"He was for the people, not against the people," Miko Brando said of his father.
Marlon Brando’s son is defending his late father following startling rape revelations made by Last Tango in Paris director Bernardo Bertolucci in a recently surfaced interview.
Brando’s 55-year-old son, Miko, told photographers: “It’s not true. That's not my father. He was not that man at all. He was for human rights. Civil rights. He marched with Martin Luther King. He was for the people not against the people. That's not the human being he is.”
Miko Brando's comments came after a three-year-old interview surfaced with Bertolucci that was filmed with the director at La Cinémathèque in Paris. During the interview, he described filming the notorious scene where actress Maria Schneider was raped by Brando where he used butter as lubricant.
The director said in 2013: “We were having, with Marlon, breakfast on the floor of the flat where I was shooting. There was a baguette, there was butter and we looked at each other and, without saying anything, we knew what we wanted. I had been, in a way, horrible to Maria because I didn’t tell her what was going on.”
He added that he “wanted her reaction as a girl, not as an actress. I wanted her to react humiliated.”
The 75-year-old Italian director also said: “She hated me for all her life.”
In a 2007 interview with the Daily Mail, Schneider said she felt raped while making the 1972 film. The actress, who died of cancer in 2011, also revealed that she was not told about the rape scene until moments before shooting.
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. 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.”
Hollywood reacted to the news on social media.
Zero Dark Thirty star Jessica Chastain vented her outrage on Twitter, saying: “To all the people who love this film you are watching a 19-year-old get raped by a 48-year-old man. The director planned her attack. I feel sick.”
Captain America actor Chris Evans posted: “I will never look at this film or Brando the same way again. This is beyond disgusting.”
Read: Man Arrested After Licking Teen's Knee and Touching Woman During Flight: Cops
Selma director Ava DuVernay tweeted: “I am horrified, disgusted and enraged.”
“Special place in hell for these two scumbags and everyone on the crew that watched and did nothing," Walking Dead star Michael Cudlitz tweeted. "F*** YOU.”
Last Tango in Paris was nominated for two Oscars, including "Best Director" and "Best Actor in a Leading Role." The controversial film was given an NC-17 film rating in America and was banned in Chile, Italy, Spain and parts of Canada due to its graphic sexual content.
Watch: Man Who Spent 28 Years in Prison For Rape He Didn't Commit Acquitted
