WARNING: This article contains distressing content.
Almost 44 years after Last Tango in Paris was released, the film, which featured one of the most controversial scenes in cinematic history, has once again come under the spotlight.
Director Bernardo Bertolucci has admitted the rape scene in the 1973 movie was filmed without the consent of then 19-year-old actress Maria Schneider.
The scene wasn’t in the script, so Schneider had no idea it was going to happen until it did.
The Italian director’s confession actually came in a 2013 interview which has now resurfaced nearly four years later to outrage and disgust.
Bertolucci confessed to coming up with the plan with lead star Marlon Brando, then 48, over breakfast one day during filming.
“There was a baguette, there was butter and we looked at each other and, without saying anything, we knew what we wanted.”
“I think she hated me and also Marlon because we didn’t tell her,” he added.
“I didn’t want Maria to act her humiliation, her rage. I wanted Maria to feel, not to act, the rage and the humiliation”.
The film earned Brando a best actor Oscar nomination and Bertolucci a best director nomination.
In 2007 Schneider said she was told about the scene just moments before she was to perform it.
“They only told me about it before we had to film the scene and I was so angry,” she told the Daily Mail.
“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 didn’t know that.”
The actress said she felt humiliated and her reaction on film was genuine.
“Marlon said to me: ‘Maria, don’t worry, it’s just a movie,’ but during the scene, even though what Marlon was doing wasn’t real, I was crying real tears,” she said.
“I felt very sad because I was treated like a sex symbol — I wanted to be recognized as an actress and the whole scandal and aftermath of the film turned me a little crazy and I had a breakdown.”
“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 apologise. Thankfully, there was just one take.”
A number of Hollywood stars including Jessica Chastain, Chris Evans and Anna Kendrick have come out condemning the story as “disgusting” and “heartbreaking and outrageous”.
Schneider struggled with drug addiction and depression following the attention the film brought to her.
She died in 2011 at the age of 58.
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