(Credits: Far Out / 20th Century Fox)
Thu 11 September 2025 3:30, UK
There can be no doubt that Gene Hackman is one of the greatest and most recognisable actors of all time. Whether as a grizzled cop, a repenting father, or a badass cowboy, he was the kind of guy who always left a memorable mark.
If you were a child in the late 1970s, chances are you know Hackman as the world’s most evil property developer (which is really saying something), Lex Luthor.
The main antagonist of the 1978 film Superman, Hackman’s take on the bald baddie sees him cause a series of earthquakes to plunge a large section of the United States into the ocean, increasing the value of land he owns. A lot of people credit Christopher Reeve with bringing the ‘Man of Steel’ to the big screen, but, had Hackman not been there to act as his foil, there’s every chance he might have never gotten off the ground.
Unfortunately, in typical Hackman fashion, he found something to moan about. Despite getting the chance to play one of the most iconic villains in comic book history in a movie that would be a financial and critical success, the double Oscar-winner found a lot of Superman quite boring. As described in Michael Munn’s book Gene Hackman, the titular subject matter wasn’t impressed by the number of hold-ups caused by Superman flying in and out of scenes.
“That sort of movie is a terrific holiday for most actors but it has the reverse effect on me,” he said. “The more technical a film becomes the more inhibited I am. Therefore, the harder I have to work… As an actor your energy and attention level become somewhat dissipated by the amount of energy going into that and when it comes time to do your section, it gets a little soft.”
‘You’ll believe a man can fly’ was the much-touted tagline of Richard Donner’s cherished superhero romp. This was Superman’s first major movie outing, so his trademark trick had to look the part and, for the most part, it still does. It took a lot of hard work, though. Hugely complicated wire rigs were built and attached to large cranes to allow Reeve to land and take off in one fluid motion. There were stuntmen used, but Reeve actually performed a lot of the flying himself. This might have looked spectacular on the big screen, but up close and personal, waiting up to two hours at a time for the crew to reload the rigs clearly began to irritate some of Reeve’s co-stars.
This wasn’t the only issue Hackman had with Superman. He had been tricked into shaving off his iconic moustache to play Luthor, which must have put him in a bad mood from day one. Also, this is Gene Hackman we’re talking about. The man could have started an argument in an empty room.
Ultimately, he couldn’t have cared that much about the constant waiting, because he returned to play Luthor twice more. He even came back for the god-awful Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, playing Lex and lending his voice to the almighty ‘Nuclear Man’. Maybe Hackman got over his hatred of the dreaded wires. Or, most likely, he saw how much they were paying him.
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