Marlon Brando, the seasoned actor, had a unique approach to his role in The Godfather that has left fans divided.
The iconic Hollywood film is revered by many as one of the greatest ever made, despite well-documented challenges during production. One such issue involved Marlon Brando’s refusal to do something specific on set, which has led to mixed opinions about his final performance.
A post on the r/TodayILearned Reddit page sparked a discussion about Brando’s Hollywood career, noting that he was only 42 when he portrayed Don Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola’s classic mob movie.
This wasn’t the first time Brando had refused to do something on set as he adopted a similar approach for his role in Superman, released six years after The Godfather.
Opinions are divided over whether Brando’s major refusal worked in his favor. Some suggest he was “disillusioned” with the filmmaking process, while others praise it for eliciting a “spontaneous” brilliance in his work.
A post on the r/TodayILearned subreddit shared: “During the filming of The Godfather, Marlon Brando refused to memorise his lines, and would read them off cards attached anywhere from trees in the background to fellow actors.”
Fans were shocked to learn that Brando didn’t memorize his lines but instead read them from cue cards placed around the set.
One user commented: “Everyone here hating on this without understanding it. People in conversation haven’t memorized lines. They fumble around for words. They misspeak etc.
“Brando didn’t memorise lines so they his dialogue would better resemble this natural cadence. And it’s a big part of his unique character. His dialogue is stulting and stumbling. It adds significantly to the authenticity of his performance.”
Another suggested that Brando might have been better off calling it quits after dazzling audiences in A Streetcar Named Desire, dismissing the rest of his career as a downhill journey. They wrote: “Brando seems to have peaked too early and then became disillusioned with Hollywood and filmmaking.
“He probably would’ve been happier retiring into basically anything else after Streetcar. With so much life still ahead of him he could’ve had a whole other career with decades to spare.”
A separate user disagreed, adding: “I don’t think it was disillusionment with Hollywood really, because he ended up having contempt for acting as a whole.”
More tales about Brando emerged, touching upon his time on the Superman set, where he reportedly argued that not knowing his lines beforehand would enrich his portrayal, yielding an element of surprise for both himself and the cinema audience.
A fan recalled: “He did the same in Superman and I remember a documentary about it from back in the vertical-load VHS days where his excuse was that it made his delivery more spontaneous.
“But I can’t help observing that Brando managed to ascend to a level of greatness where he no longer had to learn his lines, which I have a feeling a lot of actors would like to enjoy, if only they had the pull that Brando had. I wonder how far back it went in his career.”
