The horrible film that brought together Marlon Brando, Val Kilmer and Susana Giménez’s Rat Man

The bullying fever began during the rise of talk shows, when the bullying became world-known. Rat Manfamous for his height of 71 centimeters. Remembered is his passage through the living room of Susana Gimenezshe presenting him as a rat man and him smilingly shaking his black rodent head.

We also have him for his participation in the video clip coolothe hit of Illya Kuryaki and the Valderramas. But nothing will compare with having been the partner who accompanied neither more nor less than Marlon Brando in a movie called The Island of Doctor Moreau. There, the little Dominican who inspired the creation of the Mini-Me in Austin Powers, he had the luxury of working with the legendary Vito Corleone from The Godfather.

Two years after Susana Giménez, in 1996Nelson Dela Rosa -such as his bullying-free name- was part of a cast with Brando himself and Val Kilmer in your prime. We are talking about one of those cursed movies and legendary. We are talking about fourth place in the Blacklist of horrible movies starring great actors.

It was a very free adaptation of the novel of the same name by H. G. Wells. In Hollywood, which will never learn, they remember it as “a chaotic and hilarious filming.”

The bad weather prevailed over any possibility of argument. The movie wanted to be about someone who survives an accident plane in the sea and is taken to a mysterious island inhabited by strange beings who are under the orders of a sinister doctor known as the Dr. Moreau (Marlon Brando).

The interesting thing about all this was the backstage, which was gracefully reflected in a later documentary. The relationship between Brando and Kilmer was less bad than bizarre. The anecdote is said that both refused to leave their homes. trailers at the same time, waiting for the other “give in first”. Brando was dismissive of Kilmer. He questioned his salary that was inversely proportional to his talent.

The director, Richard Stanleywas fired from his own film for not knowing how to handle the mood of a twilight Brando who delayed an entire day of filming because he was tired or preferred to spend the day talking to extras. That’s how he met Rat Man. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. “Someone shorter than Al Pacino!”.

All so problematic that the film became famous for its chaos. “I asked Marlon about the characters and he said, ‘I didn’t read the script.’“, the actress said Fairuza Balk, that was part of the cast of Doctor Moreau.

“One day I said, ‘Can we talk?’ And he said, ‘What’s up, dear?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know, just as far as our characters and how they relate, I’d love to have time to talk…” And he said, ‘This is all crazy. They pay me, they pay you. No script makes sense so. why worry? Relax. “You’re beautiful.”

Brando seemed to make fun of everything, he improvised more than necessary, he was happily erratic. One day he climbed a tree and didn’t want to get down. He asked that they write a new script that revolved around him wearing a hat.

Among his extravagances he discovered Nelson de la Rosa. He was delighted with his dwarfism. That’s why he managed to get a German actor named Marco Hofschneiderwho was going to play the character that would finally fall into the hands of the Rat Man. Once again the script had to be modified so that the icon’s new beret had more minutes on screen.

The film is rubbish yesterday, today and always, but the documentary about how the film was (un)made is very entertaining. Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau narrates all the setbacks of the most failed science fiction in history. A filming that made another strategic mistake: hiring Val Kilmer.

Kilmer:Hey, Marlon, have you been to any reefs?

Brando: Reef?! In my sea I have everywhere.

A Fiona Mahl she played “pig lady” in the film and remembers that Nelson de la Rosa “in his weirdness, he behaved in a very sexual way”. Kilmer, who came from being a batman Forgetfulness, he obtained the leading role alongside the legend. His fame had not yet declined. He signed a juicy contract and only later told Stanley, the director, that he really didn’t have that much time for the role, so “please, I ask you to reduce my participation as much as possible.”

Kilmer’s character ended up involved in an opprobrious tour de forcedressed as a nun and tasked with managing the “beastmen” colony. Kilmer and Stanley barely spoke to each other. “You should be behind the camera, not in front”stopped him dead when the director tried to explain an aspect of his inspiration.

Between Brando’s indifference and the whims of the fashionable figure, the young director’s days were numbered. “I have acted badly, I have been brave and, for some, eccentric“Kilmer once acknowledged. “I don’t deny any of those things and I have no regrets.. “I have lost and found parts of myself that I never knew existed.”

Hardly had filming begun when news of the suicide of Brando’s daughter arrived. Cheyenne. Brando was only on set for two weeks. “He rarely wanted to work. “I preferred to talk to all the extras and everyone involved,” opined John Frankenheimersubstitute director who replaced Stanley and accepted the project solely out of the desire to work with the living myth.

Days later, Val Kilmer found out that his wife, the British actress Joanne Whalleyasked for a divorce over the phone.

The people interviewed from the production company in charge of the film, New Line, They assumed that the film had been a disaster and considered that the problem started with casting “a rookie like Stanley”, who He did not know how to handle the temperaments of two great figures.

It hit theaters in 1996. Thirty years ago. The criticism was disastrous. “A crazed cast overacting to the point of paroxysm”. “Children, don’t buy drugs, they are very expensive, better put on The Island of Dr. Moreau”.

Stanley did not direct another film until the adaptation of HP Lovecraft of 2019The color that fell from space. He Rat Man rests in a tiny ceramic niche. When he died he had been surpassed by three other people in the book Guiness like the smallest human being in the world.