- Rita Moreno interviewed Jessica Chastain for Variety’s “Actors on Actors” series.
- She spoke out about her relationship Marlon Brando which led her to contemplate suicide.
- “He was extraordinary in many, many ways, but he was a bad guy,” Moreno said.
Rita Moreno spoke out about her relationship to Marlon Brando, and she discussed trying to end her own life. Rita also spoke to Jessica Chastain in Variety’s “Variety” segment.Actors for Actors” series.
Chastain brought up Brando and told Moreno: “I think you are every bit of the actor Marlon Brando was. That must have been so difficult for you in a time where you’re seeing all of these opportunities being given to him.”
“He and I had had a relationship for almost eight years. Ultimately, it was exciting to be with Marlon,” Moreno replied. It was thrilling, Oh, My God! Although he was exceptional in many, many ways, he was also a bad guy. He was an awful man with women. I was a completely different person back then. I had everything it took to be a good doormat.
20th Century/Getty
“So, whenever he lied, I would look at him and I’d say, ‘Marlon, look at me.’ And he’d start to grin this kind of — I don’t want to use the bad word — but… poop-eating grin,” Moreno continued. “I could read him like a book and that’s why he loved me, and that’s why he mistreated me in so many ways.”
“How did you break it?” Chastain asked. “For so many women it’s so hard to break that cycle.”
“I tried to end my life with pills in his house,” Moreno replied. “That’s how I tried to do it. I didn’t understand that if I was going to kill this pathetic, sad, trod-upon Rita, the rest of Rita was also going to go with me. I really didn’t seem to understand that. But that’s what the attempt was. It was an attempt.”
Moreno, who was dating Elvis Presley in December, revealed that she had cheated on Brando.
An appearance “The View,” Moreno said: “I went home in tears — really, I was naïve — and I was angry too, just furious. The next day, the phone rings, and I hear ‘Miss Marina?’ I said, ‘Uh, yeah?’ he said, ‘This is Colonel Parker, my client is Elvis Presley, and Elvis spotted you at the 20th Century Fox commissary, and he liked what he saw.'”
“I said ‘Oh?’ and he said, ‘And he would like very much to meet you. Would you like to meet him?'”
The veteran singer said that Brando treated her well and she answered the question: “Yes, I would!”