{"id":599988,"date":"2026-07-23T08:29:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T08:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/599988\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T08:29:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T08:29:14","slug":"will-ferrell-recalls-chance-encounter-with-very-intimidating-gene-hackman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/599988\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Ferrell Recalls Chance Encounter With \u2018Very Intimidating\u2019 Gene Hackman"},"content":{"rendered":"

Will Ferrell shared he once \u201cbriefly\u201d met legendary actor Gene Hackman, who he described as \u201cvery intimidating.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comedic actor opened up about his chance encounter with the two-time Academy Award winner<\/a> while promoting his new Netflix show, \u201cThe Hawk,\u201d alongside co-star Luke Wilson. The pair played a round of \u201cWas I In This Movie?\u201d for GQ, where Wilson\u2019s performance in Wes Anderson\u2019s dramedy \u201cThe Royal Tenenbaums\u201d was mentioned.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came to \u2018The Royal Tenenbaums\u2019 set because the same hair people on the \u2018Tenenbaums\u2019 were the \u2018Zoolander\u2019 hair people,\u201d Ferrell, who played Mugatu in the Ben Stiller-led comedy, recalled. \u201cAnd I had to get my \u2018Zoolander\u2019 hair retouched up.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cAnd then I see Luke hitching up his pants, walking over to set. [He said], \u2018Yeah, I\u2019m going to walk over to set. I\u2019m not even working today. I just want to\u2026 Gene Hackman may leave the movie.\u2019 But he didn\u2019t!\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"the-hawk-will-ferrell-netflix\"\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Wilson backed Ferrell\u2019s recollection of the set visit, adding, \u201cHe didn\u2019t, he was great. He would just sometimes \u2026 he, you know, had a bad temper at times. But great, probably my favorite actor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferrell then admitted that he \u201cbriefly met\u201d Hackman during his visit to the \u201cTenenbaums\u201d set, sharing, \u201cHe asked me if I was in the picture. \u2018Are you doing something in the picture?\u2019 And I go, \u2018No, I\u2019m not.\u2019 He was very intimidating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson agreed, noting, \u201cYeah, he was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hackman, 95, and his wife Betsy Arakawa, 65, were found dead in their Santa Fe, New Mexico home<\/a> during a welfare check on Feb. 26, 2025. It was later ruled by the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator that Arakawa died from rodent-born hantavirus one week\u00a0before Hackman ultimately died\u00a0from cardiovascular disease and advanced Alzheimer\u2019s. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our father, Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy,\u201d Hackman\u2019s daughters and granddaughter<\/a>\u00a0said in a statement at the time. \u201cHe was loved and admired by millions around the world for his brilliant acting career, but to us he was always just Dad and Grandpa. We will miss him sorely and are devastated by the loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Darren\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Will Ferrell shared he once \u201cbriefly\u201d met legendary actor Gene Hackman, who he described as \u201cvery intimidating.\u201d The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[268],"tags":[434,18,117,144266,19,17,253878,95820],"class_list":["post-599988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-gene-hackman","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-the-royal-tenenbaums","tag-will-ferrell"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116968355513491477","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}