Warren Beatty of the film, he credited Hackman with giving the "most authentic performance in the movie, so textured and so moving," recalls Dunaway. He was impressed with Gene Wilder after seeing him in a play and didn't even need him to audition, in what became Wilder's screen debut. And Beatty had already known Pollard: "Michael J. Pollard was one of my oldest friends," Beatty said. "I'd known him forever; I met him the day I got my first television show. We did a play together on Broadway." "Bonnie and Clyde" went on to be a critical and commercial success, despite the
Faye Dunaway "Network". I saw the promise of a comeback for me in the deglamorized face of Wanda, a woman of sweet vulnerability." The film was a small success at the box office, but received excellent reviews from critics and Dunaway earned her sixth Golden Globe Award nomination, for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama. Pauline Kael wrote that "Dunaway plays the self-destructive Wanda with a minimum of fuss... she wins your admiration by the simplicity of her effects", and Roger Ebert felt that both Rourke and Dunaway "take their characters as opportunities to stretch as actors, to take changes and do