Why It's Impossible To Watch Marlon Brando's Last Movie

Marlon Brando was the most consequential actor of the 20th century and, when he could resist his desire to dominate a production to its detriment, arguably the best. When he brought his method-acting brilliance to the big screen, he changed the way people taught and thought about acting. Obviously, not all directors and teachers bought into the Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler-championed process, but just about every aspiring performer in the 1950s and 1960s wanted to connect with theatergoers and moviegoers as ecstatically as Brando. Thanks to a string of legendary films that included "A Streetcar Named Desire," "The Wild One," and "On the Waterfront," he was a silver screen rock star.

And yet Brando was so frustratingly mercurial and unpredictable in his choice of film projects that, as the 1960s wore on, he was more exhausting than he was exciting. This changed in 1972 when he turned in two of his finest performances in "The Godfather" and "Last Tango in Paris," but he never roared like this again. There was tremendous excitement when director Arthur Penn paired him with Jack Nicholson in the Western "The Missouri Breaks," yet Brando spoiled the event by reimagining his character, a feared regulator, by turning him into a master of disguise (though, as brought off by Brando, the hired killer is actually horrible at concealment). Brando then went on hiatus throughout most of the 1980s, giving a decent performance in John G. Avildsen's flat "The Formula" before returning to semi-form nine years later as a conscience-stricken barrister in Euzhan Palcy's South African apartheid drama "A Dry White Season" (a searing film that is heartbreakingly relevant again).

Brando gave his last truly great performance by expertly sending up his Don Corleone persona in Andrew Bergman's uproarious gangster comedy "The Freshman," after which he squandered his talent in films that were either ho-hum ("Don Juan DeMarco") or perfectly lousy ("The Island of Dr. Moreau"). When Brando died in 2004 at the age of 80, it appeared that Frank Oz's heist flick "The Score" would be the star's swan song. Essentially, it is. But he finished work on one last project before his death, one that, unfortunately, appears to have been permanently shelved. Were we denied one last magnificent Brando performance? That seems unlikely.

In 2004, shortly before he passed away, Brando lent his voice to a character in the Bob Bendetson and Peter Shin-directed animated comedy "Big Bug Man." The film centered on the exploits of a candy company employee (voiced by Brendan Fraser) who becomes a superhero of sorts after getting bitten by bugs. André 3000 and Michael Madsen also did voice work on the film, but it was Brando's involvement that made it a noteworthy project. And, if nothing else, Brando had a ball recording his lines.

According to Bendetson (a veteran TV sitcom writer with credits on "The Facts of Life," "ALF," and "Newhart"), the film's head creatives approached Brando about having him play the character who runs the candy factory. However, the legendary actor had his sights set on playing the company's owner, an old lady who's sort of like a "mean Willy Wonka," as executive producer Gabriel Grunfeld is quoted as describing her in a 2004 piece by The Guardian. "Strange as it sounds, playing an old lady in an animated picture was something Brando wanted to do for years," Bendetson added.

On the day of the recording, Brando showed up wearing a dress, a blonde wig, white gloves, and makeup, determined as ever to disappear into a role. According to Grunfeld, Brando was in poor health but still managed to pull through. "Despite being on oxygen for six hours a day, Marlon was still full of energy and invention," he recalled. "There was a clear sense he knew this might be his last role and he approached it with real vigor." Per Grunfeld, Brando said this part was "the most fun I've had since playing Mark Antony in 'Julius Caesar.'"

Will we ever get to see "Big Bug Man?" Even if the movie is terrible, its release would surely generate some interest due to Brando's final performance. It's been more than 20 years since the film was apparently completed, and it's currently unclear as to why "Big Bug Man" is gathering dust. It can't be worse than "The Island of Dr. Moreau!"