[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
Rita Moreno opened up about a difficult moment from her tumultuous relationship with Marlon Brando.
If you didn’t know, the 90-year-old actress had been in an on-and-off-again relationship with the actor for almost a decade after first meeting on the set of the 1954 movie Désirée when she was only 22 years old. Looking back on their time together, Moreno admitted during Variety’s Actors on Actors series with Jessica Chastain that while it was exciting to be with Brando, she was continuously “mistreated” by him throughout their eight-year relationship. She said:
“Ultimately, it was exciting to be with Marlon. Oh, my God, it was exciting. He was extraordinary in many, many ways, but he was a bad guy. He was a bad guy when it came to women. I was such a different person then. I had all the makings of a doormat.”
As their romance continued, Moreno shared Marlon often tried to lie to her, but she always knew whenever he wasn’t telling her the truth:
“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 – that poop-eating grin. 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.”
The West Side Story star then revealed that things became so bad between them at one point that she “tried to end my life with pills in his house”:
“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.”
When the pair reunited for the 1969 movie The Night of the Following Day years after their split, Moreno spilled that the A Streetcar Named Desire actor wanted to “renew” their romance. However, she was already married to Leonard Gordon with whom she shared their daughter, Fernanda:
“He was ready to have a go again. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe it. No, I was not ready for that. I didn’t want that. But he did. … He lost a big part of himself, I think. The good part of him, the good Marlon that Rita loved. It was very complicated. Really, really complicated.”
We appreciate Rita for getting vulnerable about this time in her life. You can watch the entire conversation between her and Jessica (below):
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741, or go to suicidepreventionlifeline.org.
[Image via The View/YouTube, Movieclips/YouTube]
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