Rita Moreno Reveals Real Experience Being in a Relationship With Marlon Brando: 'He Mistreated Me In So Many Ways’
Rita Moreno has recently opened up about her near-decade relationship with Marlon Brando.
The "West Side Story" star got interviewed by Jessica Chastain for Variety's "Actors on Actors" series and reflected on their rocky relationship since they met on the set of the 1954 Napoleon biopic "Désirée."
"I think you are every bit of the actor Marlon Brando was," Chastain initially brought up the topic. She told the now-90-year-old star, "That must have been so difficult for you in a time where you're seeing all of these opportunities being given to him."
Moreno then described his relationship that lasted for almost eight years, saying, "Ultimately, it was exciting to be with Marlon." She continued, "He was extraordinary in many, many ways, but he was a bad guy. He was a bad guy when it came to women. I was such a different person then. I had all the makings of a doormat."
Moreno-Brando's Toxic Relationship
The EGOT-star shared a moment from her time spent with the actor, "So whenever he lied, I would look at him and I'd say, 'Marlon, look at me.' And he'd start to grin this kind of - I don't want to use the bad word - that poop-eating grin."
"I could read him like a book and that's why he loved me, and that's why he mistreated me in so many ways," the actress stated, also mentioning that she tried to "end [her] life with pills" in his home.
Furthermore, the interviewer asked her guest if there was "a rebirth in a positive way" following her attempt to take her own life. Moreno replied, "After that, a few years later, was the movie we made together," referring to their 1969 film "The Night of the Following Day."
"What's interesting is that he wanted to renew," the actress recalled Brando, who died in 2004, who was "ready to have a go again" despite being married and already gave birth to a child. In the end, Moreno confessed that she didn't want any of it, in contrast to Brando. "The good part of him, the good Marlon that Rita loved," she said.
People reported Rita Moreno has initially opened up about her relationship with the actor in the documentary, "Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It," which is now also streaming on Netflix. Aside from her "tumultuous" tie-up with Marlon Brando, the documentary covered her acting career and her life behind the scenes.
"He was the daddy that I couldn't please. I didn't know that, I wasn't aware of that at all," Moreno stated in the documentary. "But he was the one I wanted to please, he was the one I wanted to be married to."
