Wes Anderson has revealed what Gene Hackman really thought of his starring role in the director’s 2001 comedy-drama The Royal Tenenbaums.
Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, were found dead in their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico earlier this year. It later emerged that she had contracted hantavirus, a rare illness spread by rats, while he had died from complications from Alzheimer’s disease.
After Hackman’s death at the age of 95, his Royal Tenenbaums co-star Bill Murray recalled that the late actor had been “difficult” and “really rough” on Anderson during the making of the film.
In a new interview with Empire, Anderson acknowledged that Hackman had not always given the impression that he wanted to be on set.
“He wasn’t gung-ho to be there,” said the 56-year-old director. “But he was the guy for the part. I don’t think he ever felt that during the movie.”
Anderson added: “I think he felt it when he saw it when it was finished. He did tell me then that he liked the movie very much. But we felt it every time we made a scene with him. He was doing something that had a certain epic electricity to it.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Anderson compared The Royal Tenenbaums to his forthcoming film, The Phoenician Scheme. “It’s from the same well,” said the director.
After Hackman’s death in February, Murray told the Associated Press: “He was a tough nut, Gene Hackman. But he was really good.”
And he was “really difficult,” Murray added. “We can say it now, but he was a tough guy. Older, great actors do not give young directors much of a chance. They’re really rough on them, and Gene was really rough on Wes.”
At the time The Royal Tenenbaums was released, Hackman was 71, while Anderson was just 32.
“I used to kind of step in there and just try to defend my friend,” Murray added.
He further recounted once witnessing Hackman do 25 takes “perfectly” while “the other actor would blow it.”
“And I’d go like, ‘Oh, God.’ I was watching it going, ‘No wonder this guy wants to throttle people,’” Murray laughed.
“And then he sort of gave an ordinary performance and the other actor got it right, and I thought Gene was going to throw the actor off the ledge of the building,” Murray added. .”He was a great one; he was a great actor.”
During an appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show, Murray elaborated on his comments, saying that he sympathized “with Gene because to him, Wes Anderson was just a punk kid, and Gene’s made some of the greatest American movies.”
So “he was a little irritable,” the Ghostbusters actor continued. “But he had to work with children, dogs, Kumar [Pallana, who played valet Pagoda], who was like an absolute mystery to all of us anyway.”
They put him in “very challenging positions to work, and so he just felt a lot of responsibility and kept thinking, ‘What am I doing here with these people?’ But the performance he gives is brilliant.”
Hackman went on to win a Golden Globe for his performance in The Royal Tenenbaums.
