Wes Anderson admits Gene Hackman 'wasn't gung-ho' to be filming The Royal Tenenbaums

Director Wes Anderson has admitted late actor Gene Hackman "wasn't gung-ho to be there" on the set of his 2001 movie The Royal Tenenbaums.

After The French Connection actor passed away in February, his Royal Tenenbaums co-star Bill Murray revealed that Hackman was "difficult" and "really rough on" Anderson during the making of the offbeat comedy.

During an interview with Empire magazine, Anderson confirmed that Hackman wasn't thrilled to be playing family patriarch Royal Tenenbaum at the time but ended up liking the finished film.

"He wasn't gung-ho to be there," Anderson remembered. "But he was the guy for the part. I don't think he ever felt that during the movie. I think he felt it when he saw it when it was finished. He did tell me then that he liked the movie very much. But we felt it every time we made a scene with him. He was doing something that had a certain epic electricity to it."

The Royal Tenenbaums, which marked Anderson's third feature, starred an ensemble cast including Gwyneth Paltrow, Anjelica Huston, Ben Stiller, Danny Glover and Luke and Owen Wilson.

Murray previously told The Associated Press that he sometimes had to "step in and just try to defend" his frequent collaborator Anderson because "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."

In February, Hackman died from heart disease with complications from Alzheimer's disease around a week after his wife Betsy Arakawa's death. He was 95.

Murray appears in Anderson's upcoming movie, The Phoenician Scheme, which will compete for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival later this month.