Gene Hackman’s death has led many to look back on his remarkable career and at many of his best performances. Among those great performances is his work as Royal Tenenbaum in Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums, but now, the director is offering new details about how how reluctant Hackman was to sign on to the project.
“Gene was very annoyed about the money,” Anderson said in a new interview with The Times, explaining that Hackman was reluctant to take a flat fee for the film. “He was furious. Also, he didn’t want to do the film anyway. I talked him into it — I just didn’t go away.”
Anderson said that he adopted that model on his previous film, Rushmore, when Bill Murray agreed to work for the same amount as Jason Schwartzmann, who was much younger and less established at the time. “He said he would do the movie and offered to work for the same amount as Jason — the kid,” Anderson explained. “He said, ‘I’ll take what he’s taking, but I have to be able to leave for a golf tournament.’”
Hackman was the only member of The Royal Tenenbaums cast to put up a fight about the pay structure. “Everybody else said yes to the salary, so Gene just went with it — and that just became our way,” Anderson said.
The director also said that he didn’t keep in touch with the late actor after filming had wrapped.
“Not a word,” Anderson said. “In fact, he left without saying goodbye. He was grumpy — we had friction. He didn’t enjoy it. I was probably too young and it was annoying to him.”