Sunday, February 23All That Matters

Christopher Reeves has some harsh words for his Superman co-star, legendary actor Marlon Brando, on David Letterman in 1982. We don’t get interviews like this anymore.

[ad_1]

Christopher Reeves has some harsh words for his Superman co-star, legendary actor Marlon Brando, on David Letterman in 1982. We don’t get interviews like this anymore.

[ad_2]

View Reddit by 5_Frog_MarginView Source

35 Comments

  • Wow that was about as respectfully honest as you can get!
    Christopher Reeves was an incredibly brilliant young actor. He defined the super hero role for about a decade. His acting career was tragically cut short. He’s always been my favorite Clark Kent and Superman.

  • The most interesting part of the documentary about Val Kilmer was the behind scenes look at Marlon Brando in the Island of Dr. Moreau. He laid on a hammock the whole time and just decided not to work at all some days. He had heavy white makeup on in his role so at some point they got a stand in to shoot his scenes.

    At least he showed up to shoot his scenes himself in Superman. Christopher Reece wasn’t wrong, and it only got worse.

  • I think interviews could be more honest back then because they weren’t blasted all over the world within seconds. If you missed it when it happened, you may not ever see it. You may read about it in a newspaper a week later.

    Also – journalism now just picks and chooses and twists words, even from complimentary interviews. So people probably hesitate to say anything now.

  • He was basically saying he was disappointed with Brando’s lack of desire to be a serious actor anymore.

    He wasn’t the only actor who thought so.

    Brando still made some good movies over the next twenty years (The Freshman, The Score) but he could have done much more.

  • “Marlon Brando was famously paid a ridiculously huge sum for just 12 days of work on Superman. The Godfather actor was cast as Jor-El in Richard Donner’s 1978 film, but due to the impressive deal he’d managed to make, he allegedly remained in his trailer for long bouts of time.”

  • “He’s going to want play it like a green suitcase.” I said, “What does that mean?” “It means he hates to work and he loves money, so if he can talk you into the fact that the people on Krypton look like green suitcases and you only photograph green suitcases, he’ll get paid just to do the voice-over. That’s the way his mind works.”

    —-

    “He said, “Why don’t I play this like a bagel?” I was ready for him to say “a green suitcase” and he said “bagel.” He said, “How do we know what the people on Krypton looked like?”

    —-

    https://comicbook.com/dc/news/marlon-brando-wanted-to-play-jor-el-as-a-bagel-in-original-super/

  • I rarely ever saw Letterman that flabbergasted by an interview. So funny he lost his train of thought and almost didn’t know what to do. He pulled out that tension breaker just barely but he was clearly shocked for a moment. Not sure if he should laugh or not.

  • The way Christopher stated his opinion in a direct, non aggressive way is something to admire. He respected Brando, but he was disappointed in him. I hope one day i could express myself in such a classy manner

  • He’s being honest without being rude.

    It was constructive criticism and I think a reflection of his integrity. Smiling and smoothing over for the camera when deep inside you feel different.

    Normally I wouldn’t condone being public with a opinion like this, but in this context it makes sense.

  • This tracks with an interview I saw with Fairuza Balk about “The Island of Dr. Moreau”. She was nervous because she was new at the time, and he just didn’t give a fuck, painted himself white, said it didn’t matter and was all about cashing a paycheck.

    There was a fascinating documentary about making that movie. I can’t recall the title. Apparently it was going to be a faithful remake of the novel before shit went sideways.

  • I’m disabled in a wheelchair from birth. And while I will acknowledge the contributions Reeves made he also caused a number of issues in the disabled community.

    We had a hard time understanding why he would come to talk to all of us about being disabled when many of us could have taught him, having been that way since birth. It became more of a joke when he charged $500 for a ticket to see him speak for an hour, and the information was posted at places for those of us on disability support.

    He reinforced the stereotype that disability is the worst thing ever and everything must be focused on getting “back to normal”. He did almost nothing to address discrimination.

    He is still a heated debate topic in the community often. No one questions the good he did or the programs he supported. But sometimes acceptance is the best way forward, and for many of us it our only option other than hopelessness.

    Still, very sorry for what happened to him. And grateful for the work he did. It is never easy becoming suddenly disabled. I think us “lifers” sometimes have it easier.

  • I’ve been a director for over 20 years. There is nothing more frustrating than working with someone you know is capable of greatness, but is just phoning it in. The results are fine, but you know that if they just decided to give a fuck, it could be amazing.

  • 100% facts. Marlon did not give a FUCK by about 1975. The stories of his irreverence for directors, producers and his fellow actors are too numerous to list. For starters, Marlon evidently demanded like $100k just to read for his role in Superman—and it was the stupidest role imaginable. His behavior on the set of the Island of Dr Moreau was especially bad—he just intermittently changed dialogue, demanded scenes to be rewritten, ordered actors to have their scenes dumped, etc..

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *