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Brando’s Last Act Decades after interviewing Marlon Brando at the actor’s private atoll in French Polynesia, a writer returns to Tetiaroa

Previously a to size up the new Brando resort. By Lawrence Grobel retreat for Tahitian royalty—and, t was 1978 when I first set foot on Marlon Brando’s private atoll in French later, Hollywood Polynesia. The actor had just finished filming Francis Ford Coppola’s royalty—the I Tetiaroa atoll is Apocalypse Now, and I had been commissioned by Playboy to conduct an in- now home to the depth interview—the first Brando had granted since 1956, when Truman Capote visited Brando resort. him on the set of Sayonara in Japan. Brando’s secretary had arranged the details of my 10-day visit, suggesting I bring snor- keling gear, medication for the inevitable stomachaches, and plenty of insect repellent and anti-itch cream. But when Brando met me on Tetiaroa’s airstrip, it was my footwear that concerned him most. “Your sandals won’t last here,” he said as he carried my bag m ti m - ckenna.co

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fast, they’ve got projects, ideas, deals. ever, framed by an electric-blue lagoon And I sit here like a beached whale.” and a powdery beach. As the eight- Indeed, during my stay, Brando passenger airplane dips lower toward spent most of his time relaxing, what appears to be a more refined observing, and sharing his love of version of the airstrip I bumped along Tetiaroa. He stared at the ocean, so many decades ago, I glimpse the enjoyed the sweet fragrant smell of blue-green dots of swimming pools the white tiare flower, and thought and the thatched roofs of several vil- about how to save the indigenous las, barely perceptible among the giant turtles and fish from poachers. He palm fronds billowing in the breeze. When the plane comes to a halt, the jungle around me seems unchanged since my last visit. This time, however, I am greeted along the island’s sandy by Richard Bailey, a Tahiti-based shores to my bungalow. developer and the chairman of “The sand will get between Pacific Beachcomber, which operates your toes and the leather.” such luxury properties as the Inter- Brando, pictured I had traveled more than Continental Moorea Resort & Spa and on Tetiaroa in 1978, 5,000 miles to report on the InterContinental Tahiti Resort & acquired the atoll Brando’s extraordinary life Spa. Last July, after a 15-year process, after discovering it while filming and career—which held endless fas- showed me a night sky filled with Bailey opened Tetiaroa to paying Mutiny on the cination for Americans at the time— sparkling stars, and a lagoon so calm, guests with the debut of the Brando, Bounty. but soon learned that he was far more clear, and shallow I could wade a private-island resort on the actor’s interested in discussing his private through it for hundreds of yards. “It’s beloved atoll. paradise. According to Brando, very elemental here,” he told me one Bailey met Brando in 1999, when Tetiaroa—a 12-island atoll located 30 night as we sat in my hut looking out the actor first posed the idea of turn- miles north of Tahiti—was where at the lagoon. “You have the sky, the ing his private paradise into a world- Tahitian royalty once came to con- sea, trees, the crabs, the fish, the class, self-sustainable resort. Intrigued verse with the natural spirits that sun—the basics.” as much by Brando’s proposal as by surrounded this turquoise-watered Brando also fantasized about shar- the star himself, Bailey immediately speck in the vast Pacific Ocean. ing his island with the world. He said arranged a visit to the island. Brando discovered the atoll while he wanted to build a research center “There were rats running around filmingMutiny on the Bounty in 1960, for oceanographers and a school for in the kitchen. The flies and mos- and six years later he purchased it the blind, and he hoped to rid the quitoes were unbelievable. You for $270,000. By then the actor had island of fallen coconuts, which were couldn’t flush the toilets because you married his Mutiny costar, the French breeding pools for mosquitoes. He needed power and the generator was Polynesian actress Tarita Teriipaia, was of two minds about bringing on and off,” Bailey tells me at Bob’s and it was Tetiaroa where the cou- tourists to Tetiaroa: He did not like Bar, a near-replica of the circular ple and their two children would the idea of having to hide from guests palm-thatched bar on the other side retreat to escape the prying lenses who wanted to take his picture, yet of the island where Brando and I sat of Hollywood for weeks at a time. he realized the local economic in 1978. “So I wrote Marlon this long tetiaroa: ti m - ckenna.co m ; b rand o: lawrence gro b el As I pulled out my recorder on that growth such an enterprise could memo saying I was sorry, but I deal first day with Brando, it became clear spawn. More than 35 years later, the with guest satisfaction, and I didn’t that I would learn more about the tourists—albeit a very select few of know how to make his island work.” atoll’s white-sand beaches, palm trees, them—are starting to arrive. Brando was outraged. “He got very hermit crabs, and sunsets than I upset and wrote me this fax saying would about the star’s tumultuous love I arrive at Tetiaroa one bright I was wrong and calling me a capital- life or upcoming blockbuster. “When August morning to discover that the ist, which for him was a dirty word,” people come here to see me, they’re atoll is much as Brando left it. From Bailey recalls. And yet, six months usually all wound up,” he told me in the air, the main island—where later, the developer received a call my hut, which was constructed almost Brando’s crude huts once hid among from Brando asking for another entirely from palm trees. “They talk the palms—remains as pristine as meeting. “He said ‘OK, what would

january 2015 | robb report.com journeys

therapies. Guests can sip vintages from the wine cellar, shop for jewelry at the pearl boutique, and explore the Tetiaroa atoll by outrigger canoe, bicycle, kayak, or paddleboard. Brando’s legacy is perhaps most apparent in the resort’s eco-friendly ideals. Solar panels and coconut-oil biofuel provide all of the atoll’s energy, while cold seawater filtered through pipes offers an effective alternative to power-hungry air-conditioning systems. An on-site laboratory serves as a base for researchers to study the atoll’s archaeology and marine life, and the resort’s naturalists— including Brando’s granddaughter Tumi—educate guests during bird- Bailey told him such a layout would watching hikes, coral-reef expedi- be impossible to furnish. He insisted tions, and whale-watching tours. The that all areas remain natural, covered actor’s requests for an organic farm in sand and dirt; Bailey argued that (including a honeybee farm) and a pathways should be paved to allow school for the local population (albeit for bicycles and electric carts. He not specifically for the blind) have demanded a honeybee farm, a lob- also been honored. ster hatchery, a laboratory for As I wander barefoot over the wide studying coral and other marine expanse of beach wrapping around life, and a natural alternative to air- the perimeter of Tetiaroa’s main conditioning; Bailey set to work. island, I imagine that Brando would By 2002, Bailey was ready to file for be pleased with the final product. The the permits needed to turn Tetiaroa villas may not be octagonal, and the you do?’ ” Bailey says. “That’s how it into the magnificent resort he and airstrip may be paved, but the views started. Over the next three years I Brando envisioned. The 78-year-old of the sparkling lagoons remain just stayed with him eight or nine times. actor, however, was suffering from as they were in 1978, when he and I First there would be a bottle of wine, declining health, and it appeared would sit in front of his bungalow, Like Brando’s and then he’d want to tell jokes and he would not live to see the plan swatting flies away while we snacked original huts, Tahitian stories. Little by little, through. Ten days before he died on on Famous Amos cookies. Still, I won- the resort’s 35 things would emerge about what he July 1, 2004, Brando called Bailey der if the actor—notoriously private thatched-roof villas blend into wanted and what his approach was and told him he had faith that the and self-effacing—would have Tetiaroa’s tropical toward the island.” island resort would be in good hands. approved of the resort’s name. foliage. During their discussions, Bailey It would be 10 years to the month “What else are you going to call it?” encouraged Brando to construct over- before Bailey would finally realize Bailey replies when asked over cock- water bungalows, citing the success Brando’s dream—but realize it he tails at Bob’s Bar. “Any other name of his resorts in nearby Bora Bora and has. The Brando is quite simply a would have been a brand—it would Tahiti. Brando was not interested, masterpiece, an unobtrusive yet have been commercial. What we’re telling Bailey guests should be able extravagant collection of 35 villas, trying to honor is Marlon’s vision “to walk feet-in-the-sand all the way each with its own swimming pool, and commitment to the environ- around the island, without encoun- hidden among thick pockets of jungle. ment. No other name seemed as tering any obstructions.” Brando also Two restaurants by the Michelin- appropriate. I’d like to think we’ve

dictated that there be no fossil fuels rated chef Guy Martin (formerly of helped fulfill his dreams.” ti m - ckenna.co m used for power on the island, and no Paris’s Le Grand Véfour) focus on asphalt to repave its runway. He Polynesian and French cuisine, and The Brando, +689.40.866.366, requested octagon-shaped villas; a holistic spa offers indigenous thebrando.com

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