Maria Schneider (actress) a room in her house. Through Bardot, Schneider met people in the film business and Bardot introduced her to the William Morris Agency. She was 18 when she had her first break in 1970, appearing in "Madly", starring Alain Delon. Schneider gained international renown for her performance at the age of 19 in the sexually explicit "Last Tango in Paris" (1972), directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. She performed several nude scenes in a graphic portrayal of anonymous sex with an older man. In an interview in 2007, Schneider said of Bertolucci: "He was fat and sweaty and very manipulative, both of
Maria Schneider (actress) for five years and gave him a four-month suspended prison sentence. In 1978 the Appeals Court of Bologna ordered three copies of the film to be preserved in the national film library with the stipulation that they could not be viewed, until Bertolucci was later able to re-submit it for general distribution with no cuts. During her career, Schneider was a strong advocate for improving the quality and conditions of work for women in film. In 1974, Schneider came out as bisexual. In early 1976, she abandoned the film set of "Caligula" (reportedly due to its pornographic content, apocryphally saying