The best directors Gene Hackman ever worked with: “They know me and they know what I bring to the work”
As talented as he was intimidating, Gene Hackman was in the odd position of being a major Hollywood star who had absolutely no interest whatsoever in being a major Hollywood star.
He considered himself an actor, and the trappings of success were his least favourite part of the job. Starting out on the stage before graduating to the screen, Hackman was too talented to be stuck in supporting parts forever, with The French Connection catapulting him towards A-list status.
Despite being renowned as one of his generation’s marquee names and a hot commodity who could entice audiences to the multiplex, Hackman hated almost anything that wasn’t turning up on set and doing the job. He felt like a sellout when he starred in his first major blockbuster, so it’s not as if it happened by accident, but he much preferred it when the outside noise was drowned out.
The easiest way to get the best out of Hackman was to trust him. Of course, plenty of directors like to run their sets with an iron fist and dictate their vision to the cast and crew, in which case he had to grin and bear it. However, it’s not a coincidence that when the two-time Academy Award winner named the best auteurs he’d ever collaborated with, those who work briskly, economically, and stay the hell out of his way emerged at the head of the pack.
“If a director leaves me alone, I’m great,” he told Cigar Aficionado. “I have my most trouble with people who don’t see what I’m doing. Now, that sounds very ‘actorish’, but I feel that if a director watches what I am doing, he will see some value in it. If he doesn’t like it, it’s probably because he’s not watching. It sounds like what I am saying is that I’m precious, but I don’t feel that way.”
Instead, Hackman felt “that if somebody has hired me, they know the work I have done, and they get the package.” Basically, nobody should bother enlisting the gruff and grizzled actor if they want anything other than a gruff and grizzled actor who refuses to take shit from anybody, which is where he found his most kindred of spirits.
“Sidney Pollack or Arthur Penn or [Francis Ford] Coppola or Clint Eastwood,” he stated. “When they hire you, they know what you can do. They know you’re right for the part, and they let you do it. Your taste and sensibility permeates that role, and people perceive that as the character.”
The first movie Hackman made with Pollack? The Firm: a two-time Oscar nominee and one of the best legal thrillers of its time. The first he made with Penn? Bonnie & Clyde: a classic that landed the star a ‘Best Supporting Actor’ nomination at the Oscars. Coppola? The Conversation: another classic and a ‘Best Picture’ nominee. Eastwood? Unforgiven, winner of ‘Best Picture’ and the film that secured Hackman his second Oscar. He knows what he likes, and clearly, those he likes know how to get the best out of him.
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