“Liza, shut the fuck up!”: Gene Hackman’s furious on-set outbursts at Liza Minnelli
Some film productions are riddled with complications, usually caused by a mixture of financial complications or tensions between cast members, and in some cases these issues have quite a significant effect on the outcome of the movie. While few films have been as disastrous as Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo, which saw constant illness, arguments, plane crashes, and even death, there have been many instances in which unfamiliar climates and opposing personalities have led to troubled on-set atmospheres.
This was true for a certain 1975 film that contained icons Gene Hackman and Liza Minnelli, who simply didn’t get along with each other at all. While Hackman was riding the heights of fame following acclaimed performances in the likes of Bonnie and Clyde, The French Connection, and The Conversation, Minnelli was better known for her musical theatre background, having cut her teeth on Broadway while recording various albums, too.
Though Minnelli was a serious actor, she certainly starred in a different genre of films than Hackman, for the most part, and their personalities were strikingly opposite. When they were cast in Lucky Lady, which also featured Burt Reynolds, the pair butted heads a few times, while the isolated Mexican filming location didn’t exactly help, either.
In Reynolds’ book But Enough About Me, the actor revealed the tensions that pervaded over the set while the filming of Stanley Donen’s movie took place. “Gene Hackman is a good actor. He’s tough, and Liza is so boop oopy doop, it didn’t sit well with him. Every once in a while he’d go, ‘Liza, shut the fuck up!’ We’d all have to walk off the set until he cooled off. Gene’s not a bad guy, but he allowed Liza to distract him.”
Evidently, Hackman seemed to be much more uptight, with Reynolds adding, “Gene wasn’t the easiest to work with either. You’d do the rehearsal one way, and when you got to the take, he’d say, ‘You’re not gonna do it that way, are you?’ He’d do that to Liza, and she’d fall apart.”
Much of the film was shot at sea, which wasn’t the most ideal set-up for a pleasant shooting experience – add in a group of actors who don’t get along with each other, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster. It seems like Hackman didn’t have the patience to deal with such a big and bubbly personality as Minnelli’s, and this lack of chemistry certainly had an effect on the film’s reception.
Lucky Lady was seen as a massive failure, and not only did it find plenty of critical disdain, but it went hugely over budget, too. It was a far cry from Donen’s most acclaimed works, which includes Singin’ in the Rain, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and Funny Face, marking a period of decline for the filmmaker.
Unfortunately for Minnelli, the film would be one of various flops she appeared in during the mid-1970s, and since then, her appearances on the big screen have been much less frequent. Meanwhile, Hackman’s career continued to thrive, and he would keep on landing prominent roles in movies like Superman and Night Moves over the coming years.
