Bill Murray claims Gene Hackman was “really rough” on Wes Anderson following actor’s death
Bill Murray has remembered the late Gene Hackman, including his harsh treatment of Wes Anderson when they worked together on The Royal Tenenbaums.
At the time, Anderson was a young and upcoming director in his early 30s. Meanwhile, Hackman was already a legend on the screen with Academy Awards to his name. According to Murray, the late actor was unwilling to listen to Anderson’s orders which left the rising filmmaker in a challenging position.
In a new interview with the Associated Press following Hackman’s death, Murray recalled: “He was a tough nut, Gene Hackman. But he was really good. And he was really difficult, we can say it now, but he was a tough guy. Older, great actors do not give young directors much of a chance.”
Murray continued: “They’re really rough on them, and Gene was really rough on Wes. I used to kind of step in there and just try to defend my friend.”
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Elsewhere, Murray elaborated on his experience of working with Hackman on The Drew Barrymore Show, which was also broadcast on February 27th. Although he criticised Hackman’s conduct, he did reiterate that he understood why the Oscar-winning actor acted the way he did while on set. “I sympathise 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,” he told Barrymore.
Murray also claimed that the actors were thrown into a challenging situation on the movie, adding, “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. And I watched him, and I suffered with him because I saw what he was going through.”
The full circumstances surrounding Hackman’s death, along with the passing of his wife Betsy Arakawa, are currently being investigated by local police in Santa Fe after their bodies were discovered on February 26th.
Arakawa’s body was found by the police in a bathroom with a space heater near her head and she was also surrounded by pill bottles. A dead dog was also found within 10 to 15 metres of her body, and two other dogs survived.
“He advised he suspected the heater could have fallen in the event the female abruptly fell to the ground,” the affidavit, published on February 27th, read. “He advised he also observed an orange prescription bottle on the counter-top near the deceased female. The prescription bottle appeared opened with pills scattered on the counter-top.”
Her body was also described as showing “obvious signs of death, body decomposition, bloating in her face and mumification in both hands and feet.” Hackman, who was found in the mud room, is suspected to have “suddenly fallen” and “showed obvious signs of death, similar and consistent with the female decedent”.
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