Site Presented By
Saturday, Nov 21, 2009
Eleanor Coppola, filmmaker and wife of Francis Ford Coppola
"Absorbing all details"
"September 22, Pagsanjan
"I went to the French plantation set to see how Francis was doing and how the boys were holding up. The ['Apocalypse Now'] shot was down on the dock, so I walked down there and found Francis in the shade talking to a heavyset man with short gray hair. When I got closer, the man said, 'Hi, Ellie.' He looked familiar and then I realized that he was Marlon Brando. I was fascinated that he recognized me and knew my name after such brief meetings. He seemed to be looking at me in microscopic detail. As if he noticed my eyebrows move slightly, or could see the irregular stitching on the buttonhole of my shirt pocket. Not in a judgmental way, just in a complete absorption of all the details.
"...
"Marlon is very overweight. Francis and he are struggling with how to change the character in the script. Brando wants to camouflage his weight and Francis wants to play him as a man eating all the time and overindulging." (Phillipines, 1976)
[from "Notes on the Making of Apocalypse Now," by Eleanor Coppola (Limelight Editions, 1979)]
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Jennifer Lee, actor
"Vulnerability"
"Marlon Brando comes by Windsor Gardens to pick up an old girlfriend ... Marlon's really sweet; he does this odd embarrassed little dance kicking up one leg like a chorus-line dancer. Since he's a tad overweight, this makes a touching image. He's all vulnerability, with 'I'll do anything for love' written all over his face. See him a few days later at a Filmex screening for Bud Cort's film 'Why Shoot the Teacher?' where he tells me I look ravishing!" (Hollywood, 1977)
[from "Tarnished Angel: Surviving in the Dark Curve of Drugs, Violence, Sex and Fame," by Jennifer Lee (Thunder's Mouth Press, 1981)]
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Michael Jackson, singer
"Like a father"
"Marlon Brando has become a very close and trusted friend of mine. I can't tell you how much he's taught me. We sit and talk for hours. He has told me a great deal about the movies. He is such a wonderful actor and he had worked with so many giants in the industry -- from other actors to cameramen. He has a respect for the artistic value of filmmaking that leaves me in awe. He's like a father to me." (Beverly Hills, Calif., mid-1980s)
[from "Moon Walk," by Michael Jackson (Doubleday, 1988)]
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Robert Lindsey, writer
"Inquisitive"
"Within twenty minutes of our first meeting [to discuss collaborating on his autobiography], he had my shoes off, my belt loosened and my fingers wired to an instrument that measured by galvanic skin response, all the while explaining that it was a technique he sometimes used to get a personality profile of people by asking questions and observing the reaction of the meter. I was more puzzled than jittery. At our first meeting, I discovered that he was the most curious man I had ever met and that he felt uncomfortable, possibly even embarrassed, to be thought of as a movie star. The movies, he said, were the least important aspect of his life, a thought that he would repeat over and over. As a writer, I was accustomed to asking people questions, but he turned it around and bombarded me with endless questions about my family, my childhood, my marriage, my ideas. I felt as if I were being debriefed by a CIA interrogator. He was inquisitive about everything and informed about many topics -- physics, Shakespeare, philosophy, chess, religion, music, chemistry, genetics, scatology, psychology, shoe making, or whatever else he might suggest we discuss." (Beverly Hills, Calif., 1988)
[from "Songs My Mother Taught Me," by Marlon Brando with Robert Lindsey (Random House, 1994)]
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Sandra Bernhard, comedian
"Impetuous"
" Here at Cafe Rosso I spend some of my most wonderful evenings, in deep conversation with the greatest artists of our time ...
"Come with me to this table, where I sat with Marlon Brando just days before his appearance on Larry King. I myself thought his ideas risky. 'Marlon,' I screamed. 'Yes, I understand, but will Hollywood? You have the luxury of really delving into it here with me, but you know Larry -- it would all go through the roof. Just think about it, that's all I ask!' But of course he is so impetuous, and it blew up in his face. He called me late that night and wept about the whole thing. What could I do but console him?" (Beverly Hills, Calif., mid-1990s)
[from "May I Kiss You on the Lips, Miss Sandra?" by Sandra Bernhard (William Morrow, 1998)
- - - - - - - - - - - -
