When Marlon Brando went method for a movie nobody saw: “About halfway through he took the wig off”
Method acting isn’t something that can be picked up and put down with reckless abandon; anyone who adopts the technique is either all-in or it’s not worth doing. Marlon Brando fell firmly into the former camp and changed the face of American cinema forever.
When he first broke through in the 1950s, nobody had seen anything like it. He may not have invented the method, but he definitely brought it to the mainstream, popularised it, and inspired virtually every practitioner who followed in his wake.
Even when he was becoming increasingly unruly and unprofessional in his latter years, Brando still read from the playbook that had made him a legend. It wasn’t always for the best – as The Island of Dr Moreau can attest – but the two-time Academy Award winner would always strive to bring a handful of unique elements to any character he played.
When it comes to animated features, though, the method need not apply. Or at least, that’s what conventional wisdom would dictate. The stars turn up, step into the recording booth, recite their lines, and then go home at the end of the day with a comparatively easy paycheque.
This being Brando, he opted to take things to ridiculously unnecessary levels. He was approaching the end of his life at the time, but he nonetheless embraced the method one last time for an animated flick that wasn’t lucky enough to see the inside of a cinema. In fact, it was never even released.
It was the last movie Brando contributed to, and he joined the cast on the sole provision that he would play the female lead. Yep, the icon who defined On the Waterfront, A Streetcar Named Desire, and The Godfather signed on because he wanted to voice a woman. He even dressed up as nefarious candy conglomerate matriarch Mrs. Sour to further immerse himself in the part.
“I was told by his agent and manager that it was always a dream of his to play a woman in an animated movie,” director Bob Bendetson told CBS. “For some reason, that was his dream.” Eccentric? Sure, but was it really surprising for somebody as idiosyncratic as Brando? Absolutely not.
“He was gorgeous,” the filmmaker recalled of Brando sporting a blonde wig, dress, and a full face of makeup during the recording process. “I guess it was part of his method training or something, where you almost embarrass yourself as the character, so that way you’re free to be the character.”
It wasn’t without its issues, after Bendetson admitted that “about halfway through he took the wig off because he was getting too hot,” matters that wouldn’t have been helped by Brando’s frail health rendering him almost completely housebound and reliant on an oxygen mask to get through the day.
It was all for nothing in the end, with Big Bug Man scrapped and placed into the deepest, darkest recesses of the industry vault, never to be seen again and robbing audiences of the chance to see the end result of Brando going to frankly preposterous lengths for his performance.
