Bertolucci Admits He Conspired to Shoot a Non-Consensual Rape Scene in 'Last Tango in Paris'
The director said he didn't tell star Maria Schneider because he "wanted her reaction as a girl not as an actress."
CONTENT NOTICE: This article contains disturbing stories of rape and assault.
It's known as one of the most infamous rape scenes in Hollywood history—but Last Tango in Paris director Bernardo Bertolucci admitted in a recently surfaced video that star Maria Schneider never consented to it.
Instead, Bertolucci confessed in the 2013 clip that he and Marlon Brando came up with the idea to shoot the assault scene in which Brando's character uses a stick of butter to rape Schneider on screen. At the time, Brando was 48. Schneider was just 19.
"The sequence of the butter is an idea that I had with Marlon in the morning before shooting," Bertulocci said in an event held at La Cinémathèque Française in Paris in 2013. He added that he felt horrible "in a way" for his treatment of Schneider but defended himself, explaining that he "wanted her reaction as a girl, not as an actress."
"I wanted her to react humiliated," he said. "I think she hated me and also Marlon because we didn't tell her." Even so, Bertolucci clarified that he didn't "regret" how he decided to direct the scene.
"To obtain something I think you have to be completely free," he said. "I didn't want Maria to act her humiliation her rage, I wanted her to Maria to feel...the rage and humiliation. Then she hated me for all of her life."
Here is the clip:
After Last Tango in Paris, Schneider never shot another nude scene. She struggled with drug addiction and depression following the attention the movie brought her. In an exclusive to the Daily Mail in 2007, Schneider wrote that she had felt violated by the experience.
"I felt humiliated and to be honest, I felt a little raped, both by Marlon and by Bertolucci," she said. "After the scene, Marlon didn't console me or [apologize]. Thankfully, there was just one take."
For confidential and free support about rape or sexual assault, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline 24/7 at 800.656.HOPE. You can also IM anonymously at online.rainn.org.
