Wes Anderson recently revealed that Gene Hackman was “furious” over the payment of The Royal Tenenbaums.
For the unversed, the late American actor depicted the role of Royal O’Reilly Tenenbaum, the family patriarch in The Royal Tenenbaums, which was Anderson’s third drama film as a director.
In a talk with The Sunday Times, the 56-year-old American filmmaker, who was 23 years old in 2001, reflected on the infamous tension that existed on the set of the 2001 comedy-drama film The Royal Tenenbaums because of late actor Hackman, who left the set without saying goodbye.
Anderson shared, “Gene was very annoyed about the money. He was furious. Also, he didn’t want to do the film anyway. I talked him into it — I just didn’t go away. And everybody else said yes to the salary, so Gene just went with it — and that just became our way.”
The Oscar-winner went on to admit that he did not contact Hackman after the film’s premiere, stressing, “Not a word” they shared and “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.”
Anderson also mentioned that he last spoke to Hackman when the movie was opening, highlighting that “he liked it.”
“But he told me he didn’t understand it when we were shooting. I wish I’d shown him ten minutes, early on. Then, maybe, he would have said, ‘OK, I get it,’” the director of Asteroid City noted.
It is pertinent to mention that other than Gene Hackman, The Royal Tenenbaums had an ensemble cast, including Bill Murray, Gwyneth Paltrow, Anjelica Huston, Ben Stiller, Luke Wilson, and more.
