The main trait Tony Scott observed of Gene Hackman: “A perfectionist”
It would be easy to look at Hollywood icon Gene Hackman and believe his glittering acting career came without any struggles or periods of self-doubt. However, the two-time Oscar winner and star of films like The French Connection and Unforgiven endured fallow periods where he struggled to work on successful projects after he received the Academy Award for ‘Best Actor’ in 1972 for The French Connection.
“Gene’s a perfectionist,” the late director Tony Scott, who worked with Hackman on the action thrillers Crimson Tide and Enemy of the State, said of the actor. “He never does anything in half measures. He’s an icon. A very strong guy, very tough, very straightforward and honest. He can’t abide indecision. Yet there’s such a myriad of colour and passion inside of him. When he was younger, it was more on the surface. Now that he’s older, it’s more inside. But he still communicates it; you still see it.”
Hackman, who appeared in his last film for the 2004 political satire Welcome to Mooseport, is synonymous with his character acting and playing the antihero role in The French Connection and Mississippi Burning. He worked under British director Scott, who was the younger brother of Alien and Gladiator director Ridley Scott, in the mid-1990s when Hackman was landing a role as a coup for any director following the success of Unforgiven in 1992.
However, the actor went through a difficult period when financial difficulties compounded his lack of successful films. Scott was used to working with big names after working with Tom Cruise when he directed Top Gun and Days of Thunder before he collaborated with Hackman.
“From the 1970s to the mid-1980s after The French Connection, I did four or five films in a row that were not successful commercially but were thought of as being artistically OK,” Hackman said. “And then when they didn’t work, I thought, ‘Well, to hell with this, I’ll just do whatever’s given to me. I don’t have to read the script; just tell me how much money they are gonna pay me, and I’ll do it.'”
“I had spent too much, and I had a lot of tax shelters that didn’t work. I owed the government four million dollars. I was just barely hanging in, taking pretty much anything that was offered to me and trying to make it work,” Hackman told Cigar Aficionado in an interview in 2000.
Even after his decades of success in cinema, Hackman revealed that he struggled to watch his own films. This pointed to both the self-conscious and modest traits of the actor, which belies the egotistical persona associated with Hollywood A-listers.
“I don’t watch my films unless I absolutely have to. I get very nervous. It’s more my perception of myself or my desire of what I would like to look like,” he added. “All I see are the double chins and the bags under the eyes, and the receding hairline. When I see it on the screen, I have no idea if it’s good, bad or indifferent. I can’t be objective. I leave it up to other people to tell me.”
This vulnerability of Hackman points to the mental health issues within the film industry where individuals, behind the facade of fame and glamour, high-profile actors and directors suffered from depression. This was the case with Hackman’s former director, Tony Scott, who tragically ended his own life in 2012.
“Tony was always sensitive to the needs of an actor,” Hackman said of Scott following his death. “We’ve lost a wonderful, creative talent.”
