The 'surprise' unscripted Last Tango in Paris rape scene with Marlon Brando that ended in tragedy for 'humiliated' actress: How Maria Schneider's life spiralled into drugs and attempted suicide before cancer death aged 58

French actress Maria Schneider was just a teenager when she was forced to perform a brutal and unscripted rape scene with a man almost three decades her senior - sending her life down a dark path.

At just 19-years-old, Schneider starred alongside a 48-year-old Marlon Brando in Last Tango in Paris - a film that would go on to spark controversy and outcry from critics and viewers across the globe - and which led to Schneider using drugs 'to cope' and voluntarily admitting herself to a psychiatric hospital.

A 1972 erotic drama film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, Last Tango in Paris centres around a young Parisian woman who meets a middle-aged American businessman who demands their clandestine relationship be based only on sex.

But the movie which grossed a staggering $96million at Box Office carries with it a sordid legacy that saw a teenage Schneider having to partake in a violent sex attack scene that was ultimately revealed to have been unconsensual.

The furore the graphic scene generated was just the beginning of her tumultuous adulthood involving drugs, a stint in an asylum and a battle with cancer that tragically claimed her life at only 58 years of age.

Now, a biopic on tormented Schneider that delves into her harrowing experience on the set of Last Tango in Paris, 'Being Maria', has premiered at Cannes, reigniting the #MeToo controversy.

MailOnline has taken a look into the life of the young star who was pushed too far.

Maria Schneider was a French actress whose life spiralled after she was forced to carry out an unscripted rape scene in the 1972 erotic drama film, Last Tango in Paris, aged 19

She starred in the controversial film alongside American superstar Marlon Brando, who was 48-years-old at the time of filming

Last Tango in Paris

On October 15, 1972, Schneider shot to fame overnight, becoming the most talked-about woman in America.

After playing a lead role in Last Tango in Paris, which had premiered in New York Film Festival the previous night, the movie became instantly notorious.

The erotic drama was the seventh highest-grossing film of 1973, but while it received an initial positive critical reception, the controversial 'romance' film was met with public outrage.

It was banned from cinemas and Bertolucci was tried for obscenity in Italy, and its raw portrayal of rape and emotional turmoil led to international controversy.

This seeped into young Schneider's life and followed her to her tragic end.

She began working as an actress at 19-years-old and, after playing a series of small roles in a handful of films, was poached by Bertolucci.

The director notoriously developed the film from his sexual fantasies after once 'dreaming of seeing a beautiful nameless woman on the street and having sex with her without ever knowing who she was'.

A budding actress, Schneider jumped at the chance to play the infamous character Jeanne, but the darker truths of story - and what would be expected of her to fulfil the role - would soon come to light.   

Last Tango in Paris sparked controversy and outrage and was banned from cinemas, with its director Bernardo Bertolucci tried for obscenity in Italy following its release

The unscripted rape scene 

Schneider played the role of a beautiful, young, and engaged Parisian woman named Jeanne in Last Tango in Paris.

Her character embarks on an erotic adventure with Paul, played by Marlon Brando, who insists their relationship stays purely sexual and anonymous - to Jeanne's dismay.

The pair face several emotional rollercoasters throughout the movie, but despite the underlying theme of passion and romance, it is no love story.

In a horrific scene, Schneider's character is anally raped by Brando's character on a Paris apartment floor where he notoriously used butter as a lubricant.

It was later revealed that the scene was unscripted, non-consensual, and kept hidden from Schneider as Bertolucci revealed in a disturbing 2013 interview: 'I didn't want Maria to act … I wanted Maria to feel the rage and humiliation'.

Bertolucci claimed during the 2013 interview that he and Brando came up with the idea of the scene, which involved butter.

'The sequence of the butter is an idea that I had with Marlon in the morning before shooting it,' Bertulocci said in the video, published on YouTube. 

But, he said, he was 'horrible' to Schneider when he didn't tell her about his plans.

'I wanted her reaction as a girl, not as an actress,' he added. 'And I think that she hated me and also Marlon because we didn't tell her.'

Bertolucci added that he did not 'regret' the decision. 

The infamous unscripted rape scene saw Schneider, 19, being anally raped by Brando, 48, on a Paris apartment floor. Brando notoriously used a stick of butter as lubricant in the harrowing scene

Following the distressing and disturbing rape scene, Schneider said she felt she had immediately become a sex symbol, admitting it 'turned me a little crazy' 

Schneider said there was no attraction between her and Brando, whom she regarded as a father figure while she felt like a daughter

Following Last Tango's release Schneider revealed: 'People who come up to tell you unpleasant things on planes. I was tracked down, and I felt hounded.'

Following the vulgar scene, in 2007 - four years before her death, Schneider told the Daily Mail she felt 'a little bit raped' by Brando and Bertolucci.

'I should have called my agent or had my lawyer come to the set because you can't force someone to do something that isn't in the script,' she said.

'Marlon said to me: 'Maria, don't worry, it's just a movie', but during the scene, even though what Marlon was doing wasn't real, I was crying real tears.'

Schneider said there was no attraction between her and Brando, whom she regarded as a father figure while she felt like a daughter. 

The traumatised actress went on to call Bertolucci 'fat and sweaty and very manipulative' and revealed she had 'a bad feeling' before accepting the role.

After the film hit the big screens, a teenage Schneider said she immediately felt as if she had become a sex symbol, admitting it 'turned me a little crazy'.

'I did not like … the image full of innuendo, naughty, that people had of me after,' she said. 'People who come up to tell you unpleasant things on planes. I was tracked down, and I felt hounded.' 

And although Schneider never did another nude scene throughout her career, she began 'coping' with her newfound fame by taking 'pot, then cocaine, LSD, and heroin' throughout the 1970s.

Life after Last Tango

Following the release of the movie, an Italian private prosecution by Gino Paoli Latin, the prosecutor of Bologna, was launched on the grounds of 'obscene content offensive to public decency' and 'descriptions and exhibitions of masturbation, libidinous acts and lewd nudity, accompanied off-screen by sounds, sighs and shrieks of climatic pleasure'.

It was initially unsuccessful, but in September 1973, the appellate court in Bologna sentenced Bertolucci, Brando, and Schneider to two months in prison and a fine - which was later overturned in December that year.

But although Schneider was not thrown behind bars, the backlash, offence, and controversy caused by film in Bertolucci's native home drove Schneider to extreme lengths as a result of immense stress.

She later said in an interview that the controversy 'made me go mad. I got into drugs – pot and then cocaine, LSD and heroin – it was like an escape from reality'.

The Hollywood star revealed she did not enjoy being famous at all, leading her to attempt to take her own life on several occasions and 'only surviving because God decided it wasn't the time for me to go.' 

'I suppose it was like a suicide when I overdosed two or three times on drugs, but each time I woke up when the ambulance arrived,' she said. 

Schneider, who was also openly bisexual, struggled to reclaim an 'innocent' identity due to how she was portrayed in Last Tango in Paris and her sexuality - despite her making a point of rejecting any roles that required nudity.

She appeared in Michelangelo Antonioni's 1975 thriller The Passenger opposite Jack Nicholson, but apart from that, escaping the dark shadow of Last Tango would be a challenge that followed Schneider through the rest of her life and career.

After Last Tango, Schneider appeared alongside Jack Nicholson in Michelangelo Antonioni's 1975 thriller The Passenger 

Schneider, who was also openly bisexual, struggled to reclaim an 'innocent' identity due to how she was portrayed in Last Tango in Paris and her sexuality 

Schneider pictured in 2007, four years before she tragically died of cancer at the age of 58

The actress appeared in 50 more films following Last Tango, including The Passenger, but she remained haunted by the rape scene and as a result, pigeonholed as a sex symbol rather than a serious actress.

In 1975, three years after Last Tango premiered, Schneider voluntarily committed herself to a psychiatric hospital in Rome so she could spend time with her lover, photographer Joan Townsend.

'They locked her up, so I had to do it out of loyalty,' she told American film critic Roger Ebert in an interview the same year.

Schneider later told the Daily Mail that her lover was schizophrenic. 

Towards the end of her life, the tormented actress found solace after moving back to Paris after a long stint in Los Angeles.

In July 2010, Schneider was awarded France's Chevalier medal in the Order of Arts and Letters for being 'the singular image of today's woman'.

She continued to speak about her harrowing ordeal, arguing that she still had plenty to say as an older actress.

'I have things to express through my acting, my face, which are very rich and touching to the younger people today,' she said.

'You know, 47 is not old for a woman – we can live until we're 90!'

She had become an advocate for actresses caught up in similar situations to the one she was in back in the 70s - a newcomer who was exploited by powerful male figures.  

The actress locked admitted herself into a Rome psychiatric hospital to spend time with her lover, photographer Joan Townsend (right)

The actress later revealed to the Daily Mail that Townsend was schizophrenic, and she entered the facility out of 'loyalty'

Actress Maria Schneider receiveed decoration at the Ministry of Culture on July 1, 2010 in Paris

Later in life, Schneider appeared at a film festival that Bertolucci was also present at. 

The organisers attempted to reunite the director and star, but she refused.

'I don't know that man,' she said. 

Schneider died in Paris on February 3, 2011, at the age of 58 after a long battle with cancer.     

Being Maria 

The 2024 biopic on Schneider's horrific ordeal while on the set of Last Tango in Paris premiered in May, at the 77th edition of the French film festival.

Directed by Jessica Palud, who adapted the script from a book by Vanessa Schneider - the younger cousin of Maria - Being Maria is an emotional and visceral film that depicts how Schneider never truly recovered from the harrowing 1972 experience and the turbulent life she led following the disturbing rape scene.

Anamaria Vartolomei, a French-Romanian actress, stars as Schneider, while Matt Dillon bravely takes on the role of Paul.

Palud tells the story of a young, struggling actress who is approached by an emerging Italian director that later casts her to headline a new film alongside an American superstar.

'But what seems like a big breakthrough turns out to be the start of a living hell,' the Cannes Festival wrote in their bio of the film on their website.

Speaking to Variety following the biopic's premiere, Vartolomei said she wanted to honour Schneider's lust for life, and not just focus on the dark.

'Maria was a very positive figure,' Vartolomei said, adding 'she was fire, mischief, freedom — an electrifying presence.' 

'I have great admiration for her and her career, because she managed to draw on the strength she needed to make herself heard,' Vartolomei continued.

A new biopic centered on Schneider's ordeal on the set of Last Tango premiered in May, at the 77th edition of Cannes Film Festival 

Anamaria Vartolomei, a French-Romanian actress, stars as Schneider, while Matt Dillon bravely takes on the role of Paul

Vartolomei, amazed by Schneider's resilience, said: 'Maria never flinched, never compromised, never reduced herself to the low status she was given. She carried a voice that still resonates today'

'She wanted to lift the veil and break the silence on taboo questions of violence and sexism within the industry. She wanted to protect future generations, and that unfortunately resonates with current events.'

After carrying out research on the tormented actress before playing the role of the iconic actress, Vartolomei revealed she was shocked by articles she had read from the era, and the sexism Schneider suffered.

But amazed by Schneider's resilience, she said: 'Maria never flinched, never compromised, never reduced herself to the low status she was given. 

'She carried a voice that still resonates today'.