Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between.
Today we discuss perhaps the greatest living actor: Gene Hackman! Conor and I are joined by one of our good, good friends Mitchell Beaupre! Senior Editor at Letterboxd, co-host of their Weekend Watchlist podcast (as well as the brand new podcast Acting Out with Ryan and Mitchell), and contributor to great sites like The Film Stage (!), Paste Magazine, The Playlist, and Little White Lies. Our B-Sides today are: All Night Long, The Package, Heartbreakers, and Welcome to Mooseport.
We talk Hackman’s beginnings, Mitchell’s superb piece on Hackman’s spectacular 2001, the actor’s own reflections on his accomplished career, his mid-career hiatus, and – finally – his frequent combativeness with his directors. Additional topics include Tommy Lee Jones’ wild ‘90s, Jennifer Love Hewitt’s recollection of Heartbreakers (both the good and the bad), the work of René Descartes, Nicolas Roeg’s Hackman-starring epic Eureka, and the iconic Fox television show Party of Five.
For more from The B-Side, you can find every actor/director and the films discussed in one place here.
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