Schneider died of cancer in 2011, following a lifetime of addiction and mental health problems. In an interview in the Daily Mail in 2007, Schneider said no actual sex had taken place in the scene, but that she had felt "a little raped" by both Brando and Bertolucci because she had been "forced" to take part with no prior warning. I wanted Maria to feel, not to act, the rage and humiliation." I didn't want Maria to act her humiliation, her rage. "To make movies sometimes, to obtain something, I think that you have to be completely free. I wanted her to react humiliated," he said. "I didn't tell her what was going on because I wanted her reaction as a girl, not as an actress. The rape itself was simulated for the camera.īertolucci said he still feels guilty about not telling the 19-year-old actor what was going to happen, but didn't regret shooting the scene that way.
In the controversial scene, Brando's character, Paul, uses a stick of butter in the rape of Schneider's character, Jeanne. In an excerpt from a 2013 interview, which has been republished in a number of media outlets, including the latest edition of Elle, the director confesses he and the film's star Marlon Brando kept details of the scene from actor Maria Schneider so "her humiliation" and "her rage" would seem more real. Bernardo Bertolucci's notorious rape scene in his Oscar-nominated 1972 film Last Tango in Paris is causing controversy once again after a video resurfaced revealing the scene was not consensual.