Ben Stiller on Gene Hackman’s Simple Truth

Opinion|Ben Stiller on Gene Hackman’s Simple Truth

Twenty-five years ago I found myself sitting in a director’s chair in Harlem next to Gene Hackman. I had been playing one of his sons in a world created by Wes Anderson, where somehow that made genealogical sense. He towered over me, both in height and stature. I don’t think my character was adopted but that might have been the back story we both created to justify the relationship.

I didn’t ever feel comfortable around him. His movies were deeply embedded in my consciousness. In a time before social media and constant entertainment news, he was truly intimidating to me. He was one of the four actors on my Mount Rushmore, with Al Pacino, Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman. When Gene Hackman said something onscreen, you believed him.

We had been filming “The Royal Tenenbaums” for about four weeks and we were waiting to film one of the final scenes of the movie, a long tracking shot that would end with him comforting my character, who had suffered a great loss. During the shoot I had found myself alone with him a couple of times, waiting to set up a shot or, after lunch had been called, walking back to the small trailers parked on a side street off Broadway. Each time, I had tried to think of something to say to him, to somehow acknowledge how much his work meant to me. It never felt right. But here we were sitting next to each other, and he seemed to not be doing anything. The shoot was going to be over soon and I’d probably never have a better moment to say something.

“Gene, I have to tell you something.”

I could feel the adrenaline surge through me. Even saying “Gene” felt adventurous. I felt a tingling in my stomach. He turned to me with a pleasant, curious smile. He had not seemed entirely happy on this shoot. While he was always courteous to me and the crew, I had gotten the feeling he didn’t feel as if he had any peers on this set, people he could be himself with. This is all speculation, but I felt he missed having a buddy on the set, a contemporary.

But in this moment he was as approachable as I’d seen him. I thought about all the times so many people must have told him about his incredible work in “The Conversation,” or “The French Connection,” or “Mississippi Burning." But I had wanted to tell him about the movie that really meant the most to me.

I recall saying something like, “I just have to say — and I know you have obviously done so many great movies, just, like, incredible performances …”