The one actor who was always jealous of Tom Hanks: “My self-esteem was so horrible”
There are plenty of reasons why an actor might be jealous of Tom Hanks. His popularity is a big one.Actors are nothing if not seekers of adoration. He’s also won a couple of Oscars, which is perhaps the most coveted prize a thespian could dream of. Then there’s his longevity. Having gotten his start in the 1980s, Hanks has been a consistent and beloved presence on screen ever since. That’s more than four decades of constant employment and acclaim, an enviable situation if ever there was one.
Hanks projects so much warmth and friendliness, though, that it’s hard to bear any negative feelings for him. He’s a forcefield against ill will, a man about whom seemingly no one (except that one guy who auditioned for Band of Brothers) can say anything bad. And yet, there was one actor who found the Forrest Gump star to be a painful reminder of what might have been.
Early in his career, Hanks got a small break when he was cast in the lead role in the sitcom Bosom Buddies. In the show, he and actor Peter Scolari played young advertising executives who decide to masquerade as women in order to live in the cheapest possible hotel, which happens to be female-only. It didn’t make either of them a household name, but it did give Hanks the opportunity to start guest-starring on more popular shows. His appearance on Happy Days introduced him to the writers and director (Ron Howard) of what would become his breakthrough film, Splash.
Whether Hanks’s ascent up the Hollywood food chain was pure luck or an inevitability based on talent and hard work is up for debate. Most likely, it was a combination of the two. But Scolari struggled with his co-star’s launch to fame. Bosom Buddies was cancelled after two seasons, and while Hanks moved from strength to strength, Scolari struggled to find his foothold in the industry.
“My self-esteem was so horrible,” he remembered. “I was always worried about disappearing. But my ego would suggest to me that I’m going to catch fire, and I’ll have a career like Tom’s. That’s never happened.” It’s an impossible standard to have for yourself, and even Scolari admitted that no one, not even other Oscar winners, has enjoyed a career as successful as Hanks’s. For a while, Scolari was determined to achieve it anyway and even told a reporter once, rather bitterly, that he could have had the same trajectory as his former co-star if only he’d gotten similarly lucky.
At that stage, Hanks was already on top of the world, but the remark made its way back to him, and it hit hard. Scolari was surprised that his now-famous former co-star had been paying attention, and he made sure that they ironed things out one-on-one. Still, he ended up feeling that his involvement in Bosom Buddies was, at least for him, a bit of a curse.
“I have a cross to bear that I’m a Bosom Buddy who didn’t go on to be an iconic figure,” he reflected.
When the show ended, Scolari continued acting in sitcoms and even earned several Emmy nominations for his performance in Newhart. He also had the opportunity to work in film, often alongside Hanks. His former co-star cast him in his directorial debut, That Thing You Do!, and acted alongside him in Robert Zemeckis’s The Polar Express.
