How Sophia Loren was forced to stop Marlon Brando’s despicable behaviour: “All of a sudden, he put his hands on me”
It’s well known that Marlon Brando could be something of a spiky character on set. He had an air of superiority, which arrived as a result of being considered one of the greatest actors of all time, but the consequence was that he regularly fell out with a number of his fellow actors and other members of the industry behind the scenes of production.
Over the years, Brando was known to have fallen out or disagreed in one way or another with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Val Kilmer, Al Pacino and Maria Schneider, the latter proving that he was just as likely to enter arguments with women as he was men, an instance that was back up by a feud that erupted with the famed Italian actor Sophia Loren.
Of course, Loren made her way into fame and fortune in the movie industry, which is known to be one of the seediest and often darkest industries in show business. As such, she had to put up with several instances of poor behaviour by her fellow actors and other film executives, particularly the men of the industry, who were all-powerful at the time.
But perhaps none would have expected Marlon Brando to actually grope his co-star on the set of the 1967 British romantic comedy film A Countess from Hong Kong, directed and written by Charlie Chaplin. Brando played an American diplomat who falls in love with Loren’s character, a Russian countess forced into a life of position following the Russian Revolution, on board a ship to America.
In her memoir, Loren remembered the experience, writing, “All of a sudden, he put his hands on me. I turned in all tranquillity and blew in his face like a cat stroked the wrong way and said, ‘Don’t you ever dare to do that again. Never again!’ As I pulverized him with my eyes, he seemed small, defenceless, almost a victim of his own notoriety”.
“He never did it again,” Loren added, “but it was very difficult working with him after that”.
Loren’s bravery in the face of Brando’s abhorrent behaviour was nothing short of remarkable. She made it all too clear that she was not to be messed with, even telling one of the biggest movie stars of all time that he should not be treating women in such a manner.
Loren was not the only person to scold Brando on the set of the movie either, as she also revealed that Charlie Chaplin had to give him a piece of his mind after he turned up late on set and made other actors and the crew wait around for him. She wrote, “Marlon Brando didn’t have a very good voice, very small, [after being berated by Chaplin] it went away.”
