Marlon Brando Saved A Superman Writer From Getting Stabbed With A Steak Knife
It was hard to top Richard Donner when you got him going on a particular subject. The man was a natural born storyteller and live such a wild life that any Q&A you were lucky to attend with him was akin to a standup comedy show.
I saw him once do a Q&A before a screening of his cut of "Superman II" where he told a story about tricking Gene Hackman into shaving his mustache before playing Lex Luthor. The way he told it, Hackman was adamant that he was going to keep the mustache, so the director made a bargain with the actor — Donner would shave off his beloved mustache as well. The problem was Donner didn't have a mustache, so he got a realistic fake mustache and went with Hackman to the first makeup test where the actor shaved the mustache off. When it was Donner's turn to get in the chair he gleefully peeled off the fake mustache.
Donner's version of the story ended with Hackman furious that he got tricked. When Donner passed away, Hackman recounted that story although his version didn't seem as contentious. The actor said, "Dick made it fun."
Maybe it was the era or the big personalities involved, but "Superman: The Movie" has a billion wild stories like that, including one about how Marlon Brando saved writer Tom Mankiewicz from being stabbed with a steak knife during the production. Yes, you read that right.
Who would have known that Brando was a brilliant actor and a real life superhero
The Hollywood Reporter did an incredible deep dive into "Superman" with Richard Donner in 2016, where the filmmaker unleashes incredible story after incredible story. The one I want to talk about right now is this absolutely random tale about Marlon Brando, writer Tom Mankiewicz, a steak house, and an attempted murder.
Brando was famously eccentric as a performer, preferring to read his lines off of cue cards while filming instead of learning them. Whether that was out of laziness or an inspired way to keep the reading fresh is up for debate, but despite his reputation for being difficult, Donner insisted he was a pleasure to work with, even though he tried to convince the director to make his character a bagel. Yes, a bagel. "He was a doll," Donner told THR. "He was totally present, on time. Not difficult."
And then there was the whole preventing-a-stabbing story:
"He saved Tom Mankiewicz's life, probably. We were having dinner with Mr. Brando, eating steaks, and there was this woman in our party and all of a sudden, she started yelling at Tom, that he didn't know what he was doing. She grabbed a knife [from] the plate and goes to stab Tom. Marlon reached over and grabbed her and the knife and calmed her down. It was a steak knife and, God forbid, it could have very easily been a tragedy. It was nuts."
What the hell was that argument about?!? Who was this woman with the steak knife? Donner was going at such a rapid pace recounting insane story after insane story in this interview that he never said, but it's the perfect anecdote to underline just how wild of a time it was when "Superman" was made.