“It’s going to be a flop”: ‘The Godfather’ Actor Marlon Brando Was So Frustrated With His Comedy Movie That He Wanted to Retire Afterwards
American actor Marlon Brando was a part of the Hollywood entertainment industry for six decades. The long list of accolades he has won includes two Academy Awards. His role as Vito earned him his second Academy Award which must be rewarding for Brando considering the many flops, he had delivered in the ten years before The Godfather.
Marlon Brando was not just a name that could attract audiences to the theatres, it was also one that could get actors to join a film’s cast. One instance of this was the crime-comedy The Freshman in which the sole reason Matthew Broderick agreed to act was that he would get to share a screen with Brando. However, there was a point when the One-Eyed Jacks actor decided to badmouth his own film.
Marlon Brando Spoke Badly of his Own Comedy Movie
Released in 1990, The Freshman is a movie that follows the story of a young student who gets involved in an illegal business of supplying endangered animals to a restaurant that serves these animals as special dishes. Marlon played the role of the owner of this restaurant Carmine Sabatini aka Jimmy The Toucan. Before the film’s release, Brando tried to sabotage the movie’s success by calling it “horrible” and “a stinker”.
The A Streetcar Named Desire even went as far as saying, “It’s going to be a flop but after this, I’m retiring.” An interesting fact about this whole incident was that Brando had specially invited a Globe and Mail reporter to his trailer while he was still on the set of The Freshman to talk filth about the movie. He, in fact, did not retire after this movie like he had claimed that he would.
Marlon Brando Apologized for His Remarks
Just after a week and a half of speaking ill of the movie, Marlon Brando apologized for his remarks in a statement stating that it was due to “trying times of a very personal nature.” It really doesn’t come as much of a surprise that Brando tried to sabotage The Freshman for his personal feud with the production house as they were refusing to pay the actor $1 million for an extra week of work.
Having appeared in Al Pacino starrer The Godfather, Marlon Brando was indeed one of the best actors of his generation, not to mention that he was also one of the first actors to introduce method acting in Hollywood. This, however, does not curtain the fact that studios and producers often found him difficult to work with. His unconventional behavior during the making of One-Eyed Jacks, followed by his constant attempts at sabotaging Mutiny on the Bounty was publicly known.
Source: The Digital Fix
