Karl Malden on Marlon Brando's greatness

OrcoDevelopment January 1, 2015 4:46 Marketing

Karl Malden on what made Brando different: the full pause, being guided versus dragged, and the studio fight over One-Eyed Jacks.

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7 Things Actors Should Know About Marlon Brando's Work, From Karl Malden

Drawn from what is actually said on camera, so you can decide whether to spend the 4:46 watching it.

A director can drag a performance out or guide it

Harold Clurman got the performance out of Brando in Truckline Cafe by force. He sent everyone to lunch, kept Brando behind and pushed him with "I can't hear you, Marlon. Louder. You're not good enough." On Streetcar, Kazan got the same level of work by guiding instead. Both got there. The methods were opposites.

Brando's pauses were full, not empty

Malden's test for the difference between Brando and his imitators was the pause. In Brando's silences something is visibly happening, and you can watch it happen. In everyone else's you get dead air and the audience thinks "come already, let's go."

Everything you were trained to do says pick up your cue

Malden's generation was drilled on keeping it moving, keeping the pace up, never letting a cue drop. Brando did the exact opposite and made it work. Malden said he could manage it maybe once in a film and had never seen another actor who could do it at will.

Imitating a great actor's surface does not transfer

Malden lists the younger actors who came up wanting to be Brando: James Dean, Paul Newman. They saw the great performances and chased the effect. His view was that Newman eventually found his own way as an older man, and that the underlying thing in Brando was innate and could not be taught to anyone, including Malden himself.

Brando directed with the same brilliance he acted with

Malden was directed by Brando on One-Eyed Jacks, the only film Brando ever directed. Asked how he was behind the camera, Malden's answer was the same brilliance, and he called it a shame the industry never let Brando direct again.

The concept of One-Eyed Jacks was a character you only half see

Like the one-eyed jack in a deck of cards, the character shows a single side of his personality and you never get to see the other. Brando built the whole picture on that idea, with the hero and the heavy trading places as circumstances change. Malden's read: that is real life, circumstances make you what you are.

The studio took the film apart after the shoot

Brando shot what he wanted, then Paramount took One-Eyed Jacks away in the editing room and insisted there had to be one clear good man and one bad man. Malden and Brando stopped shooting and boycotted for a month, until the threat of court forced them back to reshoot two scenes. Those two scenes changed the whole complexion of the picture.

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Full transcript (856 words)
It was the greatest experience I ever had. I said, "This is sensational." From that time on, I said, "I'm going to watch that kid. I'm going to He's 10 years younger than I am, right? I'm going to watch him. I'm going to watch him." I watched him. And I said, "Now, that was dragged out of him by Harold Clarman. I wonder if he can ever do it again." And the next play we were in, both of us in Street Car. And he did it again. And he did it. But did Kazan drag it out of him like Clman did in Truck Line? No. Kazan guided him. He did it, but Kazan guided him. There's a difference to dragging a thing out of him and guiding because Clman did drag it out in didn't he really? He wouldn't let him go. He wouldn't let him breathe. It wasn't that. It was just that one day he let everybody go to lunch and he kept him there and he says, "I can't hear you, Marlon. Louder. Louder. You're not good enough. You're loud. Climb. I knew that he was climbing or he was just doing anything that because he was so ingrained so so within himself and Cler pulled it out of me. Yeah. But what you're saying is Brando has an innate talent. You can't teach him or me. We can't be taught that. He's born with that talent. Maron all the younger people who started after Maron to be Marlins. Jimmy Dean Paul Newman. Paul Newman in a way. He's found his way now though as older men. Uh all these younger guys who saw this great performances and he did and part of his greatness is he can pause and in his pause it's so full. It's going something's happening. You can see it happening. These other people pause and it's a lot of dead air and you say, "What the come already? Let's go. You know, and I can't do it. I've tried. I can do it maybe once in a film, but he can do it. He can just give and he'll go, are you sure that, you know, he can take that moment? We've been trained. Pick up your queue. Keep it moving. Keep it going. Keep it going. Marlin's just the opposite. And he can do it. I have yet to see another actor who can do it. Yeah. Do directors have trouble working with a guy who puts his own bits in and who is creative? It's not in the script and he puts it in. How do you work with a guy that kind of takes his own uh I haven't the slightest idea how directors do. You've never directed Brandon. Never. No. He's directed me. You though. Yeah. Yeah. How is How was he as a director as an actor? The same brilliance. Same brilliance. No kidding. It's a shame they didn't let him go on directing. It's a shame. That's the only thing he's ever directed. One eye jacks. Yeah. Yeah. And they didn't let him do what he wanted to do with that picture, did they? Other words when we he did what he wanted to do in the picture. It was afterwards that they took the picture away from him. Okay. In the editing room and cut it the way they wanted to cut it. And I think in a way they hindered the picture in cutting it. Okay. Because his or the whole idea of one eye jacks comes from a character only shows you one side of his personality. You never get to see the other side of the personal like the like the one eye jack and the cards. You only see one eye. Right. Right. Well, that was his idea that you never see. Now, in that picture, one eye jacks. He for a good period of the picture is the heavy, right? I'm the hero. That's right. Then I become the heavy. He becomes the hero. It goes back and forth, right? That's that's real life. Circumstances makes you what you are. And to fight your way through, you either become a heavy, what we call a heavy or a bad guy. Yeah. To get what you want, or you become a nice guy. He slept with my daughter. He was a bad guy. Right. I had to do something about that. Right. Now, I I whip him. What a whipping you. Now, that's a bad guy. See, it goes back and forth. You never know which way things go. Well, Paramount said, "There has to be a bad man and a good man." He said, "Marlon, you're the good guy. He has to be the bad guy. So they changed two scenes. We had to go back. We boycotted for a month. Did you really? Stopped shooting in and finally they were going to take us to court and the picture was theirs. We we had to go to that. We did two scenes differently. Changed the whole complex of the picture. I don't know.