The director Marlon Brando felt personally insulted by: “That’s why he wanted to leave”
Marlon Brando is not the kind of actor you’d want to challenge or contradict, with an infamous temper and ‘assertiveness’ that rubbed up many directors in the wrong way.
After working on some of the most chaotic and unpredictable productions of all time, starring in Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now and The Godfather, as well as award-winning performances in A Streetcar Named Desire and On The Waterfront, Brando is simultaneously one of the most revered and feared actors of all time, with a commanding and authoritative presence that dominates the screen. However, there was one production that tested the actor, working with a director who challenged his usual working style.
A Countess from Hong Kong was directed by Charlie Chaplin in 1967, bringing together Sophia Loren, Marlon Brando and Tippi Hedren as the key cast. Tippi Hedren has just come from the set of Alfred Hitchcock’s film Marnie, and later stated that both directors could not have more opposing styles as directors.
The actor described the differences between the two, saying, “Chaplin’s method was to act out all our different roles, which was brilliant to watch. Instead of directing, he’d get out there on set and say: ‘OK, do this’, and show us how. He’d become Sophia Loren. He’d become me and Marlon. It was really unusual and I’d never seen it happen before. Can you imagine Marlon Brando handling that?”
Given his previous history on set, this is an approach that I cannot imagine being appreciated at all by Brando, with the actor being notoriously stubborn in his technique and often refusing to take notes from directors if he didn’t agree with them. The film follows a Russian countess who is hidden in the stateroom of a married US diplomat heading for New York. It encapsulates the classic Chaplin-esque qualities of being a comedy about a complex subject, with a critical undercurrent that comments on the gender norms and class restrictions of the time. It is regarded as one of his most daring projects, which is particularly poignant seeing as it was his final film.
However, his final production was slightly charged, with tension between himself and Brando due to their clashing approach to collaboration. As a fellow actor, Chaplin liked to show Brando how the performances should look, demonstrating them himself. While the other actors found this to be very funny and charming, appreciating Chaplin’s unconventional approach as he became the character himself, a humour that was lost on Brando.
When describing the friction between the pair on set, Hedren said, “Charlie and Marlon put up with each other, you might say. Marlon was so insulted to see someone acting out his role and that’s why he wanted to leave. I thought it was charming and funny, but Marlon wanted to quit, and Charlie had to convince him to stay on”.
It’s a shame that Chaplin’s final production was tainted by strained working relationships, but regardless of this, the filmmaker continued to make work that defied the expectations of his fans, showing a witty and daring approach to the art form until the end.
