GOSSIP & RUMORS: Kevin Costner chokes up over Gene Hackman in resurfaced clip

An untouchable legacy.

An interview in which Kevin Costner recalled an emotional exchange with Gene Hackman that left him choked up resurfaced Thursday after news of the “French Connection” star’s mysterious death broke.

Hackman, 95, his wife, classical pianist Betsy Arakawa, 65, and one of their three dogs were found dead at their Santa Fe, New Mexico, home on Wednesday. The deaths are still under investigation by local police, but according to the sheriff of Santa Fe County, Hackman may have been dead for over a week before the couple’s bodies were discovered by a maintenance worker.

As tributes to Hackman poured in this week, Costner, 70, was among those who posted a clip from the 2017 sit-down he did with sports commentator Rich Eisen.

In the video, Eisen asks the “Yellowstone” star what it was like to be on set with Hackman, who he starred alongside in the 1987 political thriller “No Way Out.”

“I would say probably Gene was the best actor that I’ve ever worked with,” Costner told Eisen at the time.

“People ask all the time, you know, ‘Who is the best actor? Who is the biggest star? Who is the blah blah blah?’ The line is long for the great actors I’ve been able to work, it really is,” the Oscar winner added.

Costner then went on to share how a confrontation he had with “No Way Out” director Roger Donaldson in front of Hackman about blocking led to a memorable moment that has stuck with him for decades.

“We had been doing every scene to that point around a desk,” Costner recounted. “Every scene. I finally said to the director, ‘Look, I don’t feel like it’s right,’” he added, noting that the entire time, “Gene Hackman’s standing there listening.”

Costner told Donaldson, “I feel like [the scene should be] over here.”

“And it was like, no one is saying anything and the director and I really butted heads on it,” he recalled.

“Finally for whatever reason – and Gene’s just, like, listening. And finally, for whatever reason, I said, ‘I don’t care. It’s here.’ And I hated to do that but I just said, ‘It’s here. And I don’t need all of our scenes here. It’s here.’ So we did it.”

Costner also said that Donaldson tried to push back on his idea, asking what Hackman would do if the scene was changed.

“Gene will figure out what to do – cause he’s really good!” Costner remembered telling the director, who finally caved in. “I do the scene and we do it all day. It’s the scene now in the movie.”

At the end of the day, as the “Field of Dreams” star was getting into his car on the MGM studio lot to drive home, Hackman stopped him for a talk. Terrified that he was about to be reprimanded for how he behaved on-set, Costner was pleasantly surprised by what Hackman said.

“He looked at me and he said, ‘Hey, you know I went through a divorce [recently], I’ve been doing a lot of kind of questionable movies lately, and when I saw you fighting for what you wanted today … it reminded me of how I used to feel about acting,” an emotional Costner remembered being told by Hackman, who divorced his first wife, Faye Maltese, in 1986.

“He said, ‘It was good what you did.’ And he just got his car and drove off.”

Posting the clip on Instagram, Costner called Hackman his “favorite actor” and said the moment was said the moment was “really huge for him.”

“Gene Hackman was my favorite actor, and I was lucky enough to work with him more than once. Sharing a story that I told years ago with @richeisen—a moment with Gene that showed me that his generosity and vulnerability ran even deeper than his well of talent. This moment was probably small for him, but really huge for me. As an actor, a man, and even a director.

“My heart is with Gene, his wife, and his family today. I’m lucky to have gotten to learn from him in this life.”