Movies - TV
Why Gene Hackman Initially Turned Down Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven
By MIKE SHUTT
In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, Gene Hackman was on a run of action films and there were two people who were not that thrilled with the career choices he was making: Gene Hackman's daughters. It's not that they weren't happy with him making action movies, what upset them was the level of violence in these movies.
In an interview, "Unforgiven" writer David Webb Peoples, said Hackman almost passed on the role of Little Bill because “Gene's daughters didn't like all the violent movies he was doing. He was at a stage in his career where his family was more important than his work. And God bless Gene; he listened to Clint and together they produced something awesome."
Thankfully he did not listen to his daughters, who were 30 and 26 years old at the time, and agreed to do the movie. Particularly because "Unforgiven" not only marked his second Oscar win, but it was Hackman's final nomination before his retirement, which is now approaching 20 years.