Christopher Reeve was equally outspoken after working with Brando. Superman. When asked if it was exciting to work with one of his acting idols, Reeve said: “Actually no, the guy didn’t mind.” He added that Brando “got away with two million” and complained that it was painful to watch someone of Brando’s talent “phone it in” because Reeve himself cared so much about the job. That’s a pretty harsh criticism of the man who plays your son.
Sophia Loren’s story A Countess from Hong Kong darker. In his memoirs, he recalled that Brando suddenly “put his hands on me.” He said he immediately warned her, “Don’t you dare do that again. Never again!” According to Loren, he never did, but “after that he was very difficult to work with.” He later described Brando as someone whose personal problems could make life difficult for the entire crew.
And then there was Dennis Hopper Apocalypse Now. Hopper later said: “We had a lot of problems together.” Their relationship deteriorated so much that Brando reportedly refused to be on set while Hopper was there, forcing parts of the material to be filmed separately. This is really impressive: Most people who hate their co-workers avoid them at lunch. Brando apparently engineered a redesign of production during the workday.
To be fair, many actors respected Brando and talked about learning from him; Loren still called him “a great, great actor.” But yeah… sometimes the method actor just seems like a method jerk.