GENE’S NEAR-MISS — CONFIDENTIAL:
GENE HACKMAN’S performance as the sadistic sheriff “Little Bill” Daggett helped make “Unforgiven” one of the greatest Westerns of all time, and won Hackman an Oscar and a Golden Globe.
But Hackman’s (photo) star turn almost didn’t happen. The veteran actor initially turned the role down because it was too violent, says David Webb
Peoples, the writer of the film, which was released 25 years ago this week.
“Things could have been different. Gene’s daughters didn’t like all the violent movies he was doing,” Peoples recalled in a recent interview. “He was at a stage in his career where his family was more important than his work.”
Director and star Clint Eastwood paid Hackman a visit, and convinced him that the movie — about a reformed gunfighter who comes out of retirement to avenge a brutal attack on a prostitute — wasn’t a celebration of violence. “And God bless Gene; he listened to Clint and together they produced something awesome,” says Peoples. “Gene was a revelation.”
Peoples understands near-misses — he spent two decades trying to get “Unforgiven” made before Eastwood turned it into a reality. Ridley
Scott — the director of “Blade Runner,” also written by Peoples — was interested, then Francis Ford Coppola.
But neither moved forward, and the project stalled — until it fell into Eastwood’s hands. Eastwood not only directed and starred in the movie, he cast it, produced it and wrote the bulk of the score.
“The only reason the movie got made, and got made the way it was written, was because of Clint Eastwood,” says the grateful screenwriter. “He made everything happen. It’s amazing what he did with it.”
Though when Peoples first saw the movie — which took home a Best Picture Oscar as well as Best Director for Eastwood — his reaction was markedly different.
“I was very moved, but I didn’t think it would be intelligible to an audience,” he says. “I was too close to it emotionally, and I couldn’t imagine the audience seeing it with the sound mix and everything.” Now, “I’m in awe of it.”
David says he has considered a sequel, and took a stab at a second Western, but found it a struggle.
“It began to sound like I was imitating ‘Unforgiven,’ and I didn’t want that,” he says. “I’ve never quite solved that, so it’s still sitting here unfinished. Maybe it’ll get done one day, who knows?”