WE’RE HAVING LUNCH TODAY WITH MARLON BRANDO, FOLKS
Esquire February 1, 1966
It’s like they always say— people don’t really communicate anymore
To hawk Morituri, a well-meaning, fast-moving flick, they brought Marlon Brando east, and from miles around they came to stare and wonder. A movie star, one of the wildest, captured and, tamed! On one particular day, they sat him down in New York’s Hampshire House and hour after hour fed him an endless stream of television interviewers. They also gave him lunch and several drinks. How did, he react to all these stimulants? The answer has been filmed for posterity by David and Albert Maysles who hope to exhibit it on television. These pages are a sampler: don’t miss the whole thing when it comes to your neighborhood living room, for God’s sake — you won’t know how to proceed with your life.
Lois LEPPART, KMSP-TV, Minneapolis: Marlon Brando (sighing), one of the most exciting and talented men in America today . . .
BRANDO: Oh, come on!
LEPPART (laughing): ...and certainly, if I may make a pun, please. Physically and mentally you are now not an “ugly American.” You’re anything but. But certainly, physically, there’s so much activity in all of the movies that. . . .
BRANDO: When was the last time you saw me nude? (Laughter.)
LEPPART: I suppose we have to talk about Morituri. It’s a . . .
BRANDO: Let’s not. Do we have to?
LEPPART: It’s a wonderful show.
BRANDO: Did you see it?
LEPPART: NO, I haven’t seen it yet.
BRANDO: Then how do you know?
LEPPART: Because I’ve talked to people that previewed it and they tell me that it’s very suspenseful.
BRANDO: Now, that’s the point... we mustn’t believe propaganda. It might be an absolutely terrible film —you don’t know—we have to make up our own minds about it. I think that's essential. And don’t. . . you shouldn’t . . . make up your mind about that picture until you see it.
LEPPART: YOU know this is soi’t of your whole personality. In a capsule. Not to believe. . . .
BRANDO: How do you know what my personality is?
LEPPART: Because I have met you and you radiate your personality.
BRANDO: Really? (Laughter.)
BILL GORDON. KGO-TV, San Francisco: There’s a motion picture called Morituri—we better get all the plugs in, because Twentieth Century-Fox has spent a zillion bucks.
BRANDO: Now, wait a minute ... I object.
GORDON: You mean in my relating to Twentieth Century-Fox?
Brando: No—it seems that every time we get in front of this television. everybody starts hustling.
GORDON: Yes.
BRANDO: Well, you feel that you’re obliged to hustle the picture and I feel reduced to huckstermanship.
GORDON: But after all. they did pay a fortune for this purpose . ... we would never be sitting here if they didn’t want to huckster the picture.
BRANDO: I don’t think we ought to sneak around it. I think we ought to say we’re here as hucksters.
GORDON: Yes.
BRANDO: He’s a newsman and I’m a huckster! And I’m thumping the tub for a picture called Morituri.
MARY FRANN, WBKB-TV, Chicago: Mr. Marlon Brando. Very often. . . .
BRANDO: You’re one of the prettiest interviewers that I’ve met.
FRANN: Thank you. You’re one of the most gracious hosts I’ve met.
BRANDO (smiling): Oh, really!
FRANN: Mr. Brando, very often you have been called by members of the press uncooperative and. . . .
BRANDO: Uncooperative in what respect—in relation to what?
FRANN: In making films, with the producers and the directors—sometimes working with you . . . but we’ve never really heard your version. Your side, or what your feelings are about this. You seem certainly to us today to be a very gracious and articulate man.
BRANDO: Well, I don’t really think it’s worth the candle to go into the defense of those spurious accusations. I think that people usually make up their own minds about you, and . . . it’s sort of boring to go into such things and an explanation of how you have been chastised or accused or. . . .
FRANN: Well, why has so much been written about this in the press?
BRANDO: People don’t realize that a press item—a news item—is money. And that news is hawked in the same way that shoes are, toothpaste or lipstick or hair tonic or anything else . . . and if you put something in the paper about Liz Taylor or Richard Burton everybody’s going to buy it. Everybody wants to know about that. So, it becomes an item. A sellable item. The merchandising aspect of the press is not really fully recognized, I think, by the public. And . . . when you don’t cooperate with those merchandising systems, people that sell news like Hedda Hawker .. . hmmm . .. that’s a good mistake! Hedda Hawker. . . .
FRANN: You chose to keep it... you didn’t correct it!
BRANDO: You know, it’s sort of an unwritten code that if you don’t cooperate with those people and tell them all about the intimacies of your personal life—then you’ve broken the rule and you have to be publicly chastised for it—or chubically plastised for it, if you like. And . . . well, that’s the way of the world out there. But I’ve found by and large that people make up their own minds.
FRANN: Thank you very much for this visit. I certainly am. ..
BRANDO: Well, I hope this isn’t the end of our career! (Laughter.)
JOHN ANTHONY, WITI-TV, Milwaukee: We have the pleasure now of talking to perhaps one of the most famous actors in the world—Mr. Marlon Brando. . . .
BRANDO: Yes ... when I get finished with the roast beef.
ANTHONY: (All right. You keep eating, and I’ll keep introducing!) . . . who has played a variety of roles from Shakespearean in productions like Julius Caesar to, of course, Stanley Kowalski in Streetcar Named Desire. He received an Academy Award for On the Waterfront in 1954—is that correct?
BRANDO: I guess so.
ANTHONY: And the big thing about you, Marlon, is . . .
BRANDO: My stomach.
ANTHONY: How do you account for this very great versatility? Is it something you studied or does it just come to you naturally?
BRANDO: Ah ... I don’t know, you can say the same thing about a hula hoop. It catches on and everybody buys it, and it’s quite popular for a while, and then disappears, like flyswatters.
ANTHONY: Umhummm.
BRANDO: Hardly anybody buys a flyswatter nowadays.
ANTHONY: Well, the point of the question was . . . basically I think we should talk about Morituri.
BILL GORDON: Would you rather not huckster anymore? We haven’t seen this picture yet, but I’m here to tell you I’ll bet it’s a great picture, isn’t it, Marlon?
BRANDO: It sure is, pal. No, all the pictures that they make in Hollywood are really great films, and everybody knows that!
GORDON: They haven’t made a bad picture there in . . .
BRANDO: ... in ninety years!
GORDON: That’s right. That last picture, Lassie Gets Bar Mitzvah’d, that was probably the last bad picture that I think Hollywood made.
BRANDO: Bill, it’s been wonderful talking to you and, gee, that’s a real checkered coat . . . and . . . Vote for Willkie! (Laughter.)
GORDON: Marlon Brando! We’ll be right back, after these messages of great interest! (Fade-out—commercial break.)
MICHELE METRINKO, WNAC-TV, Boston: Our viewing audience would like to know why you’re here and for you to tell us about your latest movie . . .
BRANDO: How old are you—
METRINKO: ... Morituri.
BRANDO: No, you? Twenty-three?
METRINKO: No, I’ll be twenty-one in March.
BRANDO: Twenty-one...
METRINKO: Yes... but this is supposed to be a woman’s privilege.
BRANDO: What is?
METRINKO: Her age.
BRANDO: You’re talking like an American adage.
METRINKO: No, please—do tell us about your new movie!
BRANDO: Well—why?
METRINKO: Because we’re looking forward to seeing it in Boston.
BRANDO: That’s the thing. Are you?
METRINKO: We certainly are.
BRANDO: Excuse me, I didn’t mean to touch your ankle! What can I tell you about it?
METRINKO: Oh, if you’d like to tell us something about, oh, behind the scenes while you were making the picture or. . . .
BRANDO: How far behind the scenes?
METRINKO: Oh, just some interesting things our audience would like to hear about!
BRANDO: Well____
METRINKO: I’m sure you’ve run into. . . .
BRANDO: Bernie W’icki [the director of Morituri] smokes the worst cigars of anyone I ever knew. (Laughter.) I hate his cigars. And ... he smokes cigars that were made of—they got some shoes from Italian fishermen, with rope soles, rope-soled sandals, they crushed them up and mashed them around and sent them to Vladivostok.
(Publicist hands Brando a note.) She was Miss U.S.A. ! Is that a fact?
METRINKO: Yes, it is.
BRANDO: Well, I... I could have guessed!
METRINKO: That’s very sweet of you.
BRANDO: Well, you know it’s unusual to find somebody as beautiful as you are who is also a college graduate, and seriously interested in world affairs and studying law.
METRINKO: Well, I enjoyed being Miss U.S.A.
BRANDO: She was Miss U.S.A.—what year was that?
METRINKO: In ’64.
BRANDO (to audience): In 1964 she was Miss U.S.A. I asked her if she was pretty and she said she—well, that was a subjective opinion and she didn’t really know.
METRINKO: Well, there were only six judges that decided, so I don’t think that’s very decisive.
BRANDO: Yes, but you went through several stages to arrive finally at— the title, didn’t you?
METRINKO: Yes.
BRANDO: So it was really more than six judges?
METRINKO: Well, six here and six there . . . and I was very honored. But, Mr. Brando! Thank you so much for being our guest.
BRANDO: Good night, folks. Smoke Optimo cigars.
BILL GORDON: Let’s talk about contact lenses. I read someplace
BRANDO: You’ve got the longest fingernails of anybody I’ve seen.
GORDON: Only on one side. You see I play the classic guitar, so . . .
BRANDO: Oh, really?
GORDON: ... so you have to have long fingernails on your right hand to play the strings and short fingernails to fret. That’s what I do for my kicks. What do you do?
BRANDO: I fret a lot. Does everybody know' you play the classic guitar?
GORDON: No. But they do now.
BRANDO: Well, he does play the classical guitar, and if you hold up your fingers on your right hand so they can see it. . . .
GORDON: Well, if you do it that way, it’s feminine.
BRANDO: Well, that’s all right. Listen, we all have feminine and masculine aspects in our personality—
GORDON: We’ll be right back after these messages of great interest. But first — remember Marlon Brando in the Twentieth Century Fox motion picture, Morituri. It’s a great picture and he’s a great actor.
BRANDO: For God’s sake, go see it. You won’t really know how' to proceed in life if you don’t see Morituri. It’s one of the most important things you’ll ever do.
