The Oscar-nominated role Marlon Brando turned down
Marlon Brando has been widely regarded as one of the finest actors in cinema history, and rightly so. He brought the technique of method acting to the big screen during the 1950s and, in the process, transformed cinema and the type of male character leads that followed ever since. Brando brought a natural humanist approach that had never been seen before, making him one of the highest praised and most exciting performers of his era.
And since then, he’s taken on roles as Sicilian mafia crime bosses, transformed into an evil and deranged army Colonel lost in the heart of the Vietnam jungle, captivated us as a gritty and troubled boxing protege and shore-man, brought the Roman Empire back into the 21st century as Mark Anthony, taken on the superhero genre by playing the Man of Steel’s father, and dazzled his way across the great frontier during the golden era of Hollywood westerns. And so, it’s fair to suggest, Brando really has done it all.
However, there was one role that Brando turned down during his career, and for honourable reasons. The role in question was eventually played by someone else who would then go on to be nominated for an Academy Award for their performance, leading to the film becoming a huge success. But Brando’s reasons for turning his back on the picture helped make a far better picture in the long run.
In 1970, Arthur Penn was preparing to make his western comedy Little Big Man, an adaptation of the novel with the same title written by Thomas Berger. The movie charts the life of an orphaned white boy, Jack Crabb, played by Dustin Hoffman, who is rescued and raised by ingenious people, the Cheyenne, and later goes on to become a snake oil salesman, a gunslinger, a mule skinner, and also the only white survivor of the infamous Battle of the Little Bighorn.
The film riffs on a number of genres, including comedy and adventure, but in essence, it is a satire of the epic western pictures and its portrayal of Native Americans in cinema. Penn had reached out to a number of big stars at the time to play the character Old Lodge Skins, a kind-hearted indigenous man that takes Crabb under his wing and teaches him valuable lessons about life and adventure, guiding him towards becoming a hero of the 19th-century frontier.
The role was offered to Laurence Olivier, Paul Scofield, and Brando, but it was Brando who had concerns about the casting of character. Brando believed that the role should be played by a Native American actor, considering Old Lodge Skin imparts indigenous teachings and wisdom throughout the story, and a central premise of the entire film is challenging the representation of Native Americans on screen.
Olivier and Scofield also turned the role down, and Penn was persuaded by Brando’s thoughts about casting. Penn went on to cast Chief Dan George, a chief of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, in the role. The decision paid off, as Chief Dan George was later nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance, which massively helped the film to go on and become a huge success.
