Reading a Cracked article about famous actors who hate their most iconic roles (Cracked link, you’ve been warned). One such actor was Brando is his role as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire.
Brando reportedly hated the character;
“Brando was severely irritated by all the panties that were metaphorically being thrown at Kowalski. He saw him as less of a “sexy outlaw” and more of a worthless piece of shit. He talks about the character like he just stole his girlfriend, saying, “He had the kind of brutal aggressiveness that I hate.””
But these days, is his character still an epitome of sexiness? I’m so straight I buy Christmas presents at the gas station, so I can’t really judge. Here’s a clip of him to jog your memory if you’re a bit fuzzy.
Poll is a 5-point sex-o-meter, 5 being as attractive as possible, 3 being no feelings one way or the other, 1 being the opposite of sexy.
The Subject line and the question in the OP are two very different things.
Brando’s looks only, yes, a definite 5. Stanley’s personality? -1000. What a dick. I don’t blame Brando for hating him. Anyone with a brain and compassion would. I took your poll to mean Brando’s looks only because of the Subject line and voted without reading the OP. If the poll is meant to include the character’s abusive assholishishness, please disregard my 5.
The more I think about it the more pissed off I am at myself for not reading the OP. Still, you should have titled the poll with Stanley Kowalski’s name, not Marlon Brando’s. Already your results are incorrect.
Basically the poll wants to know, how many pertinent people will forgive an abusive asshole as long as he’s hot? Are you looking for the kind of Lonelyhearts people who would seek relationships with incarcerated criminals?
Brando, I think, nailed that role, in that Stanley is the kind of guy who makes my cavewoman ovaries quiver, but I loathe him. He’s your classic Bad Boy, perhaps the archetype Bad Boy…you know he’s big and strong and sexy and would never let anyone else hurt you, but he’s an asshole who runs an almost certainty of hurting you himself. There’s a certain stage of development where a young woman, charmed by a lifetime of fairy tales and Disney movies, is certain that her touch will soothe the savage beast, and he’ll love *her *and be tender to *her *and transform into a prince…but he’ll remain a beast to anyone to threatens her or her sprog. Luckily, most of us grow out of it when we figure out we aren’t an exception to his treating other people poorly.
It’s very much a lizard brain thing. I totally agree with Brando now; when I was in my early 20’s though, Idda hit that, much to my own detriment.
Yup. Lizard-brain signals going on there. Some points off for the voice, but he’s sexy as fuck. It probably wouldn’t take long for the “Danger, Will Robinson!” bells to start ringing in my head, but at a more vulnerable or desperate time, those would be easier to ignore.
No need to get too pissed off, this ain’t exactly a scholastic academic piece that’s going in a journal. To clarify, I was asking about the character of Stanley as played by Brando, not break the fourth wall and think about the actor himself outside of the film/play (the poll title being “The character of Stanley in Steetcar is…” and in the OP “…Brando reportedly hated the character” “…is his character”), but I thought Marlon Brando would ring more bells than the character name. Apologies if that caused confusion.
By way of comparison, if I asked about “Benedict Cumberbatch in Sherlock” you’d likely reckon I was talking about the character he portrays in the series rather than the actor OOC.
Even at his best, Brando wasn’t exactly my type . . . but it takes some serious acting to portray a character he doesn’t like, yet retain his sexuality. I certainly wouldn’t kick him out of bed. #4.
And just adding that the “wow!” rating is based just off that scene, imagining myself in Blanche’s shoes. Yes, Stanley goes downhill fast in terms of “desirable guy” status and well before the end of the film, hopefully anyone with any sense of self-preservation would simply fan her/himself a bit at the memory of that one scene then forget him.
Physically, he’s attractive. But Stanley Kowalski is a worthless piece of shit, like it says in the OP, and every aspect of his character besides the physical pushes him firmly into negative sexy territory. His personality makes him repulsive, regardless of what he looks like.
I studied Streetcar for English Lit, and this conversation came up. Based on reading and dissecting the play, Stanley was hideous to us. After one of my classmates watched the movie, her main comment was “Stanley was hot?! I’m so confused! That’s the opposite of how I pictured him!”
Shoot, I didn’t read the OP first, either. Marlon was insanely hot in the role, but the role of Stanley is conscientiously written as “seems super hot but is really a gross pig, girl, just say no and run.” Stella’s tragedy is that she married him rather than just had a fling, as Blanche points out to her.
BTW, I’ve always thought “Hanging Back with the Brutes” would make a great memoir title.
In Streetcar, an asshole, and my asshole meter got tuned a lot earlier in life than I think is normal for the female population, so I have real troubles seeing “Stanley” as hot. The amigdala pings faster than the lizard-brain on that one.
In Guys and Dolls? Sky Masterson is totally on my list. He’s yummy.
You have an option for straight men but no option for lesbians? Gay/bi men are acknowledged in your title, and straight men in your poll, but all “ladies” must have sexual feelings towards Marlon Brando? Interesting.
Actually, your over-the-top attitude on this (when he is clearly making efforts to acknowledge other groups) is silly. And yes, you MUST have feelings. It may be that you feel nothing, or something good or bad, but you cannot NOT react to something someone is asking you. Failure to act is an act.
Shame on you, Mr. Kobayashi, I’m a really confused, transgenderist who doesn’t like to be defined by people’s expectations.
