Listen to Me Marlon (2015)

Marlon Brando: Self

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Quotes 

• Marlon Brando, Himself : Everything that you do - make it real as you can. Make it alive. Make it tangible. Find the truth of that moment.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : Lying for a living. That's what acting is. All I've done is just learned how to be aware of the process.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : And the reason they don't have light in the theater is because you are there with your fantasy. The person up on the screen is doing all the things that you want to do. They're kissing a woman you want to kiss. Hitting the people you want to hit. Being brave in a way you want to be brave.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : I arrived in New York with holes in my socks and holes in my mind.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : I was always somebody who had unquenchable curiosity about people.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : Everybody's got a story to tell, something they're hiding.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : Hit 'em! Knock 'em over - with an attitude, with a word, with a look.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : A good con man can fool anybody. And the first person that you fool, as a con man, is yourself.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : Acting is just making stuff up. But, that's okay. Life is a rehearsal. Life is an improvisation.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : With the wind blowing the light. The shadow of leaves. It is like a wonderful, soft dream. And that soft wind calling. That's a wind that you can trust. You are the memories.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : We develop the technique of acting, very, very early. Even from the time we're a kid, where we're throwing our oatmeal on the floor, just to get attention from our mothers. Acting is survival.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : We'd be able to have money. I never had any money. My father was a traveling salesman. I was making more in six months of work than he made in ten years. He measured everything by money. He couldn't understand how this ne'er-do-well son of his could possibly do that.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : The astounding thing, that most people don't realize, all motion pictures today, all acting today, stems from Stella Adler.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : There are times, I know I did much better acting than in that scene "On The Waterfront." It had nothing to do with me. The audience does the work. They are doing the acting. Everybody feels like they're a failure. Everybody feels they could have been a contender.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : I had a lot of loneliness. I spent most of my time, up in the library reading the National Geographic Magazine about Tahiti. I was entranced by the expressions on their faces. They had unmanaged faces. No manicured expressions. A kindness. That's where I want to go. That's where I want to be.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : If you took some kid and you put him up in Tahiti, he's a completely different kid. He wouldn't have this cruel, mean society killing him every day, kiliing the life out of him. All these kids of mine are filled with love from Tahiti.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : The greatest fear an actor has, is fear. How are you gonna be judged? I don't want to be caught trying. I don't want to be caught being afraid - that my story, my pretending, my lie, is gonna be disbelieved. That's gonna steal your performance away.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : [Referring to his role in "The Godfather"]  We have this antiquated belief in the myths of goodness and evil. I don't believe in either one of those. But, I thought it would be interesting to play a gangster, not from the point of view that he was the bad guy, but if he was very gentle, a hero.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : My soul's a private place.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : I had the fear that everyone was dead and pretending to be alive.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : Now let your mind drift. Back. Way back in time. To a time when you were very young. When you used to wake up in the morning. Put on your clothes, while everyone was sleeping. Walk down the sidewalk in - Omaha - and sit underneath that big elm tree.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : I was always interested to guess the things that people did not know about themselves.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : I have a great feeling of inadequacy. That I didn't know enough. That I didn't have enough education. That I felt - dumb.

• Marlon Brando : If I had a scene to play and I have to be angry, there must be within you - trigger mechanisms that are spring loaded - that are filled with contempt about something. I remember my father hitting my mother, I am fourteen.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : Be surprising. Figure out a way to do what has never been done before.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : Damn, damn, damn, damn. When it's right, it's right! You can feel it in your bones. Then you feel whole. Then you feel good.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : There's something absurd about it. That people go with hard earned cash into a darkened room, where they sit and they look at a crystaline screen, upon which images move around and speak.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : Inferiority. I've been very close to it all my life.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : When what you are as a child is unwanted. It's unwelcome. And you look for an identity that will be acceptable. Though, I had a wide variety of performances in me.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : There are no artists. We are businessmen. We're merchants. And there is no art.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : Maybe you're desperate for love. Always have been in your life. But, you've been distrustful of people. Is there anything about them that scares us, that's dangerous, that's gonna hurt us? 'Cause a lot of people are frightened to death of love.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : Many times I remember being down in the dumps and then I saw a movie that took me away for a few hours and I was completely restored. And I realized, oddly enough, that actors make a contribution to people's lives. Giving us a gift that you can't buy. Something that they can imbue with power and beauty and magnificence. Something beyond themselves. And we do need that.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : The face can't hide many things and people are always hiding things.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : I was given by my mother a sense of the absurd.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : A fella told me that if you come to the theater and you feel 100%, show 80: and you come and you feel 60%, show 40; if you come to the theater and you only feel 40%, its best to turnaround and go home.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : I wanted very much to be involved in the motion pictures, so I could change it and do something nearer the truth. And I was convinced I could do that.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : As a kid when I used to sell bottles and cut lawns to get my ten cents to go to the movies and I would escape everything.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : I very often am struck with the illusion of success. Sometimes its difficult when you meet people because you see that they've pre-judged you - not to be treated normally. To have people staring at you, like an animal in the zoo or some strange creature from a distant land.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : "Mutiny on the Bounty" was perhaps my very worst experience in making a motion picture. I never want to do that kind of picture again, as long as I live.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : There's an old adage in Hollywood, it says if you have a message, go to Western Union.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : It's all bullsh*t. Money. Money. Money. If you think its about something else, you're going to be bruised.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : I've always hated people trampling on other people.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : I'm going to do as much as I can. I'm going to start right now. To inform white people of what they don't know. The white man can't cool it when he's never dug it. And I'm here to try to dig it.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : I'm standing up, not for the black man, I'm standing up for the human race. All men are created equal.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : This is life and death. This is really life. We're talking about human relations. We're talking about human rights, racial issues, and, that's why I care.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : I'm interested in making enough money, so that I can say, "F*ck you to money. That's all."

• Marlon Brando, Himself : All of you are actors, and good actors; because, you're all liars.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : Probably the worst movie I ever made in my life, called "Candy."

• Marlon Brando, Himself : I used to think I'd never grow up. I thought that life would go on forever. And then I worried somewhat in the middle years, life is going away and I haven't done this, I haven't done that. I've denied that experience. I've denied myself that experience.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : Francis Coppola wanted me for the part in "The Godfather." But, the studio was fighting it. It was demeaning to do a, eh, screen test; but, I needed a part at that time. I wasn't sure I could play that part either. I got some cotton and I put some here - a little bit of cotton down there. And, eh, the first thing you know, I'm talkin' like this, like I took a shot in the throat or something. I don't know. I mumbled my way through it.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : "Last Tango in Paris" was a very hard film for me.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : I'm looking at this very deep, indescribable night. I think, God, I have no importance. Whatever I do or don't do or what anybody does is no more important than the grains of sand that I'm lying on.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : This is the beginning of the tape. We're on mono and, eh, we're on microphone one.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : Okay, now, listen, let me tell you something that I did. I've had my head digitized. And they put this laser and they put it around you like this and they digitized my face. And I made a lot of faces and smiled and, and, made a sad face. So they've got it all on digital. And actors are not going to be real. They're going to be inside a computer! You watch. It's gonna happen. So, maybe this is the swan song for all of us.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : What they feel, what they think, why they feel, how is it that they behave the way we do.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : What is the answer? Is there any answer? There's something that people need very deeply, some kind of contact, some experience to give you a sense of fulfillment.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : When I was younger I was very attractive. I had a lot of daring do and panache. I was unpredictable and stimulating for a lot of young girls.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : I was young and destined to spread my seed far and wide.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : There's nothing about me that's like Stanley Kowalski. I hate that guy. I absolutely hate that person and I couldn't identify with it.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : When the camera is close on you, your face becomes the stage. Your face is the proscenium arch of the theater - 30 feet high. And it sees all the little movements of the face and the eye and the mouth. You have the intensity to act

• Marlon Brando, Himself : You have to know your subject. You have to know your character.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : Jersey Joe Walcott - a terrific fighter. He'd be boxing and he'd follow some punches and boom! He'd have his fist into somebody's face. You'd think it was going to come out of the southwest and, there, it comes out of the northeast. He would never let you know where he was gonna hit you. Never let the audience know how its going to come out. Get them on your time.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : It's a very strange thing, this business of storytelling. You don't always know when you're good.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : The audience will lend themselves to the subject. They will create things that are not there.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : We had an act we put on for each other. I played the loving son and he played the adoring parents. It was a lot of hypocrisy.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : I wanted to make pictures that are meaningful - to me.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : You bring part of yourself to every character. But, some parts are closer to us, than others.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : I was very convincing in my pose of indifference. But, I was very sensitive and it hurt a lot.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : I am really moved and motivated by things that occur that are unjust.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : I was in a quandary, philosophical quandary, because, I thought, if I am not my brother's keeper, who am I? Where does my life end and my sense of responsibility to other lives begin?

• Marlon Brando, Himself : He was in Memphis at the time. He was striking for a small wage increase for garbage collectors. It was one of the best jobs a black man could get. That speech, when he says, "I've been up to the mountain and I've seen the promised land. I don't know if I'm gonna get there with you. But, I'm not afraid tonight." Oh! God, I still remember that! Aw, Jesus, that's terrible. He knew he was gonna be killed.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : Tahitians have the beauty of sleeping children. And when they awaken, they will waken into the nightmare that the white man lives in. The nightmare of the want of things.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : Acting afforded me the opportunity of - time. I didn't have to do anything more. I only had to do it once a year, for three months at the most. It became just the way of making a living.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : You have to look at the cameraman, the producer lurking in the corner, and say, "I don't give a f*ck about any of you."

• Marlon Brando, Himself : [Referring to his role in "The Godfather"]  Putting on a mask, building a life, little by little I got into this part. And then, suddenly, something gets a hold of you. What is the nature of criminality. Where does it come from?

• Marlon Brando, Himself : It is not hard to do the big things, to scream and yell and get mad and to let somebody have it, right in the mouth. Its much harder, to do nothing. Just to sit there and think - is a lot.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : If they think I'm going to bare my soul in the next movie, they're going to choke on their shrimp salad.

• Bernardo Bertolucci, Himself : I was curious about the person in front of me and the person in front of me was Brando.

  Marlon Brando, Himself : Bertolucci wanted to do the perfect autobiographical sketch of myself in this film. He wanted me to be - me.

  Bernardo Bertolucci, Himself : I want the person I see when I go to dinner with him and we talk and quarrel and discuss.

  Marlon Brando, Himself : And I thought, I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that for you. What the f*ck do you think I am?

  Bernardo Bertolucci, Himself : He was obsessed by privacy. He never wanted anyone to go *deep* inside of him.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : Marlon, there's nothing to fear. Its very important to trust in this process.

  Bernardo Bertolucci, Himself : Marlon, say something about your past. Show in my film, what you really are.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : Go deeper and deeper.

  Bernardo Bertolucci, Himself : Every time, more and more real. Marlon was invading the character of Paul.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : I read the script and it was stupid. It was awful. I told Francis you're making an enormous error. This guy, Kurtz, don't misuse him. I rewrote the entire script and I have it all on tape. I have a tape of everything.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : Here's a story note, the guy has to be intelligent. He is without mercy, not because he's a merciless man, simply because that's the logic of it. If you're gonna have a war, you get all in or all out.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : I told Francis how I wanted to be lit. Half shadows. Half light.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : He should be mysterious - a mythological figure. He is the heart of darkness.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : And I felt myself coming apart, splitting in two, and it scared me. And then I said to myself, why are you so frightened? Let the fear take you. And go - with the fear.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : Let the tension flow out of you. Let if flow out of your mind. Five. Four. Going down in an airplane. Softly coming in. One. Zero. You hear the Tahitians singing. Far distant laughter. And it's just after the sun has gone down. The star comes. First star of the evening. Peace and love.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : I've taken too many f*ckin' punches. I don't want to be stressed any more.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : It took me awhile to realize, you gotta be your own analyst. Unless we look inwards, we'll not ever be able to clearly see outwards.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : Through introspection and the examination of my mind, I feel as though I'm coming closer to the common denominator of what it means to be human.

• Marlon Brando, Himself : God, I'm trying to figure it out. Why did it have to be this way?