Acting is a very strange profession. Unlike so many other jobs in the entertainment industry, it’s a vocation that has always been and will always be vague and mercurial, with no two people performing it the exact same way. That quality, of course, is what keeps it fascinating and endlessly entertaining; when we enjoy an actor, we’re enjoying some combination of their skill and their own natural charisma and persona, as well as the way they interact and react to other people, creating a chemistry without an exact formula. The various methods which actors use to create a performance might seem incompatible on paper, and indeed, one of the tasks of a director is to find ways to blend a cast together so that a film can actually be completed. Try as they might, sometimes a problem crops up where two actors just can’t find a way to communicate and collaborate.
The biggest key element in overcoming this obstacle involves the actors having two traits in common above all else: respect and trust. They don’t have to utilize the same methods of performance, but if they have respect and trust for one another, then there’s simply not going to be a problem. Take, for example, 1987’s “No Way Out,” a brilliantly deceptive and tense neo-noir directed by Roger Donaldson. The majority of the film concerns a cat-and-mouse back-and-forth between a young Navy officer, Tom Farrell, and the Secretary of Defense, David Brice, two roles tailor-made for an nascent actor and a veteran star, respectively. Donaldson cast a young Kevin Costner in the role of Tom, just as Costner was beginning to emerge from bit parts into leading roles (the same year, he played the lead in “The Untouchables”). In the role of David, he cast Gene Hackman, a well-established powerhouse who suffered no fools. In the midst of Hackman’s unfortunate recent passing, an interview with Costner from a few years ago resurfaced in which he praised Hackman as the best actor he’d ever worked with. The reason why has everything to do with both men having mutual respect and trust for each other, with their encounter enriching both of them with a reminder of how special acting can be.
Costner stands up for his creative instincts
As I mentioned earlier, while shooting “No Way Out,” Costner’s career was in a delicate position. He’d appeared in small, supporting roles throughout the early 1980s, and it wasn’t until 1985 that he garnered some meatier parts in films like “Fandango,” “Silverado,” and “American Flyers.” Cast in both “The Untouchables” and “No Way Out” on the strength of those performances and the building buzz around him as an emerging star, Costner inherently knew that these leading roles were make-or-break moments for his future in the business. While “The Untouchables” was a bit more of a straightforward tough-guy hero lead, “No Way Out” presented some tricky challenges, as the actors and Donaldson needed to work in conjunction in order to keep the film riveting and thrilling while never revealing all of their cards until the very last scene of the movie.
It’s likely this knowledge and the tension created by it that led Costner to put his foot down when it came to the blocking of certain scenes. Costner, who would go on to become an award-winning director just a few years later in 1990 with “Dances With Wolves,” had an instinct that he and Hackman were playing too many scenes around David Brice’s desk. As the actor recalled during an interview in 2017 on The Rich Eisen Show, he eventually decided to challenge Donaldson’s choices:
“When this scene came up, we had been doing every scene to that point around a desk, just like this. Every scene. I finally said to the director, ‘Look, I don’t feel like it’s right.’ Gene Hackman’s standing there, listening. ‘I feel like it’s over here.” And it was like, the director and I really butted heads on it. Gene’s just, like, listening. And finally, for whatever reason, I said, ‘I don’t care, it’s here.’ And I hated to do that, but I just said, ‘It’s here. And I don’t need all of our scenes [at the desk], it’s here.’ So we did it.”
After Costner convinced Donaldson to re-block the entire scene (which would require a new setup for the camera department, the rest of the crew, and so on), the question came up of whether this change would be okay for Hackman, who hadn’t said anything. Costner, still on a roll, presumptively but flatteringly waved away any concerns on Hackman’s behalf, as he recalled:
“At one point, it was like, ‘Well, what’s Gene gonna do?’ And I said, ‘Gene will figure out what to do. Because he’s really good. Gene will figure out what to do.'”
Hackman was inspired by Costner’s integrity
After all those discussions and arguments were settled, the “No Way Out” cast and crew went on to shoot the scene Costner’s way, and apparently the new concept worked well enough that, as Costner pointed out, “it’s the scene now that’s in the movie.” Still, although the day’s work got done and everyone appeared to be happy with it, a now less heated Costner was worried that he’d overstepped, especially with regards to Hackman and his reputation. As he recalled, his encounter with Hackman at the end of that day was a surprisingly touching one:
“As I was walking out to my car, on the MGM lot, Gene was getting in [to his car], and he goes, ‘Hey [gestures], I wanna talk to you.’ And I walked over, and he goes, ‘Look, man. If you ever do that in front of me again, I’m just gonna—the way you disrespected, I’m just gonna tear you—’ That’s not what he said. That’s what I thought he was gonna say. He looked at me and he said, ‘Hey, y’know, I went through a divorce. I’ve been doing a lot of kinda questionable movies lately. And when I saw you fighting for what you wanted today, it reminded me of how I used to feel about acting. It was good, what you did.’ And then he just got in his car and drove off.”
It’s this encounter which caused Costner to dub Hackman the best actor he’s ever worked with, and it’s easy to see why. Costner stood up for the respect of the material and his performance, he trusted Hackman to be able to follow his lead, and this entire incident led to the two men and the rest of the film’s cast and crew making a successful, quality film. While Hackman may have been self-critical in his comments to Costner that day, the breadth of his filmography proves that he always kept a keen eye on his craft more often than not. It’s the mentality which eventually led to his retirement in 2004, a choice which the man never walked back. While both Hackman and Costner have delivered numerous screen performances of incredible depth and verve, it’s not the quality of their work which caused them to mutually admire each other so much as the quality of their character. Hackman and Costner are indeed two of the best actors to have ever lived, and while we say a fond farewell to the former, we’re blessed with the latter still being here, where he’s still fighting for his art.