The film contains a scene in which Paul anally rapes Jeanne using butter as a lubricant. While the rape is simulated, Schneider has said the scene still had a tremendously negative effect on her. In a 2006 interview, Schneider said that the scene was not in the script and that "when they told me, I had a burst of anger. Woo! I threw everything. And nobody can force someone to do something not in the script. But I didn't know that. I was too young."[9] In 2007, Schneider recounted feelings of sexual humiliation pertaining to the rape scene:
They only told me about it before we had to film the scene and I was so angry. I should have called my agent or had my lawyer come to the set because you can't force someone to do something that isn't in the script, but at the time, I didn't know that. Marlon said to me: 'Maria, don't worry, it's just a movie', but during the scene, even though what Marlon was doing wasn't real, I was crying real tears. I felt humiliated and to be honest, I felt a little raped, both by Marlon and by Bertolucci. After the scene, Marlon didn't console me or apologize. Thankfully, there was just one take.[10]
In 2011, Bertolucci denied that he "stole her youth" (she was 19 at the time of filming), and commented, "The girl wasn't mature enough to understand what was going on."[11] Schneider remained friends with Brando until his death in 2004, but never made up with Bertolucci. She also claimed that Brando and Bertolucci "made a fortune" from the film while she made very little money.[12]
Schneider died in 2011. In February 2013, Bertolucci spoke about the film's effect on Schneider in an interview on the Dutch television show College Tour, saying that although the rape scene was in the script, the detail of using butter as a lubricant was improvised the day of shooting and Schneider did not know about the use of the butter beforehand. Bertolucci said that "I feel guilty, but I don't regret it."[13][14] In September 2013, Bertolucci spoke again about the scene at a retrospective at the Cinémathèque Française, claiming that the scene was in the script but the use of butter was not. Bertolucci said that he and Brando "decided not to say anything to Maria to get a more realistic response".[15]
In November 2016, a slightly different version of the 2013 College Tour interview was uploaded to YouTube[16] by the Spanish non-profit El Mundo de Alycia on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women,[17] accompanied by a statement concluding that the scene "abused [Schneider] psychologically and, who knows if also, physically..."[18] This gained attention when Yahoo! Movies writer Tom Butler wrote an article about it,[19] prompting several celebrities to condemn the film and Bertolucci,[20] and a number of newspapers picked up on the story, reporting that Bertolucci had confessed to Schneider being raped on set, prompting Bertolucci to release a statement, clarifying that a simulation and not an actual intercourse took place.[21][17]
Bertolucci also shot a scene which showed Brando's genitals, but in 1973 explained, "I had so identified myself with Brando that I cut it out of shame for myself. To show him naked would have been like showing me naked."[22] Schneider declared in an interview that "Marlon said he felt raped and manipulated by it and he was 48. And he was Marlon Brando!"[22] Like Schneider, Brando confirmed that the sex was simulated.[17] Brando refused to speak to Bertolucci for 15 years after the production was completed. Bertolucci said:
I was thinking that it was like a dialogue where he was really answering my questions in a way. When at the end of the movie, when he saw it, I discovered that he realized what we were doing, that he was delivering so much of his own experience. And he was very upset with me, and I told him, "Listen, you are a grown-up. Older than me. Didn't you realize what you were doing?" And he didn't talk to me for years.[23][24] (source Wikipedia)
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