Ahead of the Cannes premiere of his latest film, The Phoenician Scheme, Wes Anderson reflected on the 12 (going on 13) features he’s made, including his approach to keeping costs down while employing elaborate world-building set designs.
In a new interview with The Times U.K., the Oscar winner reflected on how his breakthrough sophomore film Rushmore, starring eventual frequent collaborator Bill Murray, cemented his flat-fee salary approach for all talent, to the chagrin of the late Gene Hackman. (Murray agreed to the same rate as a then-unknown, just-legal Jason Schwartzman, provided he could leave for a golf tournament.)
“Gene was very annoyed about the money,” Anderson said of the pic that followed the aforementioned 1998 feature, 2001’s The Royal Tenenbaums, which marks one of Hackman’s final performances. “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 film’s cast also includes Owen Wilson, Ben Stiller, Luke Wilson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelica Huston, Danny Glover and Alec Baldwin as Narrator.)
Anderson added that he did not keep in touch with the veteran performer, who died at the age of 95 earlier this year of severe heart disease and advanced Alzheimer’s. “Not a word. 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,” he stated.
The filmmaker noted the two last spoke following the film’s release, saying, “He liked [the movie]. But he told me he didn’t understand it when we were shooting. I wish I’d shown him 10 minutes, early on. Then, maybe, he would have said, ‘OK, I get it.’”
Anderson’s comments echo Murray’s sentiments shared a couple months ago, in which he called Hackman a “tough nut” who often gave Anderson a “rough” time on set. “He was a tough nut, Gene Hackman, but he was really good and he was really difficult. Like, we can say it now, but he was a tough guy because older great actors do not give young directors much of a chance. They’re really rough on ’em. Gene was really rough on Wes and I used to kind of step in there and just try to defend my friend.”
