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Last Tango in Paris director Bernardo Bertolucci admits butter rape scene was non-consensual

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Last Tango in Paris director Bernardo Bertolucci has confessed that he and Marlon Brando conspired against actress Maria Schneider during a rape scene in which the actor used a stick of butter as lubricant.

The Oscar-nominated director addressed the non-consensual scene, where Schneider was stripped naked and butter applied to her nether regions in a simulated rape, in a 2013 video interview that recently resurfaced.

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Last Tango rape scene non-consensual

Director of Last Tango in Paris has admitted actress Maria Schenider wasn't warned prior to shooting the film's infamous butter rape.

Many online readers were perplexed by Friday's Elle magazine report, which dug up the video, for not clarifying whether the sex between Brando and Schneider was simulated. According to Schneider, it was fake, but that didn't make her any less surprised by Bertolucci and Brando's actions.

According to Bertolucci, he and Brando agreed not to tell Schneider what would happen to her because he wanted her reaction "as a girl, not as an actress".

He said that he and Schneider, who died in 2011, never saw one another after the film because she hated him.

In the interview, Bertolucci recounts the origin of the rape scene between Brando, who was 48 at the time, and Schneider who was 19.

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"We were having, with Marlon [Brando], breakfast on the floor of the flat where I was shooting," he said.

"There was a baguette, there was butter and we looked at each other and, without saying anything, we knew what we wanted."

He added, "I had been, in a way, horrible to Maria because I didn't tell her what was going on."

Hollywood actors have taken to Twitter to express disgust, with some calling for the director to be stripped of his awards, or to be prosecuted.

"To all the people that love this film- you're watching a 19yr old get raped by a 48yr old man. The director planned her attack. I feel sick," Jessica Chastain tweeted.

Evan Rachel Wood retweeted Chastain's comments, adding, "I second that. This is heartbreaking and outrageous. The 2 of them are very sick individuals to think that was ok."

The 29-year-old Westworld star recently opened up about being raped twice and how filming of the HBO show, which contains a lot of violence against women, had helped her work through the trauma.

In Bertolucci's film, however, Schneider plays Jeanne, a girl engaged to filmmaker Tom (Jean-Pierre Leaud), who chances upon Paul (Brando) during a viewing of an apartment in Paris.

Engaging in a passionate affair with the American expatriate, who decides they should not share their history or even their names, Jeanne's relationship with her nameless lover reaches its most tumultuous when forced face down on the apartment floor while Paul applies the butter and performs a sex act on her.

The director confessed that he felt guilty for not telling her about the butter, but he did not regret his decision to shoot the non-consensual rape scene.

"I didn't want Maria to act her humiliation, her rage," he said.

"I wanted Maria to feel, not to act, the rage and humiliation. Then she hated me for her whole life."

After Last Tango in Paris was released, Schneider would never shoot another nude scene again.

Speaking to the Daily Mail in 2007, she said that she felt "raped" by Brando and had later embarked on a path of self-destruction involving drug addiction and suicide attempts.

"They only told me about it [the butter scene] before we had to film the scene and I was so angry," she said.

"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.

"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."

The 1972 film was banned in many countries, including Britain, but was released in 2007 to mark its 35th anniversary.

Chris Evans wrote, "Wow. I will never look at this film, Bertolucci or Brando the same way again. This is beyond disgusting. I feel rage," which prompted a response from Anna Kendrick.

"Ms Schneider stated this several years ago. I used to get eye-rolls when I brought it up to people (aka dudes)," Kendrick tweeted back, referring to an interview Schneider did with the Daily Mail before she died in 2011.

"Had no idea," Evans replied. "Woulda felt rage then too. They should be in jail."

"I don't doubt it," Kendrick responded. "It wasn't treated like a big story then(shocker). Glad at least it will be taken seriously now."

Reuters, AAP with Aja Styles

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