20 Things You Somehow Missed In Apocalypse Now
3. They Had To Shoot Marlon Brando In "Slivers"
With Brando's overweight physique completely inappropriate to play the role of a Special Forces officer, Coppola and Director of Photography Vittorio Storano had to figure out how to present him on screen. Their answer was, show him as little as possible. This fit with Kurtz's character, who was supposed to be mysterious, and much of the time we see Kurtz, he is nearly completely obscured by darkness. We see slivers of his illuminated face, and not much else. Full body shots show him sitting, hunched over, to hide his belly from the camera, and standing shots use a body double. The double is huge, about a foot taller than Brando, to try and make Brando's girth to seem like he's big and broad-shouldered instead of fat.
Coppola was still pestering Brando about reading Heart of Darkness when Brando first went to dinner with the rest of the cast. Dennis Hopper, who still believed he was playing a Special Forces officer, asked Brando if he had read the book, meaning the Green Beret manual, and Brando exploded, thinking the younger actor was bothering him about Conrad's novel. Brando refused to be on set with Hopper after the exchange.