‘Tough nut’ Gene Hackman ‘really difficult’

Bill Murray has given a very honest assessment of Gene Hackman, saying the “brilliant” Oscar winner wasn’t always the easiest person to work with.

Bill Murray has given an honest assessment of the late Gene Hackman, describing him as “brilliant” but someone who could be “difficult” to work with.

Murray starred alongside the screen legend in the 2001 indie hit, The Royal Tenenbaums, which was directed by Wes Anderson who was just 32 at the time.

“He was a tough nut, Gene Hackman. But he was really good,” Murray said in an interview about Hackman who was found dead in his New Mexico home alongside his wife, Betsy Arakawa, and one of the couple’s dogs.

Gene Hackman, Wes Anderson and Bill Murray on the set of The Royal Tenenbaums. Murray has revealed Hackman was "difficult" on set. Picture: Supplied

“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.”

Hackman played the family patriarch, Royal O’Reilly Tenenbaum, in the comedy-drama, which also starred Gwyneth Paltrow, and helped establish Anderson as a director.

Murray said that he once watched Hackman “do like 25 takes where he did it perfectly with an actor who kept blowing it every single time.”

“Gene would do it perfectly, the other actor would blow it and I’d go like, ‘Oh, God.’ I was watching it going, ‘No wonder this guy wants to throttle people,’” Murray said.

“And then he sort of gave an ordinary performance and the other actor got it right and I thought Gene was going to throw the actor off the ledge of the building,” Murray recalled.

Murray elaborated on his comments further during an appearance on the Drew Barrymore Show.

“I sympathise with Gene because to him, Wes Anderson was just a punk kid and Gene’s made some of the greatest American movies. So he was a little irritable,” Murray said.

“But he had to work with children, dogs, Kumar [Pallana, who played valet Pagoda], who was like an absolute mystery to all of us anyway. They put him in very challenging positions to work, and so he just felt a lot of responsibility and kept thinking, ‘What am I doing here with these people?’ But the performance he gives is brilliant. And I watched him, and I suffered with him because I saw what he was going through.”

When Barrymore asked if Hackman eventually came around to liking the film once he saw the final cut, Murray said he believes so.

“He was not an ignorant man, he was a bright guy. When he saw the movie, he had to go, ‘Well, I acted like a jerk.’ I’m sure he did, because when you see the movie, it’s a real piece of work,” Murray said. “Wes Anderson makes great movies and so does Gene Hackman, and you put them both in the same room and what are you going to get? You’re gonna get a good movie.”

Murray concluded his tribute with: “So goodbye, Gene, I hope you’re well wherever you are.”

WORLD MOURNS ACTING GREAT

It comes as the world continues to mourn the cinematic great who died at the age of 95.

The screen legend was found dead alongside his wife and dog at their New Mexico home.

Prince William, who is the president of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) and has attended the awards ceremony in London many times with the Princess of Wales, posted an emotional tribute on X.

The royal called Hackman a “true genius of film” with “star quality”.

He said: “So sad to hear the news of the death of Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy.

“Hackman was a true genius of film who brought each and every character to life with power, authenticity and star quality. W”.

Clint Eastwood, who directed and starred with Hackman in 1992’s Unforgiven, said in a statement: “There was no finer actor than Gene. Intense and instinctive. Never a false note. He was also a dear friend whom I will miss very much.”

Tom Hanks paid tribute to Hackman’s unique style. “There has never been a ‘Gene Hackman type’. There has only been Gene Hackman.”

Oscar nominee Antonio Banderas sent his condolences to “friends, family and cinema lovers” on Instagram and X: “A very sad day for the cinema’s family. Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa have passed away. My deepest condolences to friends, family and cinema lovers. RIP.”

Star Trek star George Takei described Hackman as a “true giant” and a “powerful actor”.

“We have lost one of the true giants of the screen,” Takei wrote on social media.

“Gene Hackman could play anyone, and you could feel a whole life behind it. He could be everyone and no one, a towering presence or an everyday Joe.

“That’s how powerful he was. He will be missed, but his work will live on forever.”

Acclaimed American director Francis Ford Coppola, also paid tribute to his The Conversation star.

“The loss of a great artist, always cause for both mourning and celebration: Gene Hackman a great actor, inspiring and magnificent in his work and complexity,” Coppola wrote on Instagram with a photo of the two on set. “I mourn his loss, and celebrate his existence and contribution.”

Oscar-winner Viola Davis also paid tribute to the star.

“Loved you in everything! The Conversation, The French Connection, The Poseidon Adventure, Unforgiven — tough yet vulnerable,” Davis wrote on Instagram. “You were one of the greats. God bless those who loved you. Rest well, sir.”

Actor Josh Brolin said he was “crushed” by the loss.

“I am crushed by the sudden deaths of Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa (and their dog). Crushed,” Brolin wrote on Instagram. “He was always one of my favourites. Not many who beat to their own drums like he did. Rest in Peace.”

The British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) said it was “saddened” by Hackman’s death.

“We are saddened to hear that the much-celebrated actor Gene Hackman has died aged 95,” it wrote on X.

“Hackman’s illustrious career spanned over six decades and earned him BAFTA wins for his work in Unforgiven, The French Connection and The Poseidon Adventure.”

We are saddened to hear that the much-celebrated actor Gene Hackman has died aged 95.

Hackman's illustrious career spanned over six decades and earned him BAFTA wins for his work in Unforgiven, The French Connection and The Poseidon Adventure. pic.twitter.com/hwgqpff5sZ

— BAFTA (@BAFTA) February 27, 2025

Valerie Perrine, who starred as Lex Luthor’s girlfriend Eve Teschmacher opposite Hackman in Superman, said on Instagram that her former co-star was a “genius” and one “of the greatest to grace the silver screen.”

Shaun of the Dead director Edgar Wright remembered Hackman as “the greatest,” while House of the Dragon star Steve Toussaint described him as “one of the very, very best” and said that “everything you ever wanted to know and learn about the craft of screen acting could be found in any, ANY of his performances.”

Gene Hackman in scene from film "Mississippi Burning".

HACKMAN WAS ‘INCAPABLE OF BAD WORK’

Gene Hackman, who died aged 95, was once voted as likely to flop in showbiz but instead went on to enjoy a storied, Oscar-winning career as an everyman actor who mined personal pain to give intense, edgy performances.

Hackman is perhaps best known for his portrayal of the tough and vulgar New York cop Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle in the 1971 crime thriller “The French Connection.” Its five-and-a-half-minute car chase scene — in which Doyle crashes his way through bustling city streets, grunting, grimacing and honking as he pursues a bad guy who has commandeered an elevated train — is the stuff of Tinseltown legend.

Three-time Golden Globe winner Gene Hackman has been found dead at his home, aged 95. Picture: AFP

Hackman won his first best actor Oscar for that film. He won another golden statuette two decades later for best supporting actor for his portrayal of the brutal small-town sheriff “Little Bill” Daggett in the 1992 western “Unforgiven.” He earned three more Oscar nominations during a five-decade career in which he appeared in 80-odd films.

“He’s incapable of bad work,” Alan Parker, who directed Hackman in the 1988 civil rights drama “Mississippi Burning,” told Film Comment magazine that year.

“Every director has a short list of actors he’d die to work with, and I’ll bet Gene’s on every one.”

HACKMAN’S FILMOGRAPHY: BEST MOVIES

French Connection (1971)

One of the greatest thrillers ever made, Hackman won the best actor Oscar for his obsessive New York Detective Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle on the trail of international heroin smugglers.

William Friedkin’s action-packed yarn never lets up for a second, and its car chase under the elevated Brooklyn subway has gone down in film legend.

The Conversation (1974)

The following year Hackman hit gold again opposite Al Pacino as two drifters in “Scarecrow”, winning the Palm d’Or at Cannes. And he hit still greater heights in “The Conversation”, playing a paranoid, secretive surveillance expert having a crisis of conscience in Francis Ford Coppola’s thriller.

‘Mississippi Burning’ (1988)

Drawn from the real-life FBI investigation into the disappearance of three civil rights activists in the Deep South in 1964, Hackman plays a former Mississippi sheriff who uses his southern wiles to smoke out the Ku Klux Klan members responsible for their murders.

‘The Unforgiven’ (1992)

Hackman played the odious Sheriff “Little Bill” Daggett in Clint Eastwood’s western, which the Los Angeles Times called the “finest since perhaps John Ford’s ‘The Searchers’ in 1956”. Hackman won the best supporting actor Oscar. Eastwood also starred as his nemesis, retired gunslinger Will Munny.

‘The Royal Tenenbaums’ (2001)

Hackman played the pater familias of an eccentric over-achieving New York family, who has to explain to his grown-up children why he and his wife (Anjelica Huston) are separating. Chaos ensues in Wes Anderson’s whimsical black comedy.

— With AFP

Originally published as ‘Tough nut’ Gene Hackman ‘really difficult’