Was Luke Wilson to blame for Gene Hackman’s poor behaviour on ‘The Royal Tenenbaums’?
The Royal Tenenbaums makes a solid claim for the crown of Wes Anderson’s finest outing. Boasting an all-star cast of Gene Hackman, Angelica Huston, Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow, Bill Murray, Luke Wilson and more, the director’s absurdist twist on the trope of a dysfunctional family – with a hefty dose of J.D. Salinger thrown in – remains a highlight of 2000s cinema. As is well known, the dysfunctionality of the Tenenbaum’s also has some authenticity, with production often tense due to what cast members have claimed as Gene Hackman’s poor behaviour. Yet, was some of this down to Luke Wilson? We’ll come to that in a second.
It says a lot that Bill Murray – who recently came under fire for his alleged sexual misconduct on set – agreed that Hackman was a pain during production. From being horrid to Wes Anderson to having a tense relationship with Angelica Huston, there are numerous anecdotes about his disgruntled antics when shooting the 2001 film. However, in his account, Murray blames Luke Wilson for some of Hackman’s cantankerous outbursts.
For the 10th anniversary reunion of The Royal Tenenbaums at the New York Film Festival 2011, Huston, Paltrow, Murray and Anderson reflected on Hackman’s on-set behaviour (per The Hollywood Reporter). “He was sort of forced to do the movie,” said Anderson. “I just kept bothering him. I wore him down. I don’t even have that much access to him, so I don’t know how I went about that, but eventually he just caved.”
“Well, he’s weak,” added Murray with his deadpan humour. “Gene is weak. That’s what we found. When you challenge someone like Gene, you find his weakness.”
Elsewhere, Huston admitted that she was slightly intimidated by Hackman, who she claimed was better to the women on set than the men. Naturally, this made her concerned for Wes Anderson. “He told you to pull up your pants and act like a man,” she told the director. “I don’t know that we’ve heard from or seen Gene since this movie.”
Presenting a balanced account that must still be taken with a grain of salt, Murray defended Hackman at the reunion. He said: “I’ll stick up for Gene too… I’d hear these stories, like, ‘Gene threatened to kill me today.’ ‘He can’t kill you, you’re in a union.’ ‘Gene threatened to take all of us and set fire to us.’ ‘It’s a union shoot, it’s New York, he can’t set fire to you.’…”
Murray then noted Wilson’s alleged infatuation with Paltrow, which bothered Hackman due to his co-star’s inability to concentrate properly and finish the job. Interestingly, Luke Wilson has not featured in a Wes Anderson film since The Royal Tenenbaums.
Bill Murray said: “(Gene) does his thing and it takes about 50-60 seconds, and Luke blew his line 13 or 14 times. Luke Wilson. I thought Luke was good? He’s not good. Because at the time, he was in love with this girl over here (Paltrow) and he couldn’t think straight. So that’s the problem with Gene. He had to work with Luke who was dizzy in love.”
Not finished, Murray tore into the late Kumar Pallana, who played Pagoda in the movie, saying he made Wilson look like famed thespian John Gielgud. He concluded: “How many of you have worked with Kumar? None of you! You wouldn’t be here if you had. Kumar makes Luke Wilson look like (John) Gielgud. If I had to work with Kumar and Luke Wilson, I would have set fire to this whole building.”
