Brando's Butt a Scary Story

ByABC News
June 18, 2001, 2:16 PM

June 15 -- Screen legend Marlon Brando, who was paid $10 million for 10 days of work on the upcoming Robert De Niro thriller The Score (not bad, but still not A-Rod money), was up to his old shenanigans again on the shoot.

Notorious for not learning his lines and disrupting film shoots, the obese Brando came to the set naked, according to the New York Post, forcing director Frank Oz to cover him up in towels and photograph him only in close-ups. Apparently, Brando has such a poor body image that he'll do anything to hide his mammoth girth from moviegoers. Except diet, of course.

The former Wild One, who's now 77, pulled the same stunt on the set of The Island of Dr. Moreau; for years, Brando has been concerned that his rear looks too big. During the filming of the 1962 remake of Mutiny on the Bounty, Brando had a photographer booted from the set, which was on a boat in the middle of the Pacific, for taking a shot of his blossoming buttocks.

Brando's other recent stint in front of a camera won't even make it to the big screen: He did a day of work playing an exorcist in the upcoming horror spoof Scary Movie 2 but pulled out and forfeited his $2.5 million salary because he was reportedly suffering from pneumonia.

"He wanted to go for it," said co-writer and star Shawn Wayans. "He had an oxygen mask and we were like, 'Yo, we gotta let him go. This guy is not healthy.'" The ubiquitous James Woods, who comes with his own set of eccentricities, gamely stepped into the bit part.