Lying for a Living: When Marlon Brando gave an acting class in drag
Until the very end, Marlon Brando was an enigma. One of the most colourful characters Hollywood has ever known, he left an extensive highlights reel that serves as the pinnacle of dramatism for everyone, on screen and stage.
While Brando is best known for his roles as Don Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather and the mad Colonel Kurtz in the auteur’s Vietnam War drama Apocalypse Now, they are only the tip of the iceberg. The root of his success can be traced back to the Golden Age of Hollywood, with masterful performances in era-defining movies such as A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront and The Wild One. With this trio of titles, Brando symbolised the growing generational gap and became the face of teenage rebellion.
As Francis Ford Coppola had the treat of working with the elemental Brando numerous times, he was one of the best placed to comment on his genius. Explaining why he hired the actor to play the iconic mafia boss Don Corleone in The Godfather, he told Playboy that it was because Brando was simply the best. He said: “We finally figured that what we had to do was hire the best actor in the world.”
In addition to his acting talent, Brando had a penchant for living an oscillating existence. This was particularly true for the final two decades of his life when it was marred by controversy, and many private issues came to the fore, including mood disorders and legal struggles. While others would have crumbled, Brando continued going in the face of intense speculation. In a reflection of his provocative nature, he even gave an acting lesson in drag, showing how little he cared about what people thought of him.
Brando’s acting classes were so compelling that the likes of Robin Williams, Sean Pean and Whoopi Goldberg attended them. According to reports, in 2001, the 78-year-old appeared in drag, clutching a rose, before delivering a ten-minute monologue which ended with him giving the students a bizarre surprise: a moony of his bare derrière.
This ten-class block was named Lying for a Living and saw the actors instructed to do improvisation exercises with homeless people and police officers Brando enlisted from the street. Reportedly, in one class, he had students strip naked in front of the rest of the class, which surely would have been the cause for concern if done today. According to The Irish Times, one of Brando’s former students, Miami Vice and Blade Runner star Edward James Olmos, commented: “Was he serious about the class? As serious as a heart attack.”
Watch a clip of Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront below.
