Legendary actor Marlon Brando almost had a strange appearance in Scary Movie 2, but it was not meant to be. Russian Doll star Natasha Lyonne, who played Regan MacNeil in a parody of The Exorcist in Scary Movie 2's opening scene, recently opened up about her work on the film. Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Lyonne explained how she has a VHS copy of an alternate version of the scene that features Brando in the role of the priest played by James Woods, and though it was axed from the film, it turned out to be one of Brando's last performances.
"I have a VHS copy of the dailies that I got because Marlon Brando's final role — sadly for him, but luckily for me — is doing this Exorcist opening teaser. I don't know what he was thinking, really. I mean, why would he do that?"
Lyonne also recalls how a "very chatty" Brando was equipped with an earpiece to help him with his dialogue. Because of his health, the Godfather star was also in need of an oxygen tank. With Brando awkwardly grabbing her as he was scripted to, coupled with the vulgar dialogue in the scene, Lyonne recalled just how surreal the situation really was for her as a rising star in Hollywood. Perhaps it was the perfect encapsulation of what show business is really about.
"He had an oxygen tank and he just kind of held my boob, because that was in the script. He was supposed to be like, 'The power of Christ compels you …' I just remember being like, 'Ah, this is the surrealism that André Breton, Salvador Dali were talking about.' So, I had Brando with the earpiece and the hand on the boob, and the makeup, and 'The power of Christ compels you,' and not to curse, but, 'Your mother sucks c---s in hell,' and so on. This was all happening at once, and I remember like, 'You know, showbiz is all right.' In that moment, showbiz was A-okay."
Brando had only completed one day of filming before dropping out. Though the scene was deleted, it would have served as the final live-action performance for Brando, whose final role officially was in 2001's The Score. Just prior to his passing, Brando had also recorded dialogue for a female character in the unreleased animated film Big Bug Man.
Marlon Brando Was Back on the Big Screen in March
Marlon Brando, who passed away in 2004, was seen back on the big screen last month in one of his most famous roles. For the 50th anniversary of The Godfather, the film returned to theaters for special anniversary screenings. Even five decades later, the film remains one of the most revered movies of all time, and director Francis Ford Coppola has no problems with admitting it's his most popular work.
“I think it’s already the movie I’m most known for,” Coppola recently explained. “If you ask everyone to name why I should be at all even considered of importance, they’ll say The Godfather. Maybe Apocalypse Now is a close second. Apocalypse Now is a more unusual and more interesting movie, in some ways. But I was always making films that I actually did not know how to make and learn from the film itself. That’s why my career is so weird. I assure you, Megalopolis is the most ambitious, the most unusual and the weirdest film I’ve ever attempted, and I have no idea how to make it. And I love that because I know it will teach me.”