Bill Murray remembers working with ‘brilliant’ but ‘tough’ Gene Hackman on ‘Royal Tenenbaums’
Murray said Hackman likely saw director Wes Anderson as "just a punk kid" and wasn't afraid to be "rough" on him
Bill Murray remembered Gene Hackman’s brilliant acting, and occasionally irascible temperament on the set of The Royal Tenenbaums, following the news of Hackman’s death.
Murray happened to give two interviews yesterday where he spoke about Hackman, one to The Associated Press, the other on The Drew Barrymore Show. In both instances, Murray was equally frank about Hackman’s talents as he was about the hard time he gave director Wes Anderson during the shoot.
“He was a tough nut,” Murray told The AP, “but he was really good. And he was really difficult, we can say it now, but he was a tough guy. Older, great actors do not give young directors much of a chance. They’re really rough on them, and Gene was really rough on Wes. I used to kind of step in there and just try to defend my friend.”
Murray recalled a day when Hackman had to do “like 25 takes” of a long scene that required a lot of elaborate camera moves: Each time, Hackman “did it perfectly,” while his partner in the scene “kept blowing it.”
“I was watching it, going, ‘No wonder this guy wants to throttle people,’” Murray recalled. “And then he sort of gave just an ordinary performance, and the other actor got it right, and I thought Gene was gonna throw the guy off the ledge of the building.”
Murray echoed this sentiment on The Drew Barrymore Show, saying Hackman likely perceived Anderson as “just a punk kid.” (Tenenbaums was Anderson’s third film, following Bottle Rocket and Rushmore.) “They put him in very challenging positions to work, and he just felt a lot of responsibility and kept thinking, ‘What am I doing here with these people?’ Murray said. “But the performance he gives is brilliant.”
Despite these difficulties, Murray said he believed Hackman came around to The Royal Tenenbaums once it was finished. “He was not an ignorant man,” Murray said. “He was a bright guy, and when he saw the movie, he had to go, ‘I acted like a jerk.’ I’m sure he did because when you see the movie, it’s a real piece of work. Wes Anderson makes great movies, and so does Gene Hackman; you put them both in the same movie, what are you gonna get? You’re gonna get a good movie.”
Hackman, his wife, Betsy Arakawa, and their dog were found dead in their home in Santa FE, New Mexico, on Wednesday. A cause of death was not immediately available, and an investigation remains ongoing. While police have deemed their deaths “suspicious” — Hackman and Arakawa were found in different rooms, while pills were found scattered around Arakawa’s body — they do not suspect any foul play.
Tributes to Hackman have poured in from his many collaborators, peers, and fans, including Dustin Hoffman, Francis Ford Coppola, Clint Eastwood, Nathan Lane, Valerie Perrine, Viola Davis, and Josh Brolin.