Bernardo Bertolucci faces furious celebs to tango for infamous rape scene

Los Angeles: Actors Chris Evans, Jessica Chastain have lashed out at a recently resurfaced interview in which Last Tango in Paris director Bernardo Bertolucci admitted the rape scene in the movie was filmed without the consent of its lead actress Maria Schneider.

In a recently viral video interview from 2013, Bertolucci confirms that Schneider, who died in 2011, did not know about the rape scene which she shot with Marlon Brando, and that the graphic nature of the scene in the erotic drama was improvised on set, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

“I’d been in a way horrible to Maria because I didn’t tell her what was going on. Because I wanted her reaction as a girl, not as an actress,” Bertulocci said in the clip. Celebrities voiced their outrage of the resurfaced news on Twitter.

Chastain said of the revelations, “To all the people that love this film- you’re watching a 19year old get raped by a 48 year old man. The director planned her attack. I feel sick.” While, Evans tweeted that Bertolucci and Brando “should be in jail.” “Wow. I will never look at this film, Bertolucci or Brando the same way again. This is beyond disgusting. I feel rage,” he tweeted.

Actress Anna Kendrick acknowledged that Schneider’s lack of knowledge of the scene prior to the shooting day was nothing new. “Ms Schneider stated this several years ago. I used to get eye-rolls when I brought it up to people (aka dudes),” she tweeted. Actress Rachel Wood also reacted with disgust on the micro-blogging site. “This is heartbreaking and outrageous. The two of them are very sick individuals to think that was ok,” she tweeted. Last Tango in Paris was critically lauded but surrounded in public controversy. The film’s director was put on trial for obscenity in Italy after the release of the film.

Copies of the film were destroyed at the time and Bertolucci was served with a four-month suspended sentence in prison and denied his civil (including voting) rights for five years. Last Tango in Paris  earned Brando a best actor Oscar nomination and Bertolucci a best director nomination.