A profile by the Daily Mail describes Maria Schneider as possessing a perpetual babyface, a descriptor that's all the more troubling in light of the degrading acts she was told to perform for "Last Tango in Paris." Schneider was just 19 when she was cast in Bernardo Bertolucci's controversial film. Her co-star Marlon Brando, meanwhile, was 48.
In one of the film's most notorious scenes, Brando uses butter as a lubricant before sexually assaulting Schneider's character. But she wasn't told that she had to perform the degrading scene until the day of shooting. "You can't force someone to do something that isn't in the script," she told the Daily Mail, "but at the time, I didn't know that ... During the scene, even though what Marlon was doing wasn't real, I was crying real tears. I felt humiliated ... I felt a little raped, both by Marlon and by Bertolucci." In a disturbing admission, she said that Brando remarked that her babyface reminded him of his daughter, Cheyenne.
In an interview with The Guardian, Bertolucci confessed that he and Brando conspired to humiliate Schneider, plotting the butter scene over breakfast without consulting her. "Poor Maria. I didn't have the occasion to go to ask her to forgive me," he said. "She was a 19-year-old who ... had never acted before. Maybe, sometimes in the movie, I didn't tell her what was going on because I knew her acting would be better."
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).
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