Thread by @oolabmys

The producers had agreed to pay me my usual fee, but several weeks into the
filming, they still hadn’t signed a formal contract. I complained, but they kept making excuses. I knew they were trying to wait me out; after they had enough footage, they’d say (1/8)

their financing had fallen through and that they couldn’t pay me what they’d promised. In situations like this, you can’t always simply walk off a movie. You might not be paid for the work you’ve already done, and a studio can tie you up in court for years (2/8)

while cranking out publicity blaming you for its larceny. But as noted earlier, once filming begins, actors gain an edge over producers, who don’t want to stop because if they do they’ll lose whatever money they’ve already spent and still have no picture. (3/8)

Producers also hate delays because it can cost over $100,000 a day to keep a crew on location. Actors can use these circumstances to their advantage when others try to cheat them, as my experience on The Missouri Breaks demonstrated. After the producers (4/8)

repeatedly broke promises to sign the contract, I started slurring my speech and blowing my lines. If your technique is effective, nobody can prove you’re doing it on purpose.
“I don’t know what’s wrong,” I told Arthur Penn. “I’m having a lot of
problems (5/8)

with this part. Be patient with me. I know I’ll get it right sooner or later.”
After a week or so, one of the producers flew to Montana and we had a big
scene in my trailer about the unsigned contract. I threw a can of Coke at him and it smashed against a (6/8)

wall a few inches from his head. I missed purposely, pretending to be outraged. He was a fastidious man who couldn’t stand a mess, and he immediately started wiping up the Coke, but when he finished he assured me that there had been a misunderstanding and that (7/8)

the contract would be signed shortly. It was, and suddenly I started remembering my lines again.

Marlon Brando
Songs My Mother Taught Me
#brando
(8/8)