’s character rape Schneider’s character with a stick of butter, surfaced in which the director told how Schneider wasn’t informed of the controversial sexual assault scene. The video caused uproar on social media, with actors such as Chris Evans, Jessica Chastain, and Anna Kendrick condemning both Brando and Bertolucci.
Speaking in the interview, Bertolucci said that he wanted Schneider “to react humiliated,” adding that, “I think she hated me and also Marlon because we didn’t tell her.”
Now Bertolucci has responded to allegations that Schneider wasn’t informed of the scene.
In a statement released on Monday (December 5th), the Italian director, whose last film was released in 2012, said that he wanted to clear up any misunderstanding regarding his comments.
“I specified, but perhaps I was not clear, that I decided with Marlon Brando not to inform Maria that we would have used butter. We wanted her spontaneous reaction to that improper use [of the butter],” he said. “That is where the misunderstanding lies. Somebody thought, and thinks, that Maria had not been informed about the violence on her. That is false! Maria knew everything because she had read the script, where it was all described. The only novelty was the idea of the butter.”
Bertolucci’s comments are a direct contradiction to a 2007 interview that Maria Schneider gave where she said that the infamous butter scene wasn’t included in the script.
Speaking to The Daily Mail, the actor said that she felt “a little raped.”
“That scene wasn’t in the original script. The truth is it was Marlon who came up with the idea,” she said. “They only told me about it before we had to film the scene and I was so angry. I should have called my agent or had my lawyer come to the set because you can’t force someone to do something that isn’t in the script, but at the time, I did.”
Sadly, Schneider passed away in 2011 at the age of 58. The actor never filmed another nude movie scene again, and relocated her career to France after filming Last Tango.
If you have experienced sexual violence and are in need of crisis support, please call the RAINN Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
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