'Difficult to work with' reputation?

Hackman gave the director of Hoosiers a lot of grief and often had a bad attitude, predicting the film would be a flop. And actor Chelcie Ross has said Hackman was also difficult during the filming of The Package.

Hackman told interviewer Larry King in 2004 that he has always had trouble with authority figures.

He is tough to work with. I hear nothing but great things about him off set though with fans.

The movie Hoosiers used a lot of Indiana residents as extras and day players (supporting actors who had one or two lines of dialog). Therefore, a large number of regular people got to meet Hackman during the filming. And they were universal in their praise of him, calling Hackman nice, down to earth, not pretentious, an occasional jokester. He was always willing to sign autographs and have his picture taken. It was the other actors, director, and writer/producer who saw the difficult side of him.