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CNN Larry King Weekend
King's Classics: Interview With Marlon Brando
Aired August 02, 2003 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LARRY KING, HOST: Tonight, an hour of music, laughter...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARLON BRANDO, ACTOR: If the dog hadn't stopped to pee, he might have caught the rabbit.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Fashion.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRANDO: You can't see my feet can you? I forgot to put my shoes on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: That's OK, that's all right.
And romance...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRANDO: Goodbye.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Brando, next on LARRY KING LIVE.
Many times over the weekend we're presenting on LARRY KING LIVE what we call "King's Classics", interviews from the past. This one occurred nine years ago in 1994. We went up to Marlon Brando's house. He said he would do one interview for his book. He chose our show. We drove around earlier that day, had lunch, and then the scene was set. It was different. It was fun. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KING: Explain what you did, don't put me on Marlon, you put your own makeup on today?
BRANDO: I did because I wanted to look exactly like you and...
KING: This was your goal?
BRANDO: This was my goal, that's right.
KING: And you believed...
BRANDO: I wore some red suspenders in your honor.
KING: Oh, my God.
BRANDO: I did everything I could and then I've received some criticism from these people then.
KING: They wanted to do you themselves?
BRANDO: They wanted to do it.
KING: So, I'm honored. Do you see my eyebrows that dark and that way and that sort of stark look?
BRANDO: Yes, a little of the, what do you call it, who was that guy, that famous Italian guy, not Raymond Navaro but the other guy? Oh, the big lover, what was his name, played "The Sheikh," what was his name?
KING: Oh, Valentino.
BRANDO: Yes, Valentino.
KING: That's the look you have.
BRANDO: That's right.
KING: Why -- well I want to touch a lot of bases with you. It's not easy to get -- why don't you like interviews?
BRANDO: Well, primarily because the interest is in money. That's the principal guiding feature of all interviews today is money.
KING: What do you mean?
BRANDO: You know perfectly well what I mean.
KING: No, what?
BRANDO: You know that a story has -- that one story is more valuable than another because of the readership, for instance. O.J. Simpson has taken over the air -- you're sweating a little. O.J. Simpson has taken over the air -- what are you smiling at?
KING: I'm smiling because you just pointed out that I was sweating. I'm Jewish. I sweat. You're part Yiddish. You understand. OK and that's money so you say that cameras go...
BRANDO: No, it's been forced because it's market forces that determine that. There are a lot of guys like Izzy Stone (ph), do you remember Izzy Stone?
KING: Wonderful, I have Stone (unintelligible). BRANDO: Friendly, was still alive, who still is throwing punches, still going three rounds.
KING: But the question was why don't you like being interviewed?
BRANDO: Because I don't like the idea of selling yourself for money. I -- I...
KING: So, you don't like selling a book, right? You don't like to go on to sell a book?
BRANDO: I don't.
KING: Or sell a movie?
BRANDO: I don't. I've never sold a movie and this is the first time I've ever been on beating the drum for some product. In this case it's Random House's book.
KING: Because you promised them you would do one?
BRANDO: It was -- unbeknownst to me it was part of the contract and if I didn't I would be in breach of contract. But aside from that I've had pleasure talking to you. I'm fascinated with people especially the kind of people, I wouldn't lump you with others because you are exceptional.
KING: Thank you.
BRANDO: Because there are many people that have asked me to be on programs and I've refused but you, without flattery, I mean I have nothing to gain, you have impressed I think all people, and certainly me, as being very forthright, sincere, and direct and unexploitive.
KING: Well, I thank you very much and now the subject is you.
BRANDO: No, not necessarily.
KING: Yes, but in this (unintelligible).
BRANDO: Because the audience really would like to know what it is that makes Larry King...
KING: OK, for one night we'll have Marlon Brando live. You'll host it. I'll guest.
BRANDO: That's this night.
KING: No, this night you're the guest.
BRANDO: Somebody laughed over there.
KING: Why did you choose acting as a career? Why did you choose to be other people?
BRANDO: Let me -- I think I -- it's useful to make an observation about that that everybody here in this room is an actor. You're an actor and the best performances I've ever seen is when the director says cut and the director says that was great. That was wonderful. That was good.
They said we had a little lighting problem. Let's do it again. What his thinking is Jesus Christ, that's so (expletive) -- excuse me. That's -- it wasn't done well so we've got to do it over but everybody tries to handle.
When you say how do you do, how are you, you look fine, you're doing two things at once. You're reading the person's real intention. You're trying to feel who he is and making an assessment and trying to ignore the mythology.
KING: So that when the director says, cut, but I didn't like the lighting he's acting.
BRANDO: I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about going to the office saying good morning, Mr. Harrison.
KING: I know but we're all acting.
BRANDO: We're all acting.
KING: But why did you choose...
BRANDO: And it's a natural -- what?
KING: You chose it as a profession.
BRANDO: Because there isn't anything that pays you as much money as acting while you are deciding what the hell you're going to do with yourself.
KING: So, wait a minute, are you saying you're still deciding?
BRANDO: It took me a long time to decide. You know people have never decided. I mean most people if they -- if you ask them what their dreams are -- give this guy a Kleenex.
KING: I'll get a tissue in a while. Go ahead, I sweat. We got hot lights here.
BRANDO: No, we don't. I'm not sweating.
KING: Well you're Marlon Brando. I'm Larry King. I sweat.
BRANDO: You're a darling man. I don't know. Why do you sweat and I don't?
KING: I know, no, let's get -- I don't want to get off...
BRANDO: Why do you escape trying to make the one-to-one contact because I am the product?
KING: Yes, you're the product, right. BRANDO: OK, then you answered my first, you answered your first question.
KING: This is about money then, OK.
BRANDO: This is about money.
KING: But it's also about interest and learning.
BRANDO: If I was Joe Schlepp (ph) I don't think I'd be sitting here even though you might like me, even though we went for a taxi ride and I was a very interesting guy I don't know that I would appear on your program.
KING: You are correct.
BRANDO: And...
KING: But you've obtained something.
BRANDO: Because of market values.
KING: But you've attained something that people are interested in. That's why there's a market value. That's why they pay you the money to do the films.
BRANDO: Yes, that's precisely it.
KING: So, when Brando goes up on the screen or on the marquee people will come to see the movie, that's money.
BRANDO: That's right.
KING: And brings money to you.
BRANDO: It's market forces. That's the way it works.
KING: OK, but...
BRANDO: If you don't (unintelligible) you don't get arrested.
KING: Did it come easily to you, so in other words you could make money this way?
BRANDO: Acting comes easily to everybody. All I've done is just simply through the extraordinary talents of Stella Adler who is my teacher and mentor learned how to be aware of the process and some people are never aware of it.
KING: Professionally, in other words she taught you?
BRANDO: In life. In life.
KING: She taught you how to what, impersonate?
BRANDO: No, how to be aware of my own feelings and how to access my own feelings. Many actors can do that and I'm sure you've seen pictures of actors that -- I mean you've seen a performance of an actor who really gave his all and he was very effective but he was ugly. He was ugly in the expression of his emotions or he was truly being himself but what he was was boring, or was dull or was something else.
KING: All right, so she taught you to take that inner self of you and bring it to a waterfront or a godfather or a whatever?
BRANDO: I'm not sure what she taught me. We'd all like to be certain of what we know but I think the most important question is to ask yourself do you really know what you know?
KING: OK. Help me with something because it's fascinating. Let's say you get a role that's "The Godfather."
BRANDO: Yes.
KING: You're not a Mafia kingpin.
BRANDO: Yes, I am, so are you.
KING: No, no you're not a Mafia.
BRANDO: Yes. Well, as a matter of fact I'm not.
KING: OK.
BRANDO: But we are. There isn't anything that you are or that you feel or that you have that I don't feel or that I don't have and so...
KING: But you can bring it into someone.
BRANDO: You can ask an actor. Say well here this is what you get. You get hit with a crow bar in the head and you get a brain concussion. You're lying there and you're mumbling. I mumble anyway but.
KING: OK, so are you saying anyone can do that, no.
BRANDO: Nobody can die so you have to pretend you're dying.
KING: OK. Are you saying that when you are "The Godfather" you're pretending?
BRANDO: Sure, I'm pretending.
KING: But you're into it.
BRANDO: I mean we're going to get lost in vocabulary.
KING: No, we're not. We're learning what you're doing. What do you do? Do you read -- you read the script. You like it. By the way -- what's -- how do you...
BRANDO: I usually read the script and hate it.
KING: You usually hate it but you didn't hate "The Godfather" right?
BRANDO: No, I liked the -- I wasn't sure that I could do it and Frances cordially asked me if I would do a...
KING: A test?
BRANDO: Yes, a test which I wasn't -- I would never play a part that I couldn't do and if somebody asked me to play "Hamlet" tomorrow with Jesus Christ playing Mary Magdalene I wouldn't do it.
KING: Have you turned down anything you regretted?
BRANDO: That I've regretted, no, no.
KING: Ever taken anything you regretted?
BRANDO: Oh, God, taken anything you mean swiped stuff?
KING: No, no, no, played a role, God I'm sorry I played that.
BRANDO: Oh yes, of course.
KING: A lot of them?
BRANDO: No, regretted no. I don't -- I think to regret is useless in life. It belongs to the past. The only moment we have is right now sitting here and talking with each other. You can't see my feet can you? I forgot to put my shoes on.
KING: OK, that's allowed. It's your house. This is the moment. We'll come back with more of these moments, OK, and I'll take a break and make money.
BRANDO: OK, all right.
KING: We'll be right back. Don't go away.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRANDO: You look terrible. I want you to eat. I want you to rest well and in a month from now this Hollywood big shot is going to give you what you want.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's too late. They start shooting in a week.
BRANDO: I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRANDO: Hey, Stella.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You quit that howling down there and go to bed.
BRANDO: (Unintelligible) one of my girls down here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You shut up. You're going to get the law on you.
BRANDO: Hey, Stella.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can't beat on a woman and then call her back because she ain't going to come (unintelligible). I hope they haul you in and turn a fire under you.
BRANDO: First I want my girl down here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You stinker.
BRANDO: Hey Stella.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KING: Back to movies and we'll touch all the bases. I want to talk about the environment, Tahiti, the causes you get involved in, et cetera.
BRANDO: I'm glad you said that so we can get off of movies because (unintelligible)...
KING: I know but there are certain things I want to.
BRANDO: There are fascinating topics in the world. Oh, there are my shoes.
KING: Did you ever miss theater?
BRANDO: Only when I'm going around 47th Street about 80 miles an hour in a cab and...
KING: Do you say you'd like to be inside there?
BRANDO: No, I pass by the Alvin and almost hit it. That's when I kind of miss it.
KING: You do not miss being on a stage?
BRANDO: No, God no.
KING: Why not?
BRANDO: Because it's three hours of blood, sweat, and tears every night. There's nothing to do but blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
KING: Oh, don't diminish that.
BRANDO: What?
KING: Audience.
BRANDO: I don't diminish Shakespeare. I can recite Shakespeare from morning until night until I put you to sleep. I love Shakespeare but I don't like -- I'm not nuts about going to the theater. So often in the past I've gone to the theater and been so bored.
KING: How about working in it though? I mean first of all you get applause.
BRANDO: I'm bored.
KING: Applause.
BRANDO: Who cares about applause? If I get applause from my dog, if I get applause from my children that's enough, God do I have to turn into an applause junkie in order to feel good about myself?
KING: When you started...
BRANDO: How about you? Do you need applause? Larry, that was a great show.
KING: I need, yes, I need acceptance.
BRANDO: God, I've never seen you so stimulated and so inspired in asking the questions of this person and you think, oh God, (unintelligible).
KING: This Yiddish thing, you got a lot of that in New York, right? You're part Jewish.
BRANDO: I -- well, technically I'm not a Jew but culturally I am. I spent ten years in New York and that was when New York was New York, the daily forwards and Stella very kindly invited me into her home and all of my employers, my teachers, I went to the New School of Social Research which is an extraordinary institution of learning.
KING: Still there.
BRANDO: And it was at a time when all the people were coming out of this extraordinary academia of Germany and like Hana Aranton (ph), the list is endless.
KING: You read them all?
BRANDO: I did -- I never had a chance to take her class. She taught at the New School of Social Research. It was sort of a clearing house until they went onto Princeton or Yale.
KING: So at this time did you realize, even at this young age, I am doing acting because I can do it but I want...
BRANDO: We were talking about Yiddish New York.
KING: But I want to do other things.
BRANDO: What?
KING: Did you realize it then that I...
BRANDO: I wanted to -- I studied for a while to be a dancer at Catherine Dunham's (ph) School of Dance and I formally have been a trap drummer, a stick drummer and I thought I was encapsulated in Puerto Rican music.
KING: Would you rather have been a musician?
BRANDO: I don't know. If the dog hadn't stopped to pee, he might have caught the rabbit. How could I possibly know?
KING: Well, because you know if you love it.
BRANDO: What? I'll do it right now.
KING: Oh, you're going to -- oh, Marlon has a way to stop the sweating.
BRANDO: I have a way.
KING: The Brando method.
BRANDO: That Larry doesn't know about of taking sweat off your brow.
KING: What do you do?
BRANDO: Just leave it there and it will dry.
KING: But how does this look?
BRANDO: What? It looks like that.
KING: All right.
BRANDO: Take a look in the camera.
KING: A few more things on acting and then I want to touch other bases.
BRANDO: OK.
KING: But on acting...
BRANDO: So, acting is the most important thing in the world because...
KING: We all do it. BRANDO: We all do it and we do it for a reason, for a sociological -- it serves a sociological purpose and when you think of it it's an absurd process because I go and I pretend that I've got a hole in my leg and because I'm limping on one side this girl won't fall in love with me and her grandmother is trying to arrange a marriage, some crazy thing, and people go to a dark room and pay money to see somebody pretend that they've got a hole in their leg.
KING: Now, you're making light of it.
BRANDO: I'm not making light of it.
KING: But in pretending you've got the hole in the leg...
BRANDO: Because it is a fundamental process. It's older than whoring. It's older than being a whore because if you examine the behavior of chimpanzees or other related ape groups, even well you see it in many different animal species but especially amongst gorillas.
If look a gorilla right in the face, a great back, a silver back gorilla, he would most likely attack you because -- and that's not very far from the drunk who's in a bar when you look at him he's just who the hell do you think you're looking at, huh? And so, either you take your legs off -- either you take...
KING: But back to the point though. If you can...
BRANDO: This is precisely the point.
KING: If you can understand the man with the hole in the leg and what that feels like, the pain of the loss of the wife or the grandmother.
BRANDO: We all have related pain. For instance, if I'm sad you don't know what I'm sad about and you can say in a play he's sad because his life is so full of emptiness or he dreads getting cancer of the nose or something like that and...
KING: (Unintelligible.)
BRANDO: All I have to do is think about something that reminds me of a sadness in the past in my life.
KING: OK, and you'll bring that to whether it's a disappointment in "On the Waterfront," an anger in "The Godfather," right, or a scene in "Viva Zapata" you bring that emotion, that feeling to whether you're on horseback or on a gangplank.
BRANDO: Or, my dear friend a reasonable facsimile thereof because you don't know whether I'm feeling it or not. As long as I can convince you that I am I've done my job.
KING: Willing suspension of disbelief, right? That's what a good actor makes me do.
BRANDO: No, a willing suspension to believe, not to disbelieve. KING: To believe.
BRANDO: A willing -- I shouldn't say willing...
KING: Well, it's willing to disbelieve that that's Marlon Brando but that is in fact...
BRANDO: A willingness to believe.
KING: Yes, to believe that you're not Brando, you're "The Godfather."
BRANDO: But you see it's part of the process because you pay hard cash. You have to pay the babysitters. You have to pay for the popcorn. You have to pay for the tickets. You have to pay for a lot of things besides getting robbed on the way to the movie.
KING: So, you've got to willingly suspend and believe. All right, let me get a break. We'll come back with Marlon Brando. There's lot of other things to talk about.
BRANDO: No, I'm leaving now. It doesn't matter what he says.
KING: No, we're going to take phone calls. You love Don Rickles, right? Tell them.
BRANDO: I love Don Rickles.
KING: He loves Don Rickles.
BRANDO: I just want to know how it is that you comb your hair with a washrag so successfully. I think he's terrific.
KING: We'll be right back with Mr. B. Don't go away.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRANDO: Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. I come to bury Caesar not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them. The good is often toted with their bones so let it be with Caesar.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRANDO: You've given your last command Bly. I'll have those keys (unintelligible).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You heard my order.
BRANDO: One more order Mr. Bly and I'll have your head on this stick. By heaven, I swear it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KING: Why Tahiti?
BRANDO: Tahiti, one thing that has been very problematic about being an actor and getting some measure of celebrity is the fact that you lose your identity and everybody calls you instantly Mr. Brando instead of hey you and then people make up notions. They want your autograph.
And I used to shovel manure from horses and cows for a living. I milked cows. I've done some really -- and I've dug ditches, real ditches for Malcolm Ball's (ph) father in Libertyville, Illinois, and I put in -- I was an elevator boy at (unintelligible) and I was a short order cook for a while and a sandwich man, a waiter.
KING: All right and then you got famous and rich.
BRANDO: And then your life changes. You don't change but suddenly there's a lot more girls saying hi Mar.
KING: And that's good ain't it?
BRANDO: I used to think it was good until it took me a while to realize that it was just part of the game and I always wanted to be liked for myself, known for myself. So, anyway, long story short...
KING: So why Tahiti?
BRANDO: I went to Tahiti where they don't give a damn who you are. The Tahitians are marvelously free. First of all it's a classless society and if you put on airs they just tease the life out of you and...
KING: So, ego don't work there.
BRANDO: What?
KING: Ego don't work there.
BRANDO: Doesn't work there. Well, ego works but not for long because they tease you so much that you have to get rid of it pretty good.
KING: What has fame done to you if anything?
BRANDO: It's made me feel kind of isolated and a little alone but the society I know and trust are the people that I have known for a long time and love.
KING: Are you happier now?
BRANDO: And I'm happy now. Most of the time I'm happy, I have a few blips now and then but it took me a long time to hit my stride.
KING: Were you ever what might be termed depressed?
BRANDO: No, I was never depressed.
KING: Were you ever...
BRANDO: I was -- I had trouble with.
KING: Mood swings?
BRANDO: What?
KING: Mood swings?
BRANDO: No, it wasn't mood swings. I was -- I think that I was, what's the -- an angry guy.
KING: At your childhood?
BRANDO: A quick temper, quick to fight and I had a bad bringing up.
KING: You had a tough childhood, right?
BRANDO: What?
KING: You had a tough childhood.
BRANDO: Well, it's all relative. There are some guys, one of my very closest friends was Jimmy Baldwin.
KING: Wonderful kid.
BRANDO: He was a black kid who was brought up in the (unintelligible) corner and I met him when I was 18 and we were instant friends and...
KING: He had it tougher than you.
BRANDO: Well, first of all he was black, which is tough to grow up in this country. Secondly, he was dominated by his father who was not such a wonderful man according to what he told me and he wanted to be a writer, which at that time was very, very -- there weren't any black writers. He was one of the first black writers that we had that achieved popularity.
KING: So, when you say it's relative you can look at Baldwin and say I had it better than he did.
BRANDO: I can look at him and say maybe he had something to -- he had the capacity to deal with life. I know people that had it worse than I had it (unintelligible).
KING: But does that make it easier for you because they had it worse? BRANDO: What?
KING: Does that make it easier for you because they had it worse?
BRANDO: It's all relative. It's very, very difficult to say when somebody is brave or when somebody is, let's say cowardly because what might be a brave choice for you, for another person it's just -- they just simply don't experience fear so it doesn't mean anything.
KING: OK, the anger, did you use that anger ever on a pro sense, in other word anger is not a very good thing to have did you ever use it, say, in your career to your benefit?
BRANDO: Well, you know, when you're acting and you have to be angry at something you think of something that makes you.
KING: All right, what changed you? What diminished the anger?
BRANDO: Pain. I knew I had to deal with it and I had to find out why I was angry, as we all do, and as opposed to you from what we've said before I believe that unless we look inward we will not ever be able to clearly see outward.
KING: We were talking before we went on the air that I have a difficult time looking inward and Marlon was kind of analyzing this. You can look inward, right?
BRANDO: I have the sense that I can.
KING: Most people can't.
BRANDO: In any event the total result is that I have felt much calmer and I've had moments of real tranquility since I just put a brake on everything and I just, I've done a lot of meditation.
KING: Professional help too.
BRANDO: I was uselessly psychoanalyzed and exploited by a psychoanalyst or maybe sometimes sincerely. I don't want to degrade their intentions but they make a lot of money getting you give days a week to lie down and say I understand that your mother used to like to pinch your (unintelligible) what does that mean to you?
KING: So what did you use beyond that? OK.
BRANDO: And, there's one (unintelligible) was named G.L. Harrington (ph) and he was like my father and I thought Christ we're going to end up in fisticuffs because he was a really tough guy and he spoke like that and he was, you know, he had a lot of male hormones and he shook your hand and he crushed it and I thought wait a minute buddy. In any event, he was wonderful. He laughed me out of a lot of trouble. What are you looking at your watch for?
KING: I did because I just want to check because I don't have a clock here so I'm checking times. There are a lot of bases I want to cover. Time goes so fast with you. For someone who doesn't do interviews you're a great interview subject.
BRANDO: Oh.
KING: So I just thought I'd pass that along to you.
BRANDO: Thank you.
KING: We'll be right back with Marlon Brando. Don't go away.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRANDO: I don't have a name.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you want to know my name?
BRANDO: No, no, I don't. I don't want to know your name. You don't have a name and I don't have a name either, no names here, not one name.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're crazy.
BRANDO: Maybe I am but I don't want to know anything about you. I don't want to know where you live or where you come from. I want to know nothing, nothing, nothing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRANDO: Horror. Horror has a face and you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not then they are enemies to be feared.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KING: Let's take some calls for Marlon Brando. Montreal, Quebec, Canada, hello.
CALLER: Hello, Mr. Brando?
BRANDO: Yes.
CALLER: Hi, I just wanted to ask you considering that you are...
BRANDO: What is your name please?
CALLER: Natalia.
BRANDO: Natalia.
CALLER: Yes.
BRANDO: Oh.
KING: OK, down Marlon, go ahead Natalia.
CALLER: OK, considering that you're a very private person, why after so many years of obscurity, of refusing to be in the spotlight have you decided to publish your autobiography?
BRANDO: I think that you have misunderstood something. I wouldn't be on that program, on this program, somebody in Louisiana woman, I don't know who she was said anybody who shows his face in public is an ass and perhaps that's true by some standards. In any event, fate has brought me to this moment.
KING: Her question was why did a private person write an autobiography?
BRANDO: Oh, I was just explaining to Larry that the reason I wrote it was, it was an exercise in freedom. I want to be able to say to you or to Larry or to myself anything that I believe to be true and it's a very, very difficult thing to do, to go through life perfect. And, one of the things that in this culture money is everything. Money is god. Money is a religion and it determines everything we do and also...
KING: Somebody paid you to do this?
BRANDO: What?
KING: They paid you to do the book.
BRANDO: They paid me $5 million to write the story of my life but I decided to do it before and no one offered me...
KING: But you (unintelligible) things for nothing. You did a movie for nothing, right?
BRANDO: I did the next to the last movie I did for nothing.
Justice and law, (unintelligible) are often just -- well, I suppose they could be described as distant cousins and here in South Africa they're simply not on speaking terms at all.
KING: Now, we're going to show you a side of Brando you may not know since "Guys and Dolls." We're going to do a tune, right?
BRANDO: (Unintelligible.)
KING: What tune you want to do?
BRANDO: Let's see. What about "Lime house blues."
KING: No, I don't know "Lime house blues" but you can sing. You want to do "Lime house blues" do it.
BRANDO: Well, what song do you know?
KING: Well, what's wrong with what we were just doing, "I've flown around the world in a plane"?
BRANDO: All right.
(KING AND BRANDO SINGING)
BRANDO: That's because you ask too many questions. You don't give me a chance to answer.
KING: Let me take another call, Zurich, Switzerland, hello.
CALLER: This is Sammy from Zurich. It's fascinating to talk to two legends at the same time.
KING: Two legends at the same time, Sammy from Zurich.
BRANDO: (Unintelligible.)
CALLER: Larry, I'm sure that all the free thinkers in the world would agree with me that you deserve a Nobel Prize of your own.
KING: For what?
CALLER: Elective one. I'm sorry I'm not sure when I could be on the air again so I have to say this.
KING: You have a question for Mr. B.
CALLER: Yes, Mr. Brando, you had political and social agenda sometimes. You defended the American Indians for example.
BRANDO: Yes.
CALLER: You were an inspiration for us when we (unintelligible) at times too.
KING: Very strong on racism, that's the question.
CALLER: Have you ever considered a different career in your life like President Reagan.
KING: Ever want to run for office, thank you sir?
BRANDO: Yes, Larry has cut you off.
KING: No, he got to his point and I'm moving it along.
BRANDO: Yes, OK.
KING: I didn't cut him off. I didn't cut him off.
BRANDO: I was -- I have been in support of the Jews who came out of the concentration camp to try to find a home for them. I was in support of the Indians in America who I think America has seduced, 400 treaties, read 'em, 400 treaties have been broken by the United States Government.
If one time Cuba said I'm sorry we don't recognize the treaty of Guantanamo they'd have the Marines in there in eight seconds. They'd bomb Havana flat. They'd make a parking lot out of it.
Why is it that we cannot give -- one-third of America is owned by the U.S. Government. The blacks in this country have struggled, have fought, have died of misery and broken hearts perfectly and wonderfully documents in the best writer of the world in my estimate Toni Morrison, in her books, and I think they should be read everywhere in the world to have a sense.
Don't look at your watch.
KING: I know I got to get a break. Hey, we're going to do more of this. We just touched the surface.
BRANDO: Anyway.
KING: But have you ever wanted to run for office?
BRANDO: I want to run from office but never for office.
KING: We'll be back...
BRANDO: Thank you.
KING: ...with more moments with Marlon Brando. Where doth, a little Shakespeare, the time go? The chair is moving. Don't go away.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(VIDEO CLIP OF "GUYS AND DOLLS")
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRANDO: You was my brother Charlie. You should have looked out for me a little bit. You should have taken care of me just a little bit so I wouldn't have to take them dives for the short end money.
ROD STEIGER: I had some bets down for you. You saw some money.
BRANDO: You don't understand. I could have had class. I could have been a contender. I could have been somebody instead of a bum which is what I am. Let's face it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KING: By the way there's nothing in this house, in this wonderful house, that says you're an actor. OK, there's no theater billboards. There's no movie cutouts. There's no Oscar. Where's your Oscar? BRANDO: I don't know.
KING: You don't know where your Oscar is?
BRANDO: I think my secretary has it.
KING: George C. Scott said...
BRANDO: I know one guy that has it but...
KING: George C. Scott said that he doesn't want to ever compete because he thinks competition among actors is wrong unless all of them play the same part.
BRANDO: Originally, I think that the Academy Awards was determined because of -- or rather it was put together by some very cogent businessmen who thought that they would improve their product if they gave, they had a gala and all of that stuff and that was when Hedda Hopper and what's the other fat one?
KING: Luella Parsons.
BRANDO: Luella Parsons were running the show and it came out of that and now people take it very seriously.
KING: Do you?
BRANDO: No, I don't believe in any kind of award, no matter what it is.
KING: Because?
BRANDO: And I don't believe in any kind of censure.
KING: No censure, no awards.
BRANDO: No.
KING: No awards why?
BRANDO: Because I don't think that I'm any better than the camera operator, the boom man. I don't think that I'm any better than you are.
KING: But in your profession...
BRANDO: And I don't think that they are better than I am. They all have their personal intimate...
KING: So, in a Brando world there would be no Emmy's or Toni's or award shows?
BRANDO: In a Brando world?
KING: If Brando...
BRANDO: I don't know. That's hard to envision that. I suppose if I were kind of the world.
KING: OK, by the way did you want good reviews?
BRANDO: I never read reviews.
KING: You know people say that. That's really true? You've never read. You wouldn't say, if I said to you Marlon...
BRANDO: I have read reviews, yes. I've read reviews. Generally I don't.
KING: ... "The Washington Post" tomorrow gives you a rave...
BRANDO: And I don't see the movie. Anybody can tell you that I didn't see "The Russian" and I haven't seen this movie that I did.
KING: When a movie comes on of yours, like tonight if it's playing on television, will you watch it?
BRANDO: It all depends on the movie. Some of them bored the hell out of me.
KING: What movie would you definitely watch? What would you say this is...
BRANDO: Oh, there he is.
KING: The dog. What movie would you say this is good work?
BRANDO: Well...
KING: He's got a dog you wouldn't believe.
BRANDO: What?
KING: What movie would you say, yes, this is good work?
BRANDO: I've tried hard in a movie called "Burn."
KING: "Burn."
BRANDO: "Burn." It was a movie about slavery and a slave rebellion. Come here, Tim. I want you to meet my friend. Tim, Tim come here. Tim, over here, right here. Here, this is Tim.
KING: Look at this.
BRANDO: Now, sit down like a good boy. Now, shake hands with Larry. Shake hands. That a boy.
KING: That's the way to go Tim.
BRANDO: Now, good, isn't that good?
KING: This is what kind of breed?
BRANDO: This is a mastiff.
KING: How heavy is Tim?
BRANDO: Tim is 180 -- here.
KING: I'm not going to eat Tim's food.
BRANDO: No, I don't want you to eat it. I want you just put it in your mouth like this. You're going to miss that. I'll have to get you glasses like Larry.
KING: We'll be right back with Marlon and Tim. We'll take calls for Tim too if your dog wants to call in.
BRANDO: Tim, would you -- where's the close-up.
KING: Close-up of Tim. We'll be right back on LARRY KING LIVE with Marlon Brando in Beverly Hills at home. We'll be right back.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How many Frenchmen have you killed?
BRANDO: I've killed no one, no one, but if I have to sacrifice a few lives for peace I will do it, now, even if one of them is my own.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRANDO: I'm Don Octavio de Flores married to the beautiful Donna Lucita, the light of my life and you my friend, you have seen through all of my masks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KING: That's a film that will be released in January, Marlon Brando, Johnny Depp.
BRANDO: No, I just wanted to say that...
KING: "Don Juan DeMarco."
BRANDO: We're back. No, no, don't talk about that. Larry is too quick off the cuff. There we are. I want to give you...
KING: What kind of effect are you looking for? I'll try to help you.
BRANDO: Which camera, the close-up camera. KING: OK.
BRANDO: Larry is hogging the frame and I wanted to...
KING: (Unintelligible.)
BRANDO: I didn't finish the last thing we were talking about.
KING: OK, I'm sorry, but you don't want to talk about "Don Juan DeMarco" your new movie, OK.
BRANDO: I wanted to say that unless we get together we're going to fall apart, that we have to come together, that this -- maybe we're 140-odd, 150-odd nations but we're one planet and we have to find a way to live together without hatred. What goes on in the world is impossible. We have to address now.
Now, apropos of that one of the things that Carl (ph) is doing, this is Carl -- Caroline -- OK, will you give me the names? Oh, yes. I have involved myself with a company called Planetary Design Corporation which is a company that by unwritten charter is designed to reduce the C02 in the earth to preserve it for your grandchildren and for mine which are not going to survive if we don't pay attention to it. Each one of us, everybody here in this room, sound, gaffers, assistants, whoever it is, we all have to do something to reverse the effects of the C02.
KING: We're running short on time. What will the company do?
BRANDO: What?
KING: What's the company going to do?
BRANDO: The company has already done what I've showed you.
KING: What we saw.
BRANDO: It has raised this plant called salicornia (ph) and Manuel Oranzo (ph) who is very dedicated to environmental issues in Mexico and he is teaching children to be aware of their environment and I have a feeling that I'm rushing to get this information out and it's your show.
KING: No, no, no. You know what we'll have to do?
BRANDO: What?
KING: You were a terrific guest if I do say humbly so myself. I know that you do. Will you come back?
BRANDO: Thank you, Larry.
KING: You will do another session with me and then I will do one with you?
BRANDO: OK. KING: We'll go on the road with this.
BRANDO: All right.
KING: OK, but I want to -- they're telling me let's close with a song. Let me just remind you the book is "Brando: Songs my Mother Taught me" from Random House.
BRANDO: Yes, Harry I hope I've done well by Random House as well.
KING: Harry, he did well.
BRANDO: And by you and thank you very much for (unintelligible).
KING: Now, what I wanted to say...
BRANDO: See the way he interrupts.
KING: "Got a date with an angel" we're going to do "Got a date with an angel."
BRANDO: OK, let's get together for this. Where's the right camera?
KING: All right, which one we using?
BRANDO: OK.
(KING AND BRANDO SINGING)
BRANDO: Darling, goodbye.
KING: Goodbye. Marlon Brando. See you tomorrow night with Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks.
BRANDO: Oh, I wish I was there.
KING: Alan Dershowitz Monday. Lauren Bacall next week. Thanks for joining us. Say good night, Marlon.
BRANDO: Good night. Don't forget salicornia and the rest. Thanks a lot.
KING: Arrivederci.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: We hope you enjoyed this hour with Marlon Brando. He doesn't do many interviews and you got to say this. He's his own man, Marlon Brando.
Tomorrow night, we'll repeat our special of last Tuesday with Linda Hope and friends remembering the late Bob Hope. That's tomorrow night on LARRY KING LIVE. Thanks for joining us and good night.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired August 2, 2003 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LARRY KING, HOST: Tonight, an hour of music, laughter...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARLON BRANDO, ACTOR: If the dog hadn't stopped to pee, he might have caught the rabbit.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Fashion.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRANDO: You can't see my feet can you? I forgot to put my shoes on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: That's OK, that's all right.
And romance...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRANDO: Goodbye.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Brando, next on LARRY KING LIVE.
Many times over the weekend we're presenting on LARRY KING LIVE what we call "King's Classics", interviews from the past. This one occurred nine years ago in 1994. We went up to Marlon Brando's house. He said he would do one interview for his book. He chose our show. We drove around earlier that day, had lunch, and then the scene was set. It was different. It was fun. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KING: Explain what you did, don't put me on Marlon, you put your own makeup on today?
BRANDO: I did because I wanted to look exactly like you and...
KING: This was your goal?
BRANDO: This was my goal, that's right.
KING: And you believed...
BRANDO: I wore some red suspenders in your honor.
KING: Oh, my God.
BRANDO: I did everything I could and then I've received some criticism from these people then.
KING: They wanted to do you themselves?
BRANDO: They wanted to do it.
KING: So, I'm honored. Do you see my eyebrows that dark and that way and that sort of stark look?
BRANDO: Yes, a little of the, what do you call it, who was that guy, that famous Italian guy, not Raymond Navaro but the other guy? Oh, the big lover, what was his name, played "The Sheikh," what was his name?
KING: Oh, Valentino.
BRANDO: Yes, Valentino.
KING: That's the look you have.
BRANDO: That's right.
KING: Why -- well I want to touch a lot of bases with you. It's not easy to get -- why don't you like interviews?
BRANDO: Well, primarily because the interest is in money. That's the principal guiding feature of all interviews today is money.
KING: What do you mean?
BRANDO: You know perfectly well what I mean.
KING: No, what?
BRANDO: You know that a story has -- that one story is more valuable than another because of the readership, for instance. O.J. Simpson has taken over the air -- you're sweating a little. O.J. Simpson has taken over the air -- what are you smiling at?
KING: I'm smiling because you just pointed out that I was sweating. I'm Jewish. I sweat. You're part Yiddish. You understand. OK and that's money so you say that cameras go...
BRANDO: No, it's been forced because it's market forces that determine that. There are a lot of guys like Izzy Stone (ph), do you remember Izzy Stone?
KING: Wonderful, I have Stone (unintelligible). BRANDO: Friendly, was still alive, who still is throwing punches, still going three rounds.
KING: But the question was why don't you like being interviewed?
BRANDO: Because I don't like the idea of selling yourself for money. I -- I...
KING: So, you don't like selling a book, right? You don't like to go on to sell a book?
BRANDO: I don't.
KING: Or sell a movie?
BRANDO: I don't. I've never sold a movie and this is the first time I've ever been on beating the drum for some product. In this case it's Random House's book.
KING: Because you promised them you would do one?
BRANDO: It was -- unbeknownst to me it was part of the contract and if I didn't I would be in breach of contract. But aside from that I've had pleasure talking to you. I'm fascinated with people especially the kind of people, I wouldn't lump you with others because you are exceptional.
KING: Thank you.
BRANDO: Because there are many people that have asked me to be on programs and I've refused but you, without flattery, I mean I have nothing to gain, you have impressed I think all people, and certainly me, as being very forthright, sincere, and direct and unexploitive.
KING: Well, I thank you very much and now the subject is you.
BRANDO: No, not necessarily.
KING: Yes, but in this (unintelligible).
BRANDO: Because the audience really would like to know what it is that makes Larry King...
KING: OK, for one night we'll have Marlon Brando live. You'll host it. I'll guest.
BRANDO: That's this night.
KING: No, this night you're the guest.
BRANDO: Somebody laughed over there.
KING: Why did you choose acting as a career? Why did you choose to be other people?
BRANDO: Let me -- I think I -- it's useful to make an observation about that that everybody here in this room is an actor. You're an actor and the best performances I've ever seen is when the director says cut and the director says that was great. That was wonderful. That was good.
They said we had a little lighting problem. Let's do it again. What his thinking is Jesus Christ, that's so (expletive) -- excuse me. That's -- it wasn't done well so we've got to do it over but everybody tries to handle.
When you say how do you do, how are you, you look fine, you're doing two things at once. You're reading the person's real intention. You're trying to feel who he is and making an assessment and trying to ignore the mythology.
KING: So that when the director says, cut, but I didn't like the lighting he's acting.
BRANDO: I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about going to the office saying good morning, Mr. Harrison.
KING: I know but we're all acting.
BRANDO: We're all acting.
KING: But why did you choose...
BRANDO: And it's a natural -- what?
KING: You chose it as a profession.
BRANDO: Because there isn't anything that pays you as much money as acting while you are deciding what the hell you're going to do with yourself.
KING: So, wait a minute, are you saying you're still deciding?
BRANDO: It took me a long time to decide. You know people have never decided. I mean most people if they -- if you ask them what their dreams are -- give this guy a Kleenex.
KING: I'll get a tissue in a while. Go ahead, I sweat. We got hot lights here.
BRANDO: No, we don't. I'm not sweating.
KING: Well you're Marlon Brando. I'm Larry King. I sweat.
BRANDO: You're a darling man. I don't know. Why do you sweat and I don't?
KING: I know, no, let's get -- I don't want to get off...
BRANDO: Why do you escape trying to make the one-to-one contact because I am the product?
KING: Yes, you're the product, right. BRANDO: OK, then you answered my first, you answered your first question.
KING: This is about money then, OK.
BRANDO: This is about money.
KING: But it's also about interest and learning.
BRANDO: If I was Joe Schlepp (ph) I don't think I'd be sitting here even though you might like me, even though we went for a taxi ride and I was a very interesting guy I don't know that I would appear on your program.
KING: You are correct.
BRANDO: And...
KING: But you've obtained something.
BRANDO: Because of market values.
KING: But you've attained something that people are interested in. That's why there's a market value. That's why they pay you the money to do the films.
BRANDO: Yes, that's precisely it.
KING: So, when Brando goes up on the screen or on the marquee people will come to see the movie, that's money.
BRANDO: That's right.
KING: And brings money to you.
BRANDO: It's market forces. That's the way it works.
KING: OK, but...
BRANDO: If you don't (unintelligible) you don't get arrested.
KING: Did it come easily to you, so in other words you could make money this way?
BRANDO: Acting comes easily to everybody. All I've done is just simply through the extraordinary talents of Stella Adler who is my teacher and mentor learned how to be aware of the process and some people are never aware of it.
KING: Professionally, in other words she taught you?
BRANDO: In life. In life.
KING: She taught you how to what, impersonate?
BRANDO: No, how to be aware of my own feelings and how to access my own feelings. Many actors can do that and I'm sure you've seen pictures of actors that -- I mean you've seen a performance of an actor who really gave his all and he was very effective but he was ugly. He was ugly in the expression of his emotions or he was truly being himself but what he was was boring, or was dull or was something else.
KING: All right, so she taught you to take that inner self of you and bring it to a waterfront or a godfather or a whatever?
BRANDO: I'm not sure what she taught me. We'd all like to be certain of what we know but I think the most important question is to ask yourself do you really know what you know?
KING: OK. Help me with something because it's fascinating. Let's say you get a role that's "The Godfather."
BRANDO: Yes.
KING: You're not a Mafia kingpin.
BRANDO: Yes, I am, so are you.
KING: No, no you're not a Mafia.
BRANDO: Yes. Well, as a matter of fact I'm not.
KING: OK.
BRANDO: But we are. There isn't anything that you are or that you feel or that you have that I don't feel or that I don't have and so...
KING: But you can bring it into someone.
BRANDO: You can ask an actor. Say well here this is what you get. You get hit with a crow bar in the head and you get a brain concussion. You're lying there and you're mumbling. I mumble anyway but.
KING: OK, so are you saying anyone can do that, no.
BRANDO: Nobody can die so you have to pretend you're dying.
KING: OK. Are you saying that when you are "The Godfather" you're pretending?
BRANDO: Sure, I'm pretending.
KING: But you're into it.
BRANDO: I mean we're going to get lost in vocabulary.
KING: No, we're not. We're learning what you're doing. What do you do? Do you read -- you read the script. You like it. By the way -- what's -- how do you...
BRANDO: I usually read the script and hate it.
KING: You usually hate it but you didn't hate "The Godfather" right?
BRANDO: No, I liked the -- I wasn't sure that I could do it and Frances cordially asked me if I would do a...
KING: A test?
BRANDO: Yes, a test which I wasn't -- I would never play a part that I couldn't do and if somebody asked me to play "Hamlet" tomorrow with Jesus Christ playing Mary Magdalene I wouldn't do it.
KING: Have you turned down anything you regretted?
BRANDO: That I've regretted, no, no.
KING: Ever taken anything you regretted?
BRANDO: Oh, God, taken anything you mean swiped stuff?
KING: No, no, no, played a role, God I'm sorry I played that.
BRANDO: Oh yes, of course.
KING: A lot of them?
BRANDO: No, regretted no. I don't -- I think to regret is useless in life. It belongs to the past. The only moment we have is right now sitting here and talking with each other. You can't see my feet can you? I forgot to put my shoes on.
KING: OK, that's allowed. It's your house. This is the moment. We'll come back with more of these moments, OK, and I'll take a break and make money.
BRANDO: OK, all right.
KING: We'll be right back. Don't go away.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRANDO: You look terrible. I want you to eat. I want you to rest well and in a month from now this Hollywood big shot is going to give you what you want.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's too late. They start shooting in a week.
BRANDO: I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRANDO: Hey, Stella.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You quit that howling down there and go to bed.
BRANDO: (Unintelligible) one of my girls down here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You shut up. You're going to get the law on you.
BRANDO: Hey, Stella.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can't beat on a woman and then call her back because she ain't going to come (unintelligible). I hope they haul you in and turn a fire under you.
BRANDO: First I want my girl down here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You stinker.
BRANDO: Hey Stella.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KING: Back to movies and we'll touch all the bases. I want to talk about the environment, Tahiti, the causes you get involved in, et cetera.
BRANDO: I'm glad you said that so we can get off of movies because (unintelligible)...
KING: I know but there are certain things I want to.
BRANDO: There are fascinating topics in the world. Oh, there are my shoes.
KING: Did you ever miss theater?
BRANDO: Only when I'm going around 47th Street about 80 miles an hour in a cab and...
KING: Do you say you'd like to be inside there?
BRANDO: No, I pass by the Alvin and almost hit it. That's when I kind of miss it.
KING: You do not miss being on a stage?
BRANDO: No, God no.
KING: Why not?
BRANDO: Because it's three hours of blood, sweat, and tears every night. There's nothing to do but blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
KING: Oh, don't diminish that.
BRANDO: What?
KING: Audience.
BRANDO: I don't diminish Shakespeare. I can recite Shakespeare from morning until night until I put you to sleep. I love Shakespeare but I don't like -- I'm not nuts about going to the theater. So often in the past I've gone to the theater and been so bored.
KING: How about working in it though? I mean first of all you get applause.
BRANDO: I'm bored.
KING: Applause.
BRANDO: Who cares about applause? If I get applause from my dog, if I get applause from my children that's enough, God do I have to turn into an applause junkie in order to feel good about myself?
KING: When you started...
BRANDO: How about you? Do you need applause? Larry, that was a great show.
KING: I need, yes, I need acceptance.
BRANDO: God, I've never seen you so stimulated and so inspired in asking the questions of this person and you think, oh God, (unintelligible).
KING: This Yiddish thing, you got a lot of that in New York, right? You're part Jewish.
BRANDO: I -- well, technically I'm not a Jew but culturally I am. I spent ten years in New York and that was when New York was New York, the daily forwards and Stella very kindly invited me into her home and all of my employers, my teachers, I went to the New School of Social Research which is an extraordinary institution of learning.
KING: Still there.
BRANDO: And it was at a time when all the people were coming out of this extraordinary academia of Germany and like Hana Aranton (ph), the list is endless.
KING: You read them all?
BRANDO: I did -- I never had a chance to take her class. She taught at the New School of Social Research. It was sort of a clearing house until they went onto Princeton or Yale.
KING: So at this time did you realize, even at this young age, I am doing acting because I can do it but I want...
BRANDO: We were talking about Yiddish New York.
KING: But I want to do other things.
BRANDO: What?
KING: Did you realize it then that I...
BRANDO: I wanted to -- I studied for a while to be a dancer at Catherine Dunham's (ph) School of Dance and I formally have been a trap drummer, a stick drummer and I thought I was encapsulated in Puerto Rican music.
KING: Would you rather have been a musician?
BRANDO: I don't know. If the dog hadn't stopped to pee, he might have caught the rabbit. How could I possibly know?
KING: Well, because you know if you love it.
BRANDO: What? I'll do it right now.
KING: Oh, you're going to -- oh, Marlon has a way to stop the sweating.
BRANDO: I have a way.
KING: The Brando method.
BRANDO: That Larry doesn't know about of taking sweat off your brow.
KING: What do you do?
BRANDO: Just leave it there and it will dry.
KING: But how does this look?
BRANDO: What? It looks like that.
KING: All right.
BRANDO: Take a look in the camera.
KING: A few more things on acting and then I want to touch other bases.
BRANDO: OK.
KING: But on acting...
BRANDO: So, acting is the most important thing in the world because...
KING: We all do it. BRANDO: We all do it and we do it for a reason, for a sociological -- it serves a sociological purpose and when you think of it it's an absurd process because I go and I pretend that I've got a hole in my leg and because I'm limping on one side this girl won't fall in love with me and her grandmother is trying to arrange a marriage, some crazy thing, and people go to a dark room and pay money to see somebody pretend that they've got a hole in their leg.
KING: Now, you're making light of it.
BRANDO: I'm not making light of it.
KING: But in pretending you've got the hole in the leg...
BRANDO: Because it is a fundamental process. It's older than whoring. It's older than being a whore because if you examine the behavior of chimpanzees or other related ape groups, even well you see it in many different animal species but especially amongst gorillas.
If look a gorilla right in the face, a great back, a silver back gorilla, he would most likely attack you because -- and that's not very far from the drunk who's in a bar when you look at him he's just who the hell do you think you're looking at, huh? And so, either you take your legs off -- either you take...
KING: But back to the point though. If you can...
BRANDO: This is precisely the point.
KING: If you can understand the man with the hole in the leg and what that feels like, the pain of the loss of the wife or the grandmother.
BRANDO: We all have related pain. For instance, if I'm sad you don't know what I'm sad about and you can say in a play he's sad because his life is so full of emptiness or he dreads getting cancer of the nose or something like that and...
KING: (Unintelligible.)
BRANDO: All I have to do is think about something that reminds me of a sadness in the past in my life.
KING: OK, and you'll bring that to whether it's a disappointment in "On the Waterfront," an anger in "The Godfather," right, or a scene in "Viva Zapata" you bring that emotion, that feeling to whether you're on horseback or on a gangplank.
BRANDO: Or, my dear friend a reasonable facsimile thereof because you don't know whether I'm feeling it or not. As long as I can convince you that I am I've done my job.
KING: Willing suspension of disbelief, right? That's what a good actor makes me do.
BRANDO: No, a willing suspension to believe, not to disbelieve. KING: To believe.
BRANDO: A willing -- I shouldn't say willing...
KING: Well, it's willing to disbelieve that that's Marlon Brando but that is in fact...
BRANDO: A willingness to believe.
KING: Yes, to believe that you're not Brando, you're "The Godfather."
BRANDO: But you see it's part of the process because you pay hard cash. You have to pay the babysitters. You have to pay for the popcorn. You have to pay for the tickets. You have to pay for a lot of things besides getting robbed on the way to the movie.
KING: So, you've got to willingly suspend and believe. All right, let me get a break. We'll come back with Marlon Brando. There's lot of other things to talk about.
BRANDO: No, I'm leaving now. It doesn't matter what he says.
KING: No, we're going to take phone calls. You love Don Rickles, right? Tell them.
BRANDO: I love Don Rickles.
KING: He loves Don Rickles.
BRANDO: I just want to know how it is that you comb your hair with a washrag so successfully. I think he's terrific.
KING: We'll be right back with Mr. B. Don't go away.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRANDO: Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. I come to bury Caesar not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them. The good is often toted with their bones so let it be with Caesar.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRANDO: You've given your last command Bly. I'll have those keys (unintelligible).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You heard my order.
BRANDO: One more order Mr. Bly and I'll have your head on this stick. By heaven, I swear it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KING: Why Tahiti?
BRANDO: Tahiti, one thing that has been very problematic about being an actor and getting some measure of celebrity is the fact that you lose your identity and everybody calls you instantly Mr. Brando instead of hey you and then people make up notions. They want your autograph.
And I used to shovel manure from horses and cows for a living. I milked cows. I've done some really -- and I've dug ditches, real ditches for Malcolm Ball's (ph) father in Libertyville, Illinois, and I put in -- I was an elevator boy at (unintelligible) and I was a short order cook for a while and a sandwich man, a waiter.
KING: All right and then you got famous and rich.
BRANDO: And then your life changes. You don't change but suddenly there's a lot more girls saying hi Mar.
KING: And that's good ain't it?
BRANDO: I used to think it was good until it took me a while to realize that it was just part of the game and I always wanted to be liked for myself, known for myself. So, anyway, long story short...
KING: So why Tahiti?
BRANDO: I went to Tahiti where they don't give a damn who you are. The Tahitians are marvelously free. First of all it's a classless society and if you put on airs they just tease the life out of you and...
KING: So, ego don't work there.
BRANDO: What?
KING: Ego don't work there.
BRANDO: Doesn't work there. Well, ego works but not for long because they tease you so much that you have to get rid of it pretty good.
KING: What has fame done to you if anything?
BRANDO: It's made me feel kind of isolated and a little alone but the society I know and trust are the people that I have known for a long time and love.
KING: Are you happier now?
BRANDO: And I'm happy now. Most of the time I'm happy, I have a few blips now and then but it took me a long time to hit my stride.
KING: Were you ever what might be termed depressed?
BRANDO: No, I was never depressed.
KING: Were you ever...
BRANDO: I was -- I had trouble with.
KING: Mood swings?
BRANDO: What?
KING: Mood swings?
BRANDO: No, it wasn't mood swings. I was -- I think that I was, what's the -- an angry guy.
KING: At your childhood?
BRANDO: A quick temper, quick to fight and I had a bad bringing up.
KING: You had a tough childhood, right?
BRANDO: What?
KING: You had a tough childhood.
BRANDO: Well, it's all relative. There are some guys, one of my very closest friends was Jimmy Baldwin.
KING: Wonderful kid.
BRANDO: He was a black kid who was brought up in the (unintelligible) corner and I met him when I was 18 and we were instant friends and...
KING: He had it tougher than you.
BRANDO: Well, first of all he was black, which is tough to grow up in this country. Secondly, he was dominated by his father who was not such a wonderful man according to what he told me and he wanted to be a writer, which at that time was very, very -- there weren't any black writers. He was one of the first black writers that we had that achieved popularity.
KING: So, when you say it's relative you can look at Baldwin and say I had it better than he did.
BRANDO: I can look at him and say maybe he had something to -- he had the capacity to deal with life. I know people that had it worse than I had it (unintelligible).
KING: But does that make it easier for you because they had it worse? BRANDO: What?
KING: Does that make it easier for you because they had it worse?
BRANDO: It's all relative. It's very, very difficult to say when somebody is brave or when somebody is, let's say cowardly because what might be a brave choice for you, for another person it's just -- they just simply don't experience fear so it doesn't mean anything.
KING: OK, the anger, did you use that anger ever on a pro sense, in other word anger is not a very good thing to have did you ever use it, say, in your career to your benefit?
BRANDO: Well, you know, when you're acting and you have to be angry at something you think of something that makes you.
KING: All right, what changed you? What diminished the anger?
BRANDO: Pain. I knew I had to deal with it and I had to find out why I was angry, as we all do, and as opposed to you from what we've said before I believe that unless we look inward we will not ever be able to clearly see outward.
KING: We were talking before we went on the air that I have a difficult time looking inward and Marlon was kind of analyzing this. You can look inward, right?
BRANDO: I have the sense that I can.
KING: Most people can't.
BRANDO: In any event the total result is that I have felt much calmer and I've had moments of real tranquility since I just put a brake on everything and I just, I've done a lot of meditation.
KING: Professional help too.
BRANDO: I was uselessly psychoanalyzed and exploited by a psychoanalyst or maybe sometimes sincerely. I don't want to degrade their intentions but they make a lot of money getting you give days a week to lie down and say I understand that your mother used to like to pinch your (unintelligible) what does that mean to you?
KING: So what did you use beyond that? OK.
BRANDO: And, there's one (unintelligible) was named G.L. Harrington (ph) and he was like my father and I thought Christ we're going to end up in fisticuffs because he was a really tough guy and he spoke like that and he was, you know, he had a lot of male hormones and he shook your hand and he crushed it and I thought wait a minute buddy. In any event, he was wonderful. He laughed me out of a lot of trouble. What are you looking at your watch for?
KING: I did because I just want to check because I don't have a clock here so I'm checking times. There are a lot of bases I want to cover. Time goes so fast with you. For someone who doesn't do interviews you're a great interview subject.
BRANDO: Oh.
KING: So I just thought I'd pass that along to you.
BRANDO: Thank you.
KING: We'll be right back with Marlon Brando. Don't go away.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRANDO: I don't have a name.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you want to know my name?
BRANDO: No, no, I don't. I don't want to know your name. You don't have a name and I don't have a name either, no names here, not one name.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're crazy.
BRANDO: Maybe I am but I don't want to know anything about you. I don't want to know where you live or where you come from. I want to know nothing, nothing, nothing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRANDO: Horror. Horror has a face and you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not then they are enemies to be feared.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KING: Let's take some calls for Marlon Brando. Montreal, Quebec, Canada, hello.
CALLER: Hello, Mr. Brando?
BRANDO: Yes.
CALLER: Hi, I just wanted to ask you considering that you are...
BRANDO: What is your name please?
CALLER: Natalia.
BRANDO: Natalia.
CALLER: Yes.
BRANDO: Oh.
KING: OK, down Marlon, go ahead Natalia.
CALLER: OK, considering that you're a very private person, why after so many years of obscurity, of refusing to be in the spotlight have you decided to publish your autobiography?
BRANDO: I think that you have misunderstood something. I wouldn't be on that program, on this program, somebody in Louisiana woman, I don't know who she was said anybody who shows his face in public is an ass and perhaps that's true by some standards. In any event, fate has brought me to this moment.
KING: Her question was why did a private person write an autobiography?
BRANDO: Oh, I was just explaining to Larry that the reason I wrote it was, it was an exercise in freedom. I want to be able to say to you or to Larry or to myself anything that I believe to be true and it's a very, very difficult thing to do, to go through life perfect. And, one of the things that in this culture money is everything. Money is god. Money is a religion and it determines everything we do and also...
KING: Somebody paid you to do this?
BRANDO: What?
KING: They paid you to do the book.
BRANDO: They paid me $5 million to write the story of my life but I decided to do it before and no one offered me...
KING: But you (unintelligible) things for nothing. You did a movie for nothing, right?
BRANDO: I did the next to the last movie I did for nothing.
Justice and law, (unintelligible) are often just -- well, I suppose they could be described as distant cousins and here in South Africa they're simply not on speaking terms at all.
KING: Now, we're going to show you a side of Brando you may not know since "Guys and Dolls." We're going to do a tune, right?
BRANDO: (Unintelligible.)
KING: What tune you want to do?
BRANDO: Let's see. What about "Lime house blues."
KING: No, I don't know "Lime house blues" but you can sing. You want to do "Lime house blues" do it.
BRANDO: Well, what song do you know?
KING: Well, what's wrong with what we were just doing, "I've flown around the world in a plane"?
BRANDO: All right.
(KING AND BRANDO SINGING)
BRANDO: That's because you ask too many questions. You don't give me a chance to answer.
KING: Let me take another call, Zurich, Switzerland, hello.
CALLER: This is Sammy from Zurich. It's fascinating to talk to two legends at the same time.
KING: Two legends at the same time, Sammy from Zurich.
BRANDO: (Unintelligible.)
CALLER: Larry, I'm sure that all the free thinkers in the world would agree with me that you deserve a Nobel Prize of your own.
KING: For what?
CALLER: Elective one. I'm sorry I'm not sure when I could be on the air again so I have to say this.
KING: You have a question for Mr. B.
CALLER: Yes, Mr. Brando, you had political and social agenda sometimes. You defended the American Indians for example.
BRANDO: Yes.
CALLER: You were an inspiration for us when we (unintelligible) at times too.
KING: Very strong on racism, that's the question.
CALLER: Have you ever considered a different career in your life like President Reagan.
KING: Ever want to run for office, thank you sir?
BRANDO: Yes, Larry has cut you off.
KING: No, he got to his point and I'm moving it along.
BRANDO: Yes, OK.
KING: I didn't cut him off. I didn't cut him off.
BRANDO: I was -- I have been in support of the Jews who came out of the concentration camp to try to find a home for them. I was in support of the Indians in America who I think America has seduced, 400 treaties, read 'em, 400 treaties have been broken by the United States Government.
If one time Cuba said I'm sorry we don't recognize the treaty of Guantanamo they'd have the Marines in there in eight seconds. They'd bomb Havana flat. They'd make a parking lot out of it.
Why is it that we cannot give -- one-third of America is owned by the U.S. Government. The blacks in this country have struggled, have fought, have died of misery and broken hearts perfectly and wonderfully documents in the best writer of the world in my estimate Toni Morrison, in her books, and I think they should be read everywhere in the world to have a sense.
Don't look at your watch.
KING: I know I got to get a break. Hey, we're going to do more of this. We just touched the surface.
BRANDO: Anyway.
KING: But have you ever wanted to run for office?
BRANDO: I want to run from office but never for office.
KING: We'll be back...
BRANDO: Thank you.
KING: ...with more moments with Marlon Brando. Where doth, a little Shakespeare, the time go? The chair is moving. Don't go away.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(VIDEO CLIP OF "GUYS AND DOLLS")
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRANDO: You was my brother Charlie. You should have looked out for me a little bit. You should have taken care of me just a little bit so I wouldn't have to take them dives for the short end money.
ROD STEIGER: I had some bets down for you. You saw some money.
BRANDO: You don't understand. I could have had class. I could have been a contender. I could have been somebody instead of a bum which is what I am. Let's face it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KING: By the way there's nothing in this house, in this wonderful house, that says you're an actor. OK, there's no theater billboards. There's no movie cutouts. There's no Oscar. Where's your Oscar? BRANDO: I don't know.
KING: You don't know where your Oscar is?
BRANDO: I think my secretary has it.
KING: George C. Scott said...
BRANDO: I know one guy that has it but...
KING: George C. Scott said that he doesn't want to ever compete because he thinks competition among actors is wrong unless all of them play the same part.
BRANDO: Originally, I think that the Academy Awards was determined because of -- or rather it was put together by some very cogent businessmen who thought that they would improve their product if they gave, they had a gala and all of that stuff and that was when Hedda Hopper and what's the other fat one?
KING: Luella Parsons.
BRANDO: Luella Parsons were running the show and it came out of that and now people take it very seriously.
KING: Do you?
BRANDO: No, I don't believe in any kind of award, no matter what it is.
KING: Because?
BRANDO: And I don't believe in any kind of censure.
KING: No censure, no awards.
BRANDO: No.
KING: No awards why?
BRANDO: Because I don't think that I'm any better than the camera operator, the boom man. I don't think that I'm any better than you are.
KING: But in your profession...
BRANDO: And I don't think that they are better than I am. They all have their personal intimate...
KING: So, in a Brando world there would be no Emmy's or Toni's or award shows?
BRANDO: In a Brando world?
KING: If Brando...
BRANDO: I don't know. That's hard to envision that. I suppose if I were kind of the world.
KING: OK, by the way did you want good reviews?
BRANDO: I never read reviews.
KING: You know people say that. That's really true? You've never read. You wouldn't say, if I said to you Marlon...
BRANDO: I have read reviews, yes. I've read reviews. Generally I don't.
KING: ... "The Washington Post" tomorrow gives you a rave...
BRANDO: And I don't see the movie. Anybody can tell you that I didn't see "The Russian" and I haven't seen this movie that I did.
KING: When a movie comes on of yours, like tonight if it's playing on television, will you watch it?
BRANDO: It all depends on the movie. Some of them bored the hell out of me.
KING: What movie would you definitely watch? What would you say this is...
BRANDO: Oh, there he is.
KING: The dog. What movie would you say this is good work?
BRANDO: Well...
KING: He's got a dog you wouldn't believe.
BRANDO: What?
KING: What movie would you say, yes, this is good work?
BRANDO: I've tried hard in a movie called "Burn."
KING: "Burn."
BRANDO: "Burn." It was a movie about slavery and a slave rebellion. Come here, Tim. I want you to meet my friend. Tim, Tim come here. Tim, over here, right here. Here, this is Tim.
KING: Look at this.
BRANDO: Now, sit down like a good boy. Now, shake hands with Larry. Shake hands. That a boy.
KING: That's the way to go Tim.
BRANDO: Now, good, isn't that good?
KING: This is what kind of breed?
BRANDO: This is a mastiff.
KING: How heavy is Tim?
BRANDO: Tim is 180 -- here.
KING: I'm not going to eat Tim's food.
BRANDO: No, I don't want you to eat it. I want you just put it in your mouth like this. You're going to miss that. I'll have to get you glasses like Larry.
KING: We'll be right back with Marlon and Tim. We'll take calls for Tim too if your dog wants to call in.
BRANDO: Tim, would you -- where's the close-up.
KING: Close-up of Tim. We'll be right back on LARRY KING LIVE with Marlon Brando in Beverly Hills at home. We'll be right back.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How many Frenchmen have you killed?
BRANDO: I've killed no one, no one, but if I have to sacrifice a few lives for peace I will do it, now, even if one of them is my own.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRANDO: I'm Don Octavio de Flores married to the beautiful Donna Lucita, the light of my life and you my friend, you have seen through all of my masks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KING: That's a film that will be released in January, Marlon Brando, Johnny Depp.
BRANDO: No, I just wanted to say that...
KING: "Don Juan DeMarco."
BRANDO: We're back. No, no, don't talk about that. Larry is too quick off the cuff. There we are. I want to give you...
KING: What kind of effect are you looking for? I'll try to help you.
BRANDO: Which camera, the close-up camera. KING: OK.
BRANDO: Larry is hogging the frame and I wanted to...
KING: (Unintelligible.)
BRANDO: I didn't finish the last thing we were talking about.
KING: OK, I'm sorry, but you don't want to talk about "Don Juan DeMarco" your new movie, OK.
BRANDO: I wanted to say that unless we get together we're going to fall apart, that we have to come together, that this -- maybe we're 140-odd, 150-odd nations but we're one planet and we have to find a way to live together without hatred. What goes on in the world is impossible. We have to address now.
Now, apropos of that one of the things that Carl (ph) is doing, this is Carl -- Caroline -- OK, will you give me the names? Oh, yes. I have involved myself with a company called Planetary Design Corporation which is a company that by unwritten charter is designed to reduce the C02 in the earth to preserve it for your grandchildren and for mine which are not going to survive if we don't pay attention to it. Each one of us, everybody here in this room, sound, gaffers, assistants, whoever it is, we all have to do something to reverse the effects of the C02.
KING: We're running short on time. What will the company do?
BRANDO: What?
KING: What's the company going to do?
BRANDO: The company has already done what I've showed you.
KING: What we saw.
BRANDO: It has raised this plant called salicornia (ph) and Manuel Oranzo (ph) who is very dedicated to environmental issues in Mexico and he is teaching children to be aware of their environment and I have a feeling that I'm rushing to get this information out and it's your show.
KING: No, no, no. You know what we'll have to do?
BRANDO: What?
KING: You were a terrific guest if I do say humbly so myself. I know that you do. Will you come back?
BRANDO: Thank you, Larry.
KING: You will do another session with me and then I will do one with you?
BRANDO: OK. KING: We'll go on the road with this.
BRANDO: All right.
KING: OK, but I want to -- they're telling me let's close with a song. Let me just remind you the book is "Brando: Songs my Mother Taught me" from Random House.
BRANDO: Yes, Harry I hope I've done well by Random House as well.
KING: Harry, he did well.
BRANDO: And by you and thank you very much for (unintelligible).
KING: Now, what I wanted to say...
BRANDO: See the way he interrupts.
KING: "Got a date with an angel" we're going to do "Got a date with an angel."
BRANDO: OK, let's get together for this. Where's the right camera?
KING: All right, which one we using?
BRANDO: OK.
(KING AND BRANDO SINGING)
BRANDO: Darling, goodbye.
KING: Goodbye. Marlon Brando. See you tomorrow night with Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks.
BRANDO: Oh, I wish I was there.
KING: Alan Dershowitz Monday. Lauren Bacall next week. Thanks for joining us. Say good night, Marlon.
BRANDO: Good night. Don't forget salicornia and the rest. Thanks a lot.
KING: Arrivederci.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: We hope you enjoyed this hour with Marlon Brando. He doesn't do many interviews and you got to say this. He's his own man, Marlon Brando.
Tomorrow night, we'll repeat our special of last Tuesday with Linda Hope and friends remembering the late Bob Hope. That's tomorrow night on LARRY KING LIVE. Thanks for joining us and good night.
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