By BOB SHRALUKA
WZBD.com
Dave Anspaugh has absolutely no desire to denigrate the deceased. However, asked about his time with Gene Hackman, Anspaugh answers honestly: “He was a handful.”
Tales of how difficult Hackman was on the set of “Hoosiers” have floated around for years. Asked over the weekend if they were true, Dave replied: “He was troublesome … to say the least. And it wasn’t just me; he was that way with Angelo (Pizzo, screenwriter) and others.”
The two-time Oscar winner, 95, and his wife, 65, were found dead in their Santa Fe home on February 26. Funeral arrangements are pending.
Hackman, of course, portrayed Coach Norman Dale in “Hoosiers,” which has become one of the most popular movies – sports and otherwise – ever.
Anspaugh, who directed the film, has high praise for Hackman’s work in the movie. But…
“Every day I went to work, I wondered if it would be the last day. Gene was always threatening to walk – right to our faces,” the Decatur native remembered.
Didn’t he have a contract?
“He didn’t care.”
Dave talks about a scene, the first one done by Hackman for the film, in which the actor crosses the street going to a barbershop and sees several town residents sitting outside.
“What is this, Andy of Mayberry?” Hackman yelled at the director and others.
“He just wanted to have the upper hand at all times,” explained Anspaugh, who lives in Bloomington.
“Dennis Hopper didn’t come on the set for the first two weeks. We were told he would only make things worse. But that didn’t happen. Dennis was like a gift from God. He helped smooth things out some.”
Looking back, Dave says: “My theory is that had I not been young and doing my first feature film, that he would never have behaved that way. Had I been Clint Eastwood, Woody Allen, John Huston, someone like that, I think it might have been different.
“I was told Gene was like that with young directors. He knew it was my first feature film. It was one of those things that if you had proven yourself, even if you were young, he wasn’t so bad, so hard to deal with.”
For all the problems he caused, though, Hackman’s work in “Hoosiers” was all that could be asked.
“His work (in the film) was just perfect,” Dave said. “He nailed Norman Dale. He took great pride in his work.
“While many actors like to add things, Gene would go through the scripts with Angelo and I and he would say, ‘Let’s take out these two lines. I can act that.’ And he would. Perfectly.”
