Wes Anderson opened up to The Sunday Times about the late Gene Hackman, recalling he “was furious” over his salary on The Royal Tenenbaums
“Also, he didn’t want to do the film anyway. I talked him into it — I just didn’t go away,” the filmmaker recalled of their dynamic
Anderson premiered his newest movie The Phoenician Scheme at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival on Sunday, May 18
Wes Anderson is recalling how The Royal Tenenbaums wasn’t the late Gene Hackman’s favorite project during his lifetime.
In a conversation with The Sunday Times ahead of the premiere of his newest film The Phoenician Scheme at the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday, May 18, the writer-director, 56, recalled how “Gene was very annoyed about the money” he was paid for Anderson’s 2001 dramedy.
“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 joked in the interview, published Saturday, May 17.
“And everybody else [in the cast] said yes to the salary, so Gene just went with it — and that just became our way,” he added.
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Gene Hackman and Anjelica Huston in The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Anderson went on to say he and Hackman spoke “not a word” to one another after they shot the movie, adding, “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.”
“And he liked it,” the director continued of Hackman’s opinion about The Royal Tenenbaums, after he saw the completed version. “But he told me he didn’t understand it when we were shooting.”
“I wish I’d shown him 10 minutes [of it], early on. Then, maybe, he would have said, ‘Okay, I get it,’ ” Anderson added in his conversation with The Sunday Times.
Anderson’s quotes come nearly three months after Hackman was found dead at age 95 alongside wife Betsy, 65, at their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Shortly following Hackman’s death, his Royal Tenenbaums costar Bill Murray recalled his “tough nut” personality in an interview with the Associated Press, though he noted, “But he was really good. 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,” added the Ghostbusters star, 74. “I used to kind of step in there and just try to defend my friend.”
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From L: Grant Rosenmeyer, Bill Murray, Danny Glover, Ben Stiller, Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Luke Wilson and Jonah Meyerson in The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
An official synopsis for Anderson’s newest movie The Phoenician Scheme, meanwhile, simply describes it as “the story of a family and a family business.”
In competition at Cannes this year, the film stars Benicio del Toro as rich European man Zsa-zsa Korda, who owns a significant business empire and is described as an international “maverick in the fields of armaments and aviation.” After his death in a plane crash, Korda leaves his wealth to his only daughter Liesel, a nun (played by Kate Winslet’s actress daughter Mia Threapleton).
The movie’s trailer includes a flirtatious appearance by Michael Cera, a robbery and a death in an elevator as it introduces audiences to a star-studded cast of characters portrayed by Riz Ahmed, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Mathieu Amalric, Richard Ayoade, Jeffrey Wright, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rupert Friend and Hope Davis, among others.
Anderson wrote The Phoenician Scheme with Roman Coppola, whom the filmmaker has collaborated with on previous movies of his like Asteroid City (2023), The French Dispatch (2021), Isle of Dogs (2018), Moonrise Kingdom (2012) and The Darjeeling Limited (2007).
The Phoenician Scheme is in theaters May 30.
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