Grab A Stick Of Butter & Steel Your Nerves For The Marlon Brando Acting Master Class

Acting is about exploring deep, dark places that might make other people uncomfortable. Marlon Brando knew this axiom better than most, and lived out the last four words of it to the fullest extent of his being. Details are now emerging about one of Brando's final acts of insanity, an acting master class that involved copious amounts of nudity, homeless men, midgets, cross dressing, and sheer, unbridled insanity.

According to The Hollywood Reporter (link below), in November 2002, Brando rounded up a dozen of Hollywood's finest to give 20 young actors the chance to learn from a master, and essentially from the moment the 10 day workshop began, the crazy didn't let up for a moment...

When the doors flung open, the 78-year-old Brando appeared wearing a blond wig, blue mascara, a black gown with an orange scarf and a bodice stuffed with gigantic falsies. Waving a single rose in one hand, he sashayed through the warehouse, plunked his 300-pound frame onto a thronelike chair on a makeshift stage and began fussily applying lipstick.

"I am furious! Furious!" Brando told the group in a matronly English accent, launching into an improvised monologue that ended, 10 minutes later, with the actor turning around, lifting his gown and mooning the crowd.

Honestly, the only way to fully appreciate the lunacy of this entire endeavor is to take quotes out of context. It's a lot more fun that way...

...but those daylong classes, where movie stars mingled with midgets, Madonna's ex-boyfriend nearly caused a riot and an Osama bin Laden look­alike almost gave Jon Voight a coronary, was a never-to-be-repeated moment of Hollywood letting its freak flag fly.

Another time, Brando plucked a homeless man from a dumpster and brought him in for acting lessons. He had students strip naked in front of the entire class. 

"He called me to discuss products he could sell on QVC," recalls his longtime secretary, Alice Marchak. "He was looking to generate money, but the products he came up with weren't viable. He had an idea for an earthquake-proof house. And a way to air-condition homes that involved drilling. Things that couldn't be sold on QVC."

Brando had set aside $50,000 for a QVC startup fund and decided to use it to produce a series of DVDs about acting, starring himself, that he hoped would rake in millions.

Brando, now wearing a comfortable muumuu, would sit on his throne and call students to the stage, have them improvise for a few minutes, then rip their work to shreds 

Leonardo DiCaprio, then 27 and about to star in Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can, showed up one day, but when he asked if he could run the video release form by his lawyer, Brando kicked him out.

Michael Jackson popped in for a class.

As you can see, a good time was had by all. Except any women in the class. And Leo. 

Via The Hollywood Reporter