Natasha Lyonne Reveals Details About Marlon Brando’s Scrapped ‘Scary Movie 2’ Cameo

Natasha Lyonne is one of the funniest actors and part of our love for her comedic chops started with Scary Movie 2. She’d been hilarious before in movies like But I’m a Cheerleader but watching her parody The Exorcist in the beginning of Scary Movie 2 was iconic. Even more iconic for the scene was the original casting of Marlon Brando playing one of the priests.

In an interview with the Entertainment Weekly series Role Call, Lyonne talked about working with Brando despite the actor dropping out of the project (and being replaced by James Woods). “I have a VHS copy of the dailies that I got because Marlon Brando’s final role — sadly for him, but luckily for me — is doing this ‘Exorcist’ opening teaser,” she said. “I don’t know what he was thinking, really.”

She went on to talk about the scene in question that she filmed with Brando. “He had an oxygen tank and he just kind of held my boob, because that was in the script,” she said. “He was supposed to be like, ‘The power of Christ compels you.’ I just remember being like, ‘Ah, this is the surrealism that André Breton, Salvador Dali were talking about.’”

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It’s truly a fascinating story given that Brando died a few years later but now Lyonne has something that is truly special for her. Apparently, at the time, Brando was using an earpiece to film and was “very chatty” while he was on set. All of this led to a fun story for Lyonne to share.

“So, I had Brando with the earpiece and the hand on the boob, and the makeup, and ‘The power of Christ compels you,’ and not to curse, but, ‘Your mother sucks c—s in hell,’ and so on,” she added. “This was all happening at once, and I remember like, ‘You know, showbiz is all right.’ In that moment, showbiz was A-okay.”

It’s sad that we’ll never get to see the scene between the two, but it is weirdly fitting for Lyonne to have that last role with Brando on VHS. Lyonne is currently promoting the second season of her hit show Russian Doll that yet again proves just how talented she is as a performer. And if it means that someday, we might get to see Lyonne and Brando in action together then that’s a good thing for us as fans, right?

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