The unforgettable bad news Tom Hanks gave Charlize Theron: “Actors can be very precious”
As an up-and-coming actor, the last thing you want after landing what you hope will be a breakout role is to get a call from the filmmakers announcing that your scenes have wound up on the cutting room floor.
There’s an argument that this situation could be considered a macabre right of passage for many actors. After all, plenty of big names have had their scenes cut from huge projects over the years while still in the early days of their careers. A young Adrian Brody had his part dramatically reduced in Terence Malik’s The Thin Red Line, while Shailene Woodley had her role as Mary Jane Watson in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ditched entirely.
Both have gone on to have very successful careers, as has Charlize Theron, despite the unfortunate decision by Tom Hanks to substantially cut down her part in his directorial debut That Thing You Do! in 1997. You might think that Theron, a star performer with a reputation for not taking crap from anyone in the industry, would have reacted negatively to such a call, but when it’s Tom Hanks calling, apparently, bad news can be delivered gracefully.
Theron recalled in an interview that upon picking up the phone to Hanks, the actor gave her a rather flattering compliment to take the sting out of letting her down. “Charlize, I have some good news, and I have some bad news,” he said. “The bad news is that I have to cut some of your scenes. The good news is you are like Marilyn Monroe in All About Eve.”
Theron appears to look back on this particular episode now with some humour, although the news would have no doubt been disappointing at the time. However, Hanks wasn’t really off with his comparison between Theron and Marilyn Monroe at all, given how both actors’ careers turned out.
Monroe was cast in a small supporting role in the timeless classic All About Eve and, rather notoriously, was left vomiting after a gruelling scene with Hollywood powerhouse Bette Davis. However, the film’s positive reception was a major catalyst in boosting Monroe’s acting credentials and helped catapult her to legendary star status several years later.
While Theron did not have to endure the same hardships as Monroe whilst making That Thing You Do! like Monroe, her career definitely began to take off in the aftermath of her bit-part, going on the next year to star in the commercially successful The Devil’s Advocate with Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves.
Indeed, reflecting further on that fateful conversation with Mr Hanks, Theron remarked that she believes it taught her a valuable lesson: “Actors can be very precious about their work and their scenes, but I think good actors have a strong understanding of narrative and are very often not as precious about that stuff. They just can’t be because they understand what makes for a better film and that it’s the job of the actor to work toward that, and then if you want, you can go to acting classes or workshops. But making movies is not workshops.”
Although it’s more than likely that Theron was not completely satisfied at the time with being cut, there are certainly worse ways to be let down by a director. We can’t imagine many actors who wouldn’t be at least slightly flattered by having Tom Hanks personally call them up and compare them to a Hollywood icon like Marilyn Monroe.
At least he didn’t receive the same treatment as one unfortunate bank teller who got on the wrong side of Theron before her career took off.
