10 Things You Didn’t Know About Christopher Reeve’s Superman
2. Richard Donner Used Facial Hair Trickery On Gene Hackman
Moving away from unhappy stories of studios and movie stars falling out, heres a nice little yarn from the set of Superman: The Movie. Gene Hackman is brilliant in the finished film, but the actor wasn't initially convinced by the role. He thought Lex Luthor would be detrimental to his career, and wasnt happy at the idea of shaving off his moustache for the part.
Director Richard Donner came up with a cunning plan to get around this facial hair dilemma. He hadnt yet met Hackman face-to-face, so he promised Hackman that hed shave off his own moustache (which didnt actually exist, since Donner was already clean shaven) if the actor did the same. Impressed by Donners spirit of camaraderie, Hackman agreed.
They met up on set, and Hackman shaved off his moustache. Donner then peeled off a fake tache that hed affixed, revealing to Hackman that hed been playfully manipulating him all along. Hackman wouldnt be fooled again, and flatly refused to shave his head.
To get around this, Hackmans own natural hair was styled in several weird and wacky ways to make it look like Lex had multiple different dodgy hairpieces. Donner managed to get Hackman into a skull cap for one scene, but other than that Hackman's natural hair is visible in every one of his scenes from the first movie.