The movie almost derailed by Gene Hackman’s moustache: “He was going to beat the shit out of me”
By the time he called it a day as an actor, Gene Hackman had amassed a filmography that would make anybody jealous. Starting his career in the 1960s, he broke through in movies like Bonnie and Clyde and The Gypsy Moths. He won his first Oscar for William Friedkin’s The French Connection before going on to continuously find work until he hung up his boots in the mid-2000s.
Another of Hackman’s many great contributions to cinema is the ‘Superman’ franchise. He played The Man of Steel’s archnemesis Lex Luthor in three films between 1978 and 1987, battling the superhero both solo and whilst teaming up with General Zod. His involvement was one of the many reasons why the first ‘Superman’ film worked so well, but he very nearly crashed the entire project for the most ridiculous reason.
Richard Donner, who directed 1978’s Superman, spoke to IGN about working with Hackman on the set of the film. “I met him at a publicist’s office when I first got hired to do the job,” he said. “I was talking to his publicist, and he said Gene was there, and I should meet him, so I did. He was nice.” Unfortunately, things soured pretty quickly after that. “I said, ‘You know, Gene, one thing that’s really essential in this is that Lex Luthor is bald. I think it would be a pain in the ass to have to wear a skullcap – do you want to just shave your head?’ And he said, ‘No skullcaps, and I’m not shaving my head.’ I said, ‘Oh. Well, Lex Luthor’s bald – everyone knows he’s bald.’ And he said, ‘Nope. I’m not doing it. Next.’ ‘At least you’ll take the moustache off, won’t you?’ He said, ‘The moustache stays.’”
Hackman’s moustache was an iconic part of his look, but it would have clashed wildly with Luthor’s famously smooth visage. Donner needed a way of getting his star to go clean-shaven, so he hatched a devious plan worthy of any comic book supervillain.
When Donner had first met Hackman, he was also sporting a moustache, but he’d gotten rid of it before filming started. He instructed one of the makeup artists to give him a false tache before he spoke to Hackman again, which was essentially to his scheme. “I said, ‘I’ll tell you what – I’ll take mine off if you take yours off.’ He looked at me, and he said, ‘Oh yeah?’ I said, ‘Yeah’ He said, ‘Okay. Okay. Alright.’ He was in the make-up chair. I said, ‘Stuart, take Mr. Hackman’s moustache off.’ And he started to shake. I said, ‘Stuart, take his moustache off now!’ So Stuart used an electric razor to cut it off. He shaved it clean. Gene was sitting there, and then he looked over and said, ‘Okay, it’s your turn, pal.’ I looked at him and just took the edge of my moustache, and I peeled it off.”
Donner had got his wish, but now he had to deal with the consequences. “He looked at me – and his neck from his head to his shoulders started to throb – and I knew he was going to beat the shit out of me. He looked, and then a smile came on his face and he started to laugh, and he said, ‘You got me. I owe you one.’”
Not only was Donner able to get Hackman to look more like Luthor, but he also made a big impact on one of the greats. “From there on in he became, to me, one of the lights of my life,” the director admitted. “As both a friend and a great actor.”
