The festive fantasy movie that left Tom Hanks “exhausted”
The festive period feels like the perfect time to stick a Tom Hanks movie or two on the television as the family gather around to witness the true wonders of his endless talent. Whether it be the intensity of Saving Private Ryan or the humour of The Terminal, Hanks is always good for a Christmas cinematic moment.
Those wanting the real deal when it comes to Hanks and Christmas, though, ought to look no further than his actual Christmas movie, The Polar Express. The 2004 animated adventure film, directed by Forrest Gump’s Robert Zemeckis, is based on the 1985 children’s book of the same name by Chris Van Allsburg and tells of a young boy who boards a mystery train heading for the North Pole on Christmas Eve.
Alongside Hanks featured Nona Gaye, Jimmy Bennett and Eddie Deezen, and the truly remarkable facet about the casting is that Hanks actually voiced and motion captured five characters, including the Hero Boy, his father, the conductor and Santa Claus, a brilliant feat, even if it was an experience that left the actor feeling “exhausted”.
Explaining the challenging nature of the role in an interview with IGN, Hanks noted, “Well, when Bob explained it enough to me so that I could understand the process we were doing would make it possible for grown-ups to play the kids, that Nona could play the girl and I could play the boy, and Eddie Deezen and Peter Scolari could come along with it, that opened up a lot of opportunities for one aspect of it…”
The legendary actor continued: “Bob, at one point, said, ‘I think you should play every role in this movie because then we could do it. You could play every role!’ Forgive me, Bob. But I said, ‘Well, wait a minute. There’s girls in this movie. I’m going to play every elf?’ He said, ‘Yeah, it’ll be great.’ There’s only so much that I can internally grasp as an actor, and on the day of tests that we did, I played five or six or seven roles in the course of that day, and I said, ‘Bob, I’m exhausted here.'”
Even an accomplished actor like Hanks might feel that playing five characters in a movie is a stretch too far, but somehow, he managed to stand up to the task. Playing two characters is quite common practice, but five? What’s worth remembering is that The Polar Express used motion capture, so it’s not like Hanks merely had to speak the lines but had to act out each character’s movements, too.
Signing off on his thoughts on playing so many characters at once, Hanks said, “So in my mind, I had a track on the five characters that I played. I could understand the differences between them all, and I understood how they related to the boy, and I understood what the boy’s perceptions of them were. And it was just a circumstance where it was doable…”
The fact that The Polar Express came out even in a remotely watchable form is a testament to Hanks’ sheer prowess as an actor. His dedication to the craft, even when physically exhausted, is nothing short of extraordinary and even though the 2004 festive fantasy is not the greatest Christmas film of all time, it still serves as a reminder of Hanks’ quality.
