Italian filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci, at the world premiere of his restored film Last Tango in Paris at the Bari International Film Festival, slammed fellow filmmaker Ridley Scott for replacing Kevin Spacey in All The Money In The World with Christopher Plummer. Bertolucci said that Scott should be ashamed of himself.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Bertolucci said that when he learnt that Scott had agreed to erase all of Spacey’s scenes in the film, his first reaction was to message Scott’s editor Pietro Scalia, “to tell Scott that he should be ashamed.” He also added: “And then I immediately wanted to make a film with Spacey.”
In October, soon after the Harvey Weinstein scandal broke out, Star Trek: Discovery actor Anthony Rapp went on record to recount the time Spacey made sexual advances towards him in 1986 when the two were working together on the Broadway play, Precious Sons. Spacey was 26 and Rapp was 14 years old at the time.
In response, Spacey addressed the accusations with a note, admitting that he didn’t remember but sent out his “sincerest apology” to the now 46-year-old actor. While he did admit that he would now examine his actions, he used the apology as a way of coming out of the closet, admitting that has now chosen to live life as a gay man and that he wants to deal with it “honestly and openly”.
This created a domino effect with Spacey being ousted from Netflix’s House of Cards, as well as Scott announcing that he was replacing Spacey with Christopher Plummer for the role of J Paul Getty. “It would have been a pity if the film were completely neglected because of what happened,” Scott said at the time of his decision, which kept the movie’s holiday release (it moved from December 22 to 25) and added $10 million to the drama’s $40 million budget as he filmed nearly 400 new shots over nine days in the UK and Italy.
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It’s worth mentioning that Bertolucci has showed complete disregard for consent or sexual assault. Over the years, the filmmaker has been slammed for the butter rape scene in his film Last Tango In Paris starring Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider. Years after the release of the film, Bertolucci revealed what lead to the infamous scene and how Schneider was purposely left in the dark regarding the scene so that her reactions were more natural on camera. He admitted that he had been horrible to Schneider at the time but denied feeling any regret over his actions.
Schneider admitted years later that she felt “a little raped, both by Marlon and by Bertolucci,” and said that had she known her rights as an actress, she would have called her agent or lawyer at the time.
Speaking at the recent film festival, Bertolucci defended the scene again: “On the set, she was happy. Do not believe on social media when they say it was rape: The butter scene was pure simulation.”
Feature Image: Variety