“We went down many different avenues”: The closest Tom Hanks came to being an action hero
Tom Hanks is one of those actors who can do pretty much everything, always shining, be it as a leading man, a supporting sidekick, or even in a brief cameo.
From a man seeking justice for unfair dismissal to a talking cowboy doll to the array of nightmare-inducing rubber-faced weirdos he played in The Polar Express, if you see his name in the credits, you know you’re in for a good time.
One genre that has mostly eluded ‘America’s Dad’ across his career is action, not that he’s completely averse to brawling, but when he does, it doesn’t usually end well. His three outings as Dr Robert Langdon in the Dan Brown-inspired Da Vinci Code series are never discussed in conjunction with his best work. That’s pretty much it when it comes to Hanks’ forays into action cinema. He’s spoken publicly about his issues with the format, but he actually came close to starring in one of its most famous productions.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, screenwriter Graham Yost discussed one of his biggest successes, Speed. The 1994 movie about a ‘bus that couldn’t slow down’ (one for the Simpsons fans there) famously stars Keanu Reeves as LAPD bomb disposal expert Jack Traven. However, as Yost revealed, he was not the first choice for the role.
“We went to the Toms first,” he said, “Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks… I think Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson were going to do Money Train. We went down many different avenues”.
The part of Traven was offered to just about everybody in Hollywood. When the movie was initially conceived, martial artist Jeff Speakman was attached as the lead, before 20th Century Pictures ultimately moved him on. Stephen Baldwin turned the part down because he thought it was too similar to John McClane in Die Hard, which was a bad thing, apparently, and then there are all the stars Yost referred to. Hanks would have probably been making Forrest Gump at the time, so you can see why he wasn’t cast.
Though he’s considered action royalty these days, Reeves was a bit of an outside choice at the time. He was mainly known for his comedy work, such as the Bill & Ted series, but from the moment he arrived on set, the team knew they had got their man.
“He drove up on a motorcycle at Disney,” Yost continued, “He’s six foot whatever, and already had a cool haircut, and was long and lean. He’d done Point Break, so we knew he could handle a gun and be cop-like. We were looking for that ease and that sort of cop-ishness.”
Would Speed have the stellar reputation it has these days with Hanks in the lead role? I don’t think so. Reeves is such a perfect fit as the cocky, hot-headed Traven that it’s hard to imagine anyone else playing him, even someone as good as Hanks. He just isn’t made for these kinds of surface-level movies, and that’s fine, as not every actor is made for every role, even if Hanks does come pretty close.
