Biografia

Esther Anderson went out with Marlon Brando and was with him when he starred in Ultimo tango a Parigi (1972). She became great friends with Schneider, who featured in the controversial sex scene with Brando at the tender age of 19. "I was with Maria when she saw the film for the first time . . . she was absolutely shocked. She had no idea what they were going to do with her. She ran from the cinema screaming and I had to run after her into the street and comfort her. That film ruined her life".

Abandoned a film set and became a voluntary patient at mental hospital in Rome (1975) in order to be with her girlfriend photographer Joan Townsend. This was at a time before recognition of visiting rights in same sex relationships by hospitals and institutions.

According to the documentary Le dernier tango à Paris (2004), she hasn't talked to Bernardo Bertolucci since the shooting of Novecento (1976). When they met at a film festival years later, she said "I don't know that man".

She did finally finish "The Babysitter" and moved to Los Angeles, going on meetings and auditions but refusing to lie down on the casting couch. "She could have had a much bigger career," observed director Penelope Spheeris, a close friend at the time. "But I have a lot of respect for her. Think about it: To be such a sex symbol, to be so profoundly beautiful and have so much charisma and then not be available to men? Hollywood just doesn't stand for that. I don't care what people say, this town is run by men. Always".

She was originally cast to play the part of "Conchita" in Luis Buñuel's last film Quell'oscuro oggetto del desiderio (1977). She did not get along with the Spanish director and rejected his stereotypical ideas of women for the role he had in mind. After a few days of shooting she was replaced by actresses (Ángela Molina and Carole Bouquet).

When I read "Last Tango In Paris", I didn't see anything that worried me. I was 20. I didn't want to be a star, much less a scandalous actress--simply to be in cinema. Later, I realized I'd been completely manipulated by [Bernardo Bertolucci and [Marlon Brando].

[Bernardo Bertolucci] is more of a gangster than a movie director. He's one of my enemies.

[asked why she backed out of Caligola (1979)] I am an actress, not a prostitute!

[on Ultimo tango a Parigi (1972)] I felt very sad because I was treated like a sex symbol, I wanted to be recognized as an actress, and the whole scandal and aftermath of the film turned me a little crazy and I had a breakdown.

[on the response of the French press to her being chosen as guest of honor at Créteil Films de Femmes 2001] Very interesting. Because finally after I've been doing this now for 30 years, finally I find some cheerful articles, and you know people kind of understand me better now today than they used to. Because the media threw stones at me. When you read the articles back in the 1970s they were terrible back then. And now seeing the kind of choices I made, they kind of understand me better. And respect me better, maybe it's the age, I don't know.