Marlon Brando talked to LA prosecutors in 1994 about the child sex abuse allegations against Michael Jackson, The Los Angeles Times reports. And according to a new Luminary podcast examining the allegations against Jackson, Brando reportedly concluded that the pop star "may have had something to do with kids."
After Jackson was accused of sexually abusing a 13-year-old in 1993, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office opened a criminal investigation. And it seems that during the course of the investigation, officials interviewed Jackson’s friend Marlon Brando—who allegedly revealed that he’d confronted Jackson about his sex life during a visit to Neverland Ranch.
"I had asked him if he was a virgin and he sort of laughed and giggled," Brando allegedly said in a sworn statement to prosecutors. "He said, ‘Oh, Brando.’ I said, ‘Well, what do you do for sex?’ And he was acting fussy and embarrassed."
"He said he hated his father and started to cry," Brando continued. "And I said, ‘Well, who are your friends?’ He said, ‘I don’t know anybody my own age. I don’t like anybody my own age.’ I said, ‘Why not?’ He said, ‘I don’t know, I don’t know.’ He was crying hard enough that...I tried to assuage him. I tried to help him all I could."
The actor told the district attorney’s office that that it was "pretty reasonable to conclude that he may have had something to do with kids." However, Los Angeles prosecutors later dropped the case after the family of the alleged victim, who had settled a lawsuit with Jackson for $23 million, declined to cooperate with prosecutors.
Omar Crook and Brandon Ogborn, creators of the podcast “Telephone Stories: The Trials of Michael Jackson,” shared the episode of their show with the The LA Times in advance. The podcast, which debuts Sunday, marks the first time Brando’s interview has been made public.
Brando himself was accused of sexual misconduct by his Last Tango in Paris co-star Maria Schneider. In 2007, Schneider revealed that the film’s infamous rape scene wasn’t included in the original script, and director Bernardo Bertolucci’s intention to shoot it was only revealed to her at the last minute. "Marlon said to me: ‘Maria, don’t worry, it’s just a movie,’ but during the scene, even though what Marlon was doing wasn’t real, I was crying real tears,” Schneider told The Daily Mail. “I felt humiliated and to be honest, I felt a little raped, both by Marlon and by Bertolucci.”
"Brando is different from everyone else who figures into the Jackson investigations," Ogborn told The Times. "He was a famous actor and rich beyond measure. Unlike other people who have 'spoken out' against Jackson, Brando didn’t want or need anything from the pop star, and he offers the DA insider information that never came to light."
Gabrielle Bruney is a writer and editor for Esquire, where she focuses on politics and culture. She's based (and born and raised) in Brooklyn, New York.
