Marlon Brando’s Biggest Regret: The Movie and Role He Wished He Could Undo

Marlon Brando is often called one of the greatest actors in film history. Over six decades, he won many awards, including two Oscars, two Golden Globes, a Cannes Film Festival Award, three BAFTAs, and an Emmy. He helped bring the Stanislavski system and method acting into the spotlight, changing how acting was done in Hollywood.

Despite all his success, Brando admitted there was one role he deeply regretted. In his autobiography, he talked about his part in The Teahouse of the August Moon from 1956. He played Sakini, an interpreter on Okinawa, who spends most of the story facing off against Glenn Ford’s character, an American officer trying to introduce democracy and business to the island.

Brando admired the Broadway version of the play, especially David Wayne’s performance as Sakini.

He called it “a delicate, amusing comedy of manners set against the backdrop of a stormy clash of cultures.” But Brando felt his own movie version missed the mark. He said, “a well-written play is nearly actor-proof, but in Teahouse, Glenn Ford and I proved how easily actors can ruin a good play or movie when they’re so absorbed with themselves and their performances that they don’t act in concert. It was a horrible picture, and I was miscast.”

The Teahouse of the August Moon was directed by Daniel Mann and starred Brando alongside Glenn Ford, Machiko Kyō, Eddie Albert, and others. The story satirized the American occupation and cultural changes in Okinawa after World War II. The screenplay was adapted by John Patrick from his Pulitzer and Tony-winning 1953 play, which was based on a 1951 novel by Vern J. Sneider.

The film did well at the box office and was popular with critics. MGM’s biggest hit that year, it earned over $5.5 million in the U.S. and Canada, plus $3.3 million worldwide, making a solid profit. It was even nominated for a Golden Globe for promoting international understanding.

Some scholars say the film helped promote interracial tolerance by addressing interracial marriage openly, along with other films like Japanese War Bride and Sayonara (also starring Brando). However, many critics also saw it as continuing harmful stereotypes of Asian women, portraying them as passive or overly sexualized.

Brando’s role was heavily criticized as an example of yellowface, where a non-Asian actor plays an Asian character.

The story was later adapted into a 1971 Broadway musical, Lovely Ladies, Kind Gentlemen, but it closed after just 19 performances. In 1980, film critic Michael Medved gave Brando a Golden Turkey Award for “Most Ludicrous Racial Impersonation” for his role in this film.

Despite his many legendary performances, The Teahouse of the August Moon remains Marlon Brando’s biggest regret.

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