Marlon Brando and Eva Marie Saint’s Glove

Let’s go back to the opening courtship scene between Terry and Edie.

I think if he hadn’t rescued her from that violence, she wouldn’t have walked with him. That’s what I mean about the script being well-constructed.

But then I had to somehow answer the question as to why she stays with him. Edie knows that from the point of view of propriety and public opinion, she shouldn’t. Even though she wants to. He wants to keep her with him, but he doesn’t want to exert any force. He wants to approach her gently. That was a time when Brando saved me. Eve dropped her glove by accident, and he picked it up and put it on his own hand. I could never have thought of that. When she reached for her glove, he got there first so she had to stay with him. At the same time, he could play it cool, as though he didn’t know he was keeping her. Also, there are all kinds of sexual overtones implicit in the gesture.

How would you state the objectives in that scene?

You can say that you’re trying to get her to like you or you’re trying to apologize to her. But there’s a case, I think, where you find it exists without articulation, because of the circumstances, because of the past, because of who he is and who she is. If they just sense it, you don’t have to say it and it’s better not to. I’m very leery of stating objectives.

I had to find some way to bring them together and hold them together despite the fact that she would not necessarily like him and would not necessarily like to be seen in his company. I made them walk in a way that reflects that.

In the beginning of the scene they’re not close to each other. Another thing I did was put it in a playground. The setting returns them to a state of innocence. When the hoods started hitting the windows of the church, it again arouses his shame and guilt. I took them to a place where those kinds of feelings would exist least – in a park, a playground. That’s why he sits on the swing.

What did you want the scene to say?

That they are brought together overcoming her reluctance and also his. With Edie there is an object, he is able to express, however indirectly, his shame. In a sense, he confesses to her without ever saying a word. His behavior says, “God, I’m sorry about your brother.”

Is that something you would ever say to Brando?

I might have told him, “You want her to know that you’re not a monster, that you’re sorry about her brother.” Often as soon as I would do that, he would cut me off. When he heard enough, he’d walk away. I knew he’d gotten it. It was obvious. And he would start to behave naturally.

Was that scene played as written? It feels so real, as if invented on the spot.

There are two things operating.

First, I always try to move actors through scenery not in front of it, so they actually touch things. If they’re in front of everything, the scenery might as well be a painted backdrop.

And second, Brando does something special. Sometimes it drives you nuts. He never says a line the same way twice. He changes the rhythm so the other person is forced to listen, sometimes frantically, to see what is being said. He is, in a sense, marginally improvising everything. He keeps a certain element – ten percent perhaps – of improvisation in every scene with my encouragement. When he did it too much, as he did in some other people’s pictures, he was a pain in the ass. But when we worked together, he kept it within limits and it always gave his scenes a feeling of surprise, of being alive.

The other actors felt emboldened to improvise as well. If he said something unusual, they’d answer in kind, and I’d let it go as long as it stayed within the intentions of the scene.

All of the scenes are close to “as written” but no scene is exactly as written. What is writing? In movies saying the precise dialogue is usually not that crucial. I try to stick pretty close. I protect everything essential, and usually I protect the text, but if he hit a prop at different times in different takes, I didn’t say that on this word you must touch this object.