Anderson describes the process: "About two years before we starting filming, my agent Jim Berkus set up a meeting with him. I enjoyed the meeting and he was very nice and encouraging. He said he'd be happy to read the script but said I shouldn't tailor a part specifically for him, that it was usually bad luck."
"I told Wes not to write the part specifically for me," Hackman says. "Generally speaking, don't like things written for me — or rather I don't like having to be restricted to somebody's idea of who I am. So we had this nice chat. I told him not to do it, and then he went off and did it anyway!"
"I guess it's fair to say that after our meeting, he passed," Anderson says. "I appealed again, and he passed again. I had my brother do a drawing of the cast with him at the center and sent it to him, and then I sent him another draft and dozens of letters. I was essentially stalking him, even though for a while I had no personal contact with him.
"His agent wanted him to do the film but I think he was overwhelmed with a lot of other projects at the time. I think the one thing we did h ave going on our side was the fact that I wasn't sure I wanted to do the movie if he wasn't going to do it. I think that made him stop and rethink his decision. His agent told me that he read him my last letter over the phone, and Gene said, 'I guess maybe I should do it'."
Hackman appreciated the character of Royal Tenenbaum. "There's a lot to this guy - he's complicated. He's coming to terms with his mortality and I think he really is coming to terms with the fact that he's been so selfish his whole life, and I think he's genuine when he says he wants to make amends and get back with the family and feel some love."
The theme of family also appealed to the actor.
"Good families always keep trying," Hackman says. "No, things aren't always going to work out smoothly, but the best families keep going no matter what somebody does to you. The families t hat fall apart are the ones that don't care enough."
Anderson wrote several other roles with specific actors in mind. One was for Luke Wilson who plays Richie, the tennis star and youngest Tenenbaum. Wilson appeared in Anderson's two previous films and is the brother of Owen Wilson.
"I wanted us to write Luke a fuller, more complex role than we had previously," Anderson says. "I felt there was this potential for Luke. There's a gentleness about him that comes across clearly. He's someone who can be soft-spoken, good natured, really sweet-tempered..."
That aspect of Wilson's personality is reflected in the film in the romantic longings Richie has long harbored for his adopted sister Margot, and in the fact that the character pursues a solitary hobby—he raises falcons he keeps in a coop on the roof of the family's house.
"But there's a dangerous side to Luke," the director adds. "I've seen some things. You can tap into something real there and I wanted to make that quality part of the character, too."
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