10 Problems That Made Movies Better
7. Marlon Brando Turns Up Overweight And Underprepared - Apocalypse Now
Without question, Marlon Brando is one of the finest thespians ever to grace the art form. However, by the time Frances Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now began shooting in 1976, the actor had gone well and truly off the boil.
After agreeing to a deal that would see him earn $2 million for a month's work, not to mention an additional 10% of the film's gross theatrical rental and TV sale rights, the actor eventually turned up to set looking like the polar opposite of the "lean and hungry warrior" Colonel Kurtz that was described in the script.
Brando's weight, alongside the fact he also hadn't read the script, meant that Coppola had to think on his feet. The actor was dressed completely in black (largely down to the fact he couldn't fit in any of the Green Beret uniforms on set), shot mostly in shadows, and Copolla allowed Brando to improvise his lines before ultimately feeding them back through to him via an earpiece on set.
None of these solutions were Copolla's first choices going into the shoot, but the combination of them helped give Brando the platform to produce some of his most captivating work in the legendary film.