Gene Hackman: The “enormous film star” who terrified Hugh Grant on set
In one way or another, Hugh Grant has seen pretty much everything there is on offer from the film industry, but that doesn’t mean that he hasn’t been intimidated by some of his more high-profile co-stars. Known and loved for his British ubiquity, Grant is a genuine legend of the English acting game, as proven by his many years in the spotlight.
After coming through in a series of period dramas in the 1990s, including The Remains of the Day and Sense and Sensibility, Grant established himself as a romantic comedy leading man in the likes of Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones Diary, About a Boy and Love Actually.
However, Grant has extended his talents into acting realms far and wide. He’d performed for the creators of The Matrix in Cloud Atlas, served as an Oompa Loompa in Wonka, and flexed his action muscles in Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen. Simply, there ought to have been nothing Grant feared, but in 1996, a prospective co-star “terrified” him into worry.
Michael Apted’s crime thriller movie Extreme Measure was based on Michael Palmer’s 1991 novel of the same name and saw Gene Hackman join the likes of Sarah Jessica Parker, David Morse and Grant in the cast. The film focuses with the ethics of medical sacrifices and saw Grant take an against-type role after it came to his production company, Simian Films.
Getting Hackman to take on the role of Dr Lawrence Myrick was seen as a big coup for the film, with Grant explaining in an interview with Film Scout, “We were jubilant when he took the part. We were sitting around saying, ‘If we could get Gene Hackman for this role, that would be ideal, but we won’t get him so…’ And then he took the bait, and that was a champagne day.”
However, with Hackman confirmed in the role, he then had to contend with performing alongside such a notable movie star. By the mid-1990s, Hackman had already won two Academy Awards for his efforts in William Friedkin’s The French Connection and Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven, while a further four Oscar nominations had also come his way.
Naturally, Grant was fearful of proving his worth to Hackman and making sure that he enjoyed his time making Extreme Measures. “He is an enormous film star in my book, and he always looks like he is furious,” Grant explained. “I was terrified that his trailer would be unclean or something, not to his satisfaction.”
Thankfully, though, it turned out that Grant had no need to worry because Hackman showed himself to be a complete gent with the utmost professionalism. “He is very much an actor’s actor and all he wants is to do the job,” Grant noted. “Sits around and has lunch with the crew. He’s very unstarry.”
The British actor admitted that during his first scene with Hackman, his “words came out backwards like I was talking in tongues or something,” but after a few rounds, he had gotten used to the pressure of acting alongside a Hollywood legend and the two set about making Extreme Measures to the best of their respective abilities.
Sure, the film is not the crowning achievement of either actors’ careers, but it served as a moment in which Grant got to prove his own acting credentials against one of the greatest to ever do it.
