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 blind rage at the one sin Hollywood never forgives in its leading ladies: growing old." In his 1996 book "Making Movies", Sidney Lumet slammed Dunaway's reputation for being difficult as "totally untrue", and called her a "selfless, devoted, and wonderful actress". Director Elia Kazan described Dunaway as "a supremely endowed, hungry, curious, bright young talent", and added: "Faye is a brilliant actress and a shy, highly-strung woman. She is intelligent, and she is strong-willed." Like Lumet, Kazan felt she was not difficult, but a perfectionist who was never satisfied. "The artist is rarely, if ever, satisfied. The artist is frequently