“It’s not p**rnographic, it’s not vulgar”: Last Tango in Paris Director Was Defended Viciously By Lead Actress Before Plagued by Horrific Scandal
Eva Green is an actress best known for her role as Bond girl Vesper Lynd in the 2006 film Casino Royale, for which she won the BAFTA Rising Star Award. In 2005’s historical epic drama Kingdom of Heaven, directed by Ridley Scott, the actress also played the Queen of Jerusalem. She also starred in numerous more indie films for which she received high recognition. In 2003, Green made her cinematic debut in The Dreamers, directed by Bernardo Bertolucci who also directed the highly controversial movie Last Tango in Paris.
The Holy Innocents, a 1988 novel, served as the inspiration for the romantic drama film The Dreamers, which tells the tale of an American university student in Paris who gets caught up in an amorous triangle with a brother-and-sister team. The 1968 Paris student riots serve as the setting for the film. In an interview, the actress stated that she was asked not to take up the role. Let’s find out why.
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Eva Green on why she was asked not to take up the role in Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Dreamers
Eva Green starred as Isabelle in Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Dreamers and in her interview with The Guardian, revealed that her agent and parents begged her not to take up the role because they feared that she would end up having the same destiny as Maria Schneider, who starred in Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris. She said,
“My mother really hated it. She didn’t sleep afterwards. She is scared that I’ll be typecast as some s**ual icon.” The actress further said that when she saw the rough cut of the movie she was shocked;
“I looked down when I saw my body and saw the s*x scenes. For me, it was as though I was wearing a costume while we were making the film. It was as if I had another story in my mind. So I was left speechless.”
Eva Green continued to defend the director by stating, “Bernardo can be manipulative, but at the same time, he makes you feel very free. It was a real exchange of ideas. And maybe he is different from how he was in the past. He is sixty something, not thirty something. Perhaps he is wiser and kinder now.” She lastly added that he is not a pervert but he is like a father to her.
Eva Green on filming intimate scenes in The Dreamers
The actress, according to the Mind Circle, shared that she is a very shy person in real life, very reserved, but she knew that she was making a Bernardo Bertolucci movie and prepared herself. Green added,
“I’ve seen Last Tango in Paris (1972) and it’s not p**nographic, it’s not vulgar, it’s not sick, so I trusted him. He’s a master of love and eroticism, but it’s good because I stopped being self-conscious. I felt like I was on drugs or anesthetized, because you have to be. You have to let yourself slip away and forget everything, forget the sound guy and all that.”
She later told The Independent that the director was very sweet, a little Buddha, adding that he was wise and could see through her and detect her weak spots. She also shared that her mother tried to discourage her from entering the industry, but she said that acting is like therapy for her and she can express herself fully when she is acting.
The actress was also asked about her experience in filming s*x scenes of which she said,
“When I did the naked scenes, I felt I was on another planet, or on drugs, or stoned. It’s such a big thing. You go beyond yourself and you stop being self-conscious. I surprised myself. You don’t have time to think. It’s good exercise, just to focus on the scene and forget everything around you.”
Eva Green clarified that the director was like a father to them on set.
What was the controversy behind Last Tango in Paris?
1972’s Last Tango in Paris is an erotic drama movie directed by Bernardo Bertolucci starring Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider, and Jean-Pierre Léaud which portrays the story of an American widower who begins an anonymous s*xual relationship with a young Parisian woman. The movie’s raw portrayal of sexual violence and emotional turmoil led to international controversy.
In one of the scenes in the movie, the widower r*pes the Parisian woman using a stick of butter as a lubricant and the actress, who was just 19 years old at the time, shared in an interview in 2007 via the Independent;
“I was so angry. 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. 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 apologize. Thankfully, there was just one take.”
The actress also revealed that the scene was not in the original script but Marlon Brando came up with the idea to simulate it and they had to film it.
