Cranky Critic Star Talk
Interview With Gene Hackman
November 2001
 
by Paul Fischer
In a career spanning close to four decades, Gene Hackman is more
than just an actor, he's a celebrated Hollywood institution. Often cast
as tough characters, the Oscar winning star of The French Connection,
has appeared in some of American cinema's great classics, and some
not-so-great ones. From his quietly understated performance in Francis
Ford Coppola's The Conversation, through Popeye Doyle in The French
Connection, Hackman's characters continue to leave an impression on
the consciousness of audiences the world over. Who can forget such films
as Downhill Racer, I Never Sang for my Father, The Poseidon Adventure,
Scarecrow, Night Moves, or even his fiendishly funny Lex Luthor in three
Superman movies. More recently, Hackman delivered powerful performances
in Hoosiers, Mississippi Burning, Crimson Tide, Enemy of the State and
Unforgiven. Over 80 films since making his initial debut in 1961, Hackman
says that the passion for his craft has never waned. Currently on screen in
David Mamet's Heist, Hackman continues to display his virtuosity as a tough
naval commander in the contemporary war actioner Behind Enemy Lines, and
as the father of a highly dysfunctional family in Wes Anderson's richly textured
dark comedy The Royal Tenenbaums. Ferociously private, Hackman rarely does
press, but changed his mind in order to talk about his two latest films and talks
of acting, war and a life in the movies with our Paul Fischer, in LA.

CrankyCritic: What presented you with the greatest challenge: your character
in Behind Enemy Lines or Royal Tenenbaums?

Gene Hackman: Well, they're so totally different. The hard part about Behind
Enemy Lines was, being in the aircraft carrier; we actually were on the Carl
Vincent for a short while, and they were doing night take offs and landings, so,
that was tough. And it was like a totally different kind of environment to be in.

CrankyCritic: Can you talk about getting Owen [Wilson] involved in Behind Enemy
Lines and were you already attached to Royal Tenenbaums at that point?

Gene Hackman: I had met Wes Anderson prior to having seen Shanghai Noon, but
I didn't know that Wes was involved in writing the script of Tenenbaums. It was just
one of those strange coincidences.

CrankyCritic: Ben Stiller, when talking about Royal Tenenbaums, mentioned that
the first thing he did when working with you was ask about The Poseidon Adventure.
Is that an occupational hazard and is that one of the reasons you tend to stay
shy with the public all these years?

Gene Hackman: Well, I suppose Ben saw that film when he was a mere child, you
know, so I have that occasion to meet younger actors now who may have seen me
in things when they were quite young. So, that's a funny experience, actually, to
want to be treated as a fellow actor, and yet people look on you as this person
who has been around for a thousand years; it's kind of uncomfortable at times.

CrankyCritic: With the film Behind Enemy Lines, do you use your previous experience
in the Marines to help get into such a movie?

Gene Hackman: Yes, I do, actually. I like to get a sense of what it should be like,
and you know. Even though I wasn't an officer in the marines, I still had a sense of the
kind of decorum one needs in the service - so yes.

CrankyCritic: Is there still this feeling in the military that 'we won't leave one man behind',
a theme explored in the movie?

Gene Hackman: I think there is, yes. I'm sure it depends on the situation. But it makes
for a fascinating kind of premise for a film.

CrankyCritic: Do you look back on your past work at all or do you try to get focussed
on what you're doing now?

Gene Hackman: Yeah, I always just do the work. I can never ask myself, you
know, how I did this in such and such a film - that never works.

CrankyCritic: Do you have a favorite film?

Gene Hackman: Well, some of my favorite films have to do with things that may
be people didn't particularly like them, or didn't go to see them. Things like Scarecrow
which was not a big successful film, but it was a film that I really loved doing.

CrankyCritic: Is it more important to play winners or losers, albeit intelligent
losers, but in the case of both of these films, losers just the same?

Gene Hackman: You know, doing character work as an actor is much more fun
than doing a leading man. You have many more things that you can play, you can
pretend to be good and really be bad, and the opposite also. There are just a lot
of things that you can do. So, I like playing things that have some emotional sting
to them, some conflict. I probably love conflict more than anything.

CrankyCritic: Wes Anderson has talked about how hard a time he had getting you
to do the role in Tenenbaums What actually changed your mind in the end?

Gene Hackman: I wish I had a really clever answer to that, but I'll tell you the
honest truth. I was in Montreal, down to the last week of [shooting] Heist, and I
was having so much fun as an actor, and I realized I only had a week to go, and
I knew that Tenenbaums was going to be done within about 6 or 8 weeks, if I
committed to it. So I just called my agent and said, Let's do it. So I mean, I wish
I could say that it was because it was a great script, which it was. But I was
tired and yet I was still kind of committed to the work.

CrankyCritic: Earlier, you said that near the end of The Heist, you were happy
acting. And it sounded like you're not always happy when acting. Is that true?

Gene Hackman: Well, I act out of a kind of angst, that it's never good enough
and it's never what I would like it to be, and I wish we had more time, and all
that. And usually by the end of the film, or towards the end of the film, I start
getting more relaxed and maybe better. I don't know. But that's what I was
referring to - at the end of The Heist, I wanted it to go on. And the only way for
it to go on was to take another film right away.

CrankyCritic: Is it difficult to do a movie with all this comic timing and lack
of rehearsal?

Gene Hackman: Well, you know, for film, I like not to rehearse too much,
because you can keep it fresh that way, and you can then rehearse on the
company's time, while you're on the set. And then there's that kind of sense
of immediacy about trying to get it right before you go in front of the camera.
I like that tension, that kind of - the need, hey, we've gotta get this thing done,
and there's always something good comes out of that.

CrankyCritic: We've heard a lot of actors complain that they find it harder to
get work as they get older. You work an awful lot.

Gene Hackman: The work is harder now. I suppose because I care more than
I did earlier - to small degrees, and that I like the work. I find it challenging and
so consequently it becomes harder.

CrankyCritic: Do you find you still get offered the same stuff as maybe
10 years ago?

Gene Hackman: Yes, there are very few good scripts around.

CrankyCritic: Even for someone like you.

Gene Hackman: Yes.

CrankyCritic: Are you still tenacious in chasing certain parts?

Gene Hackman: I never chase parts. I mean, usually the things are
kind of around and my agent, Fred Specter, will find them.

CrankyCritic: Why don't you do more comedy?

Gene Hackman: I do whatever's offered to me. You know, there are not a lot
of comedies offered to me.

CrankyCritic: As an actor, do you think the events of September 11 will
change the way you work, in terms of travel?

Gene Hackman: No, I don't think it will change. I'm just speaking for myself
and I don't have any real reason to say that, except that my gut feeling is
that it probably won't change.

CrankyCritic: Did those events affect you personally?

Gene Hackman: Well, like everybody, I'm a little leery of getting on a commercial
airplane. You know, I think we all have that. There are kind of inconveniences
that we experience in the airports that we're not used to, but I think we have to
get used to. I feel real bad about innocent people that were killed in New York,
and also in Afghanistan. I think all of us feel that way; that nobody wants children
and innocents killed, but I mean, these are very trying times to us.

CrankyCritic: Do you see a film like Behind Enemy Lines as a new kind of war film?

Gene Hackman: I would think that probably my idea about taking this film had
more to do with the events [in it]. I like the idea that an American pilot was
shot down; of his adventure of trying to escape, and the people behind him,
how they reacted. So I didn't think of it in terms of Second World War or
present day happenings, but more of just that event.

CrankyCritic: Back to the Tenenbaums for a minute. I noticed that every
frame was very precisely balanced, visually. Can you talk a little bit about
working that aspect of it with Wes. You know, the visual thing being as
important as the character work?

Gene Hackman: Well, a lot of times as an actor, we're not always aware of
the visual of what the director's work is headed in terms of how he's setting
a shot up. In this film, a lot of the shots were very static, as you just mentioned.
And so as an actor who likes to get up and be physical and instill a lot of
behavior in my characters, that was somewhat off-putting at first, until I
recognized what he was trying to do. It's an interesting process because
it takes a lot more focus, and you can't dissipate your energy through
behavior and one thing that you have to focus on. It's a way of making
films that for a certain kind of film, it works quite well.

CrankyCritic: The New York Times called Wes Anderson a master
director at 31. Having now worked with him, do you agree?

Gene Hackman: Well, I understand that he's a young man who has a
concept, and a lot of people don't - a lot of people do - a lot of young people
do films that they've seen before - they just remake something. They might
call it something else, but it really looks like a lot of films that we've seen.
And to his credit, this film does not look like a lot of other films. At least,
that's my idea.

CrankyCritic: After all the movies you've made, what works for you - what
keeps you fresh. What is it you still get out of making them?

Gene Hackman: Well, I like the interplay between the other players. I like
the exchange, the conflict, the kind of tension that happens, and how one
is able to deal with that, and trying to elicit from the other person some kind
of response. And you get going in this kind of ping-pong match, let's say, and
that's exciting to me. To make those kind of - or to be part of making that kind
of thing work.

CrankyCritic: Can you talk a little bit more about your experience in the Marines
and how that corps has changed over the years?

Gene Hackman: Well, I volunteered when I was in the Marines, I don't think
the military changes that much, you know. The technology changes, and the
governments needs change. But in terms of the military, it's pretty much the
same probably since in the 30's, that there are certain things that you are
required to do, and that will probably always be true. It's - I think it's the
governments that change.

CrankyCritic: Other than talent, what else has kept you working at such
a steady clip?

Gene Hackman: I suppose I like the idea of committing to something - once
I decide to do something then I commit fully to it. And I've never felt that you
can kind of skate through a part and make it work. I think that the idea of
being kind of - to use a word that we used to kick around at the Actors Studio -
to be natural is not really very interesting. And people spend a lot of their time
in this business trying to be natural. There's a difference between that and
being real - being real is trying to find something - you set yourself a task,
something to work on. So when you're working on it, you make the difference
between something real and something natural. That may sound kind of abstract
and esoteric, but that's - for me - that's the essence.

CrankyCritic: What do you like to work when you're not working?

Gene Hackman: I paint a little, and I'm working on my book, and I'm getting
ready to go to sea, maybe. We are talking about buying a boat and do a
little cruising.

CrankyCritic: What do you like about writing?

Gene Hackman: I found over the last 4 or 5 years since I've really been
writing seriously, is that it's like acting in some ways, in that I can express
some kind of emotion and ideas about what I believe in, and not have 90
people in the same room while I'm doing it.

CrankyCritic: Do you like the isolation of being a writer?

Gene Hackman: Yes, I like that.

CrankyCritic: Why?

Gene Hackman: I don't know. It forces you to think about things that
may be important to you.

CrankyCritic: We've heard that you're now writing a book?

Gene Hackman: Yes, I am.

CrankyCritic: About?

Gene Hackman: This book takes place in 1929, just before the stock
market crash. And it takes place in the Midwest.

CrankyCritic: Is it true you were going to become a journalist after
leaving the marines?

Gene Hackman: Well, not really. Both my grandfather and my uncle were
both reporters, and I was always attracted to that. But I didn't even have the
schooling earlier on to do that.

CrankyCritic: You had this tough army life, so what prompted
the decision to go into the world of the arts ?

Gene Hackman: Well, I always wanted to do that from the time I was 10
years old. The Marine Corps just happened to be a kind of a weigh station
on the way to doing that, and it was lucky for me, because I grew up kind
of quickly in the Marine Corps And, then when I went to New York, it
came in handy.

CrankyCritic: What did your marine buddies say?

Gene Hackman: I don't think I ever told anybody in the Marines that I
wanted to be an actor, except that one of my first jobs in New York was
as a doorman at Howard Johnson's in Times Square, and I was standing
outside the door in a white uniform with green piping on it, and a Marine
Corps sergeant came down the street, who happened to be the sergeant
that recruited me. It was a strange coincidence, and he looked at me, and
he never stopped, but just said to me "Hackman, you're a sorry sonofabitch".

 
Original Source:  http://www.crankycritic.com/qa/pf_articles/genehackman.html
 
 
 



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