Marlon Brando made Michael Jackson cry. The reason? He asked her about her sexuality
The “A Streetcar Named Desire” star also spoke with the musician about what motivates people.
Marlon Brando voluntarily and candidly spoke to prosecutors about Michael Jackson in 1994, when the singer was being investigated for child abuse allegations, he revealed a new podcast in its final episode. In an affidavit, the actor shared details of a dinner conversation he allegedly had with Jackson, in which the pop star addressed his relationship with his father and his sexuality.
The Los Angeles County district attorney's office learned of the "special relationship" between the singer and the iconic actor, one of whose sons, Miko, worked as Jackson's chauffeur, according to the podcast "Telephone Stories: The Trials of Michael Jackson ”.
The King of Pop was supposedly teaching Brando to dance, and the performer of The Godfather was giving Jackson acting lessons. So prosecutors Bill Hodgman and Lauren Weis called Brando to speak privately, rather than putting him in front of a grand jury.
Brandon Ogborn, one of the creators and producers of the podcast, obtained a transcript of Brando's interview, dated March 14, 1994, and verified its validity with Weis, who investigated Jackson during his 23 years in the United States District Attorney's Office. Los Angeles County, and he's a judge now.
“I was able to check it out. The document was quite important at a glance and on hand. He looked like a hot potato, ”Ogborn said Wednesday, in an exclusive interview with The Times. “It is a much longer document than what we reported… It is quite winding, quite vague. He [Brando] would probably not be taken into account now. "
It is an important statement for the historical record, the podcaster noted, and its contents will be revealed when the final episode of "Telephone Stories" airs this Sunday.
"Brando is different from everyone else featured in the Jackson investigations," Ogborn explained. “He was a famous actor and wealthy beyond belief. Unlike other people who have “spoken out” against the musician, Brando did not want or need anything from the pop star, and he offered the prosecutor inside information, which was never revealed. “He was also a weirdo, like Michael Jackson. So, I think it was a weirdo that could understand another weirdo, in a strange world. "
In the episode, which The Times heard in advance, Ogborn reads the actor's words, directly from the sworn transcript. Brando, who died in 2004, told prosecutors who confronted Jackson during a dinner at Neverland Ranch: “We were talking about human emotions and where it all comes from. I could see it by the way he behaved: he spoke that way, in a very peculiar way for a man who is as adult as my oldest son, 35 years old. And he did not want me to insult, "said the actor.
"I asked him if he was a virgin, he laughed and cackled, and he called me Brando," added the actor. He "he told me, 'Oh, Brando.' I replied, "Well, what do you do to have sex?" And he acted fussy and embarrassed. "
Brando said he had asked Jackson if he masturbated, and then told prosecutors that the singer "lives in a completely different world."
The “A Streetcar Named Desire” star also spoke with the musician about what motivates people. Jackson "had no real emotions," Brando considered, and that affected his ability to act. “He said that he hated his father and started crying. Then I started to tiptoe away. I realized that he was in trouble with his life because he lived in never-never land, and that he couldn't [insult], and that a 35-year-old man wouldn't do that, being surrounded by people from show business, it seemed to me very strange, ”Brando said.
"He asked, 'Well, who are your friends?' He said, 'I don't know anyone my age. I don't like anyone my age. ' I insisted: "Why not?" He said, "I don't know, I don't know." He was crying so much that ... I tried to calm him down. I tried to mitigate it as much as I could.
Brando told prosecutors that he originally thought Jackson was gay, but has since believed that it was "quite reasonable to conclude that he may have had something to do with children."
Jackson, who died in 2009 and would have turned 61 today, never publicly acknowledged himself as gay, nor did he acknowledge sexual relationships with children. He was investigated twice on charges of child abuse; on the first occasion he was not charged, but in 2005 he went to trial and was acquitted of all charges.
This is the first time Brando's material has made public status, Ogborn noted, as the interview was not used in the singer's trial.
The improv comedian turned broadcaster said his search for this Jackson story began after meeting attorney Bert Fields, who represented Jackson during the 1993-1994 investigation. The lawyer had gone to see "TomKat," a play that Ogborn wrote and performed, about the divorce of Tom Cruise (whom Fields had also portrayed) and Katie Holmes. "I thought he was coming to bring me a subpoena or something like that," Ogborn said.
Instead, Fields loved the play, which included mention of Jackson's situation, and wanted to meet the playwright behind the scenes. That led to an interview, which in turn led to new reporting for Ogborn and resulted in an audio documentary series.
By the time the 13-part podcast series ended, Ogborn had spoken to 23 people who were involved in the two investigations in some way, including attorney Thomas Mesereau, who represented Jackson in his 2005 trial.
A former Los Angeles Times reporter Jim Newton, who covered the musician's investigation in the early 1990s for the newspaper, edited the series. The show's other creator and producer, opera singer Omar Crook, dialogues with Ogborn on the podcast.
The final episode of “Telephone Stories,” produced by Ninth Planet Audio, will air Sunday on the premium podcast platform Luminary. The first 12 episodes are out now.
