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‘Last Tango in Paris’ Director Says Infamous Rape Scene Was Not Consensual

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Updated on July 6, 2023

See more articles on:Anna Kendrick, Chris Evans, Jessica Chastain, Marlon Brando

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The rape scene in the film Last Tango in Paris between Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider is probably one of the most horrifying moments in film history, and new information about it has been disclosed.

Director Bernardo Bertolucci said he and Brando came up with the idea to shoot the iconic sequence showing assault, in which Brando’s character uses a stick of butter to anally rape his girlfriend, played by Schneider, in a video that emerged recently.

Bertolucci and Brando agreed not to inform Schneider what would happen to her because he wanted her to respond “as a girl, not as an actress,” according to Bertolucci. He said that following the film, he and Schneider, who died in 2011, never saw one other because she despised him.

“I wanted her to react humiliated,” Bertolucci adds. “I think she hated me and also Marlon because we didn’t tell her that there was that detail of the butter used as lubricant.” That said, he doesn’t “regret” his actions — this, despite Schneider’s reaction to her experience. “To obtain something I think you have to be completely free,” continues the filmmaker. “I didn’t want Maria to act her humiliation her rage, I wanted her to Maria to feel…the rage and humiliation. Then she hated me for all of her life.”

“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,” Maria told the Daily Mail four years before her death. “But at the time, I didn’t know that.”

Last Tango in Paris, which was premiered in 1972 and follows the narrative of a man who has an anonymous affair after his wife commits suicide, stunned viewers with its explicit images of sex and rape at the time of its debut and is still considered controversial. Brando was 48 years old at the time of filming, whereas Schneider was 19 years old.

Bertolucci said in an interview that Maria Schneider ‘hated me for all her life’
Credit: Getty Images

Despite Schneider’s previous claims, a video interview with Bertolucci went viral on social media this weekend, with the director acknowledging that the sequence was non-consensual.

“Wow,” actor Chris Evans said in a tweet about the interview earlier today. “I will never look at this film, Bertolucci or Brando the same way again. This is beyond disgusting. I feel rage.”

Actress Jessica Chastain wrote on Twitter that she felt “sick” over the revelation that “the director planned her attack”.

Chastain’s words were retweeted by Evan Rachel Wood, who responded, “I second that. This is heartbreaking and outrageous. The 2 of them are very sick individuals to think that was ok.”

Pitch Perfect actress Anna Kendrick replied: “Ms Schneider stated this several years ago. I used to get eye-rolls when I brought it up to people (aka dudes).”

It was “inexcusable,” according to filmmaker Ava DuVernay.

“As a director, I can barely fathom this. As a woman, I am horrified, disgusted and enraged by it,” DuVernay wrote.