Celebrities condemn Hollywood director over 'sickening' rape scene revelation.

Trigger warning: This post contains details about simulated sexual assault that may be distressing to some readers.

The revelation that the infamous rape scene in Last Tango in Paris was contrived without the consent of actress Maria Schneider has reverberated around the world.

But there are few places where the shockwaves are being felt more strongly than Hollywood.

Since footage of the film’s director Bernardo Bertolucci making the admission resurfaced over the weekend, several actors have expressed their outrage on social media – slamming both him and his leading man/co-conspirator Marlon Brando for exploiting the then-19-year-old Schneider.

The 1973 film’s explicit, highly charged scene features Brando’s character, Paul, using a stick of butter as lubricant to rape a young Parisian woman, played by Schneider.

It was a sequence that Bertolucci director said he deliberately shielded from the breakout star in an attempt to capture her reaction “as a girl, not an actress”.

The approach has since been slammed by the likes of Lena Dunham, Jessica Chastain and Evan Rachel Wood, who described the pair as “very sick individuals”.

Chris Evans also tweeted his horror. “Wow. I will never look at this film, Bertolucci or Brando the same way again. This is beyond disgusting. I feel rage,” the Captain America star wrote.

Anna Kendrick joined the conversation to point out that "Ms Schneider stated this several years ago. I used to get eye-rolls when I brought it up to people (aka dudes)."

Kendrick was referring to a rare 2007 interview with The Daily Mail in which Schneider, who passed away in 2011, said the scene wasn't even in the film's script.

"They only told me about it before we had to film the scene and I was so angry," Schneider said.

"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.

"I felt humiliated and to be honest, I felt a little raped, both by Marlon and by Bertolucci. After the scene, Marlon didn't console me or apologise. Thankfully, there was just one take."

In making the admission during an event at La Cinémathèque Française in Paris three years ago, Bertolucci said the scene was created spontaneously by him and Brando.

"We were having, with Marlon, breakfast on the floor of the flat where I was shooting," he told the interviewer.

"There was a baguette, there was butter and we looked at each other and, without saying anything, we knew what we wanted."

Maria Schneider, who checked herself into the psych ward for a few days so she could be with her committed lover Joan Townsend. Even there they were harassed and photographed. RIP beautiful lady. I'm so sorry that art became pain rather than release for you. (Image courtesy of Old Loves Tumblr)

A photo posted by Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) on Dec 4, 2016 at 12:55am PST

While the Oscar-winning director said he doesn't regret the scene, he conceded that he feels guilty for the "horrible" way he and Brando treated Schneider.

"I think she hated me and also Marlon because we didn’t tell her," he said.

"I didn’t want Maria to act her humiliation her rage, I wanted her to Maria to feel ... the rage and humiliation. Then she hated me for all of her life."