No matter what you feel about a project, be the best you can be, because sometime, somewhere, someone will see it
— Gene Hackman
 
I spent yesterday with Gene Hackman. I went back to the overlapped dialogue between him and Denzel Washington in Crimson Tide. His final diatribe with his Maker before leaping to his death in The Poseidon Adventure. His viciousness in The Unforgiven, watching his work opposite Clint Eastwood--also in Absolute Power. His comedic turn in The Birdcage with Robin Williams. And his super villainy in the Superman series.
His ability to pull off the cheesy and the complex with such ease and elan, was what endeared him to audiences over generations. And me, over decades.

The grit in his gritty performances came from an instructor telling a young Hackman that he “wouldn’t amount to anything”. A Marine officer who saw him as a doorman said “Hackman, you’re a sorry son of a bitch”. Rejection motivated Hackman, who said: