Key keywords: Gene Hackman, on-set crude behavior, actress misconduct allegation, Hollywood workplace harassment, 1990s film production controversy, showbiz accountability, celebrity inappropriate conduct Elena Marino, a character actress who appeared alongside Gene Hackman in the 1997 crime thriller *Under Cover of Night*, made the explosive allegations during a recent episode of the *Hollywood Untold* podcast, ending 26 years of silence about her traumatic experience on the production. Marino was 22 years old at the time of filming, fresh out of drama school and cast in her first major studio role, while Hackman was 67, a two-time Academy Award winner and the highest-billed star on the project, giving him near-unchecked authority over cast and crew decisions per multiple former production staff accounts. The first documented incident occurred two weeks into filming, when Marino walked past Hackman’s private trailer on her way to hair and makeup, and he shouted a loud, sexually explicit comment about her form-fitting rehearsal outfit, prompting raucous laughter from the group of male crew members standing with him. When she froze and looked back at him in shock, he just shrugged and said “relax, kid, it’s a compliment” before turning back to his conversation. A month later, Marino was changing out of a water-soaked stunt costume in a designated cast changing tent when Hackman entered without knocking, while she was only wearing undergarments. Instead of apologizing and leaving immediately, he stared at her for several seconds, made a lewd comment about her “nice figure” and walked away without further explanation. When Marino reported the incident to the film’s line producer the next day, she was told to “let it go” because Hackman was “irreplaceable” to the $45 million project, and that making a formal complaint would get her written off as a difficult actor before her career even started. For the rest of the 3-month shoot, Marino says Hackman continued to make crude jokes directed at her, often in front of other cast and crew, and would deliberately bump into her on set when no one was looking. She says she suppressed memories of the experience for decades, until the 2017 #MeToo movement prompted her to connect with other women who had experienced similar misconduct on 1990s Hollywood sets. Marino says she decided to speak out now not to seek financial compensation, but to remind young actors entering the industry that they do not have to tolerate abusive behavior from more powerful cast members, regardless of their fame or status. As of press time, representatives for Gene Hackman, who retired from acting in 2004 and has rarely made public appearances in the past 15 years, have not responded to requests for comment on the allegations. Several other former crew members who worked on *Under Cover of Night* have come forward on social media to corroborate parts of Marino’s story, saying they witnessed Hackman making inappropriate comments to multiple female cast and crew members during production, but were too afraid of losing their jobs to speak up at the time.