{"id":24767,"date":"2025-03-18T09:07:29","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T13:07:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=24767"},"modified":"2025-03-18T09:07:30","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T13:07:30","slug":"anspaugh-hackman-was-a-hoosiers-handful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/18\/anspaugh-hackman-was-a-hoosiers-handful\/","title":{"rendered":"Anspaugh: Hackman was a Hoosiers ‘handful’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By BOB SHRALUKA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WZBD.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dave Anspaugh has absolutely no desire to denigrate the deceased. However, asked about his time with Gene Hackman, Anspaugh answers honestly: \u201cHe was a handful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tales of how difficult Hackman was on the set of \u201cHoosiers\u201d have floated around for years. Asked over the weekend if they were true, Dave replied: \u201cHe was troublesome \u2026 to say the least. And it wasn’t just me; he was that way with Angelo (Pizzo, screenwriter) and others.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hackman, of course, portrayed Coach Norman Dale in \u201cHoosiers,\u201d which has become one of the most popular movies \u2013 sports and otherwise \u2013 ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
David Anspaugh (pointing) directs, from left, Michael Sassone, Robert Swan, Barbara Hershey and Gene Hackman<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Anspaugh, who directed the film, has high praise for Hackman’s work in the movie. But…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery day I went to work, I wondered if it would be the last day. Gene was always threatening to walk \u2013 right to our faces,\u201d the Decatur native remembered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Didn’t he have a contract?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe didn’t care.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat is this, Andy of Mayberry?\u201d Hackman yelled at the director and others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe just wanted to have the upper hand at all times,\u201d explained Anspaugh, who lives in Bloomington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
David Anspaugh<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDennis 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking back, Dave says: \u201cMy 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For all the problems he caused, though, Hackman’s work in \u201cHoosiers\u201d was all that could be asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHis work (in the film) was just perfect,\u201d Dave said. \u201cHe nailed Norman Dale. He took great pride in his work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By BOB SHRALUKA WZBD.com Dave Anspaugh has absolutely no desire to denigrate the deceased. However, asked about his<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[17,15],"class_list":["post-24767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","tag-community","tag-featured"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24767"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24770,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24767\/revisions\/24770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}