The form of filmmaking Tom Hanks hated: “You were robbed of the greatest ally an actor has”
It goes without saying that Steven Spielberg is the most notable regular collaborator of Tom Hanks‘ career, with the dynamic duo forging a close bond both on and off-screen that’s been defined almost entirely by acclaim and success.
Of the five features they’ve made together – Saving Private Ryan, Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal, Bridge of Spies, and The Post – one of them is an all-time classic, every single one of them was a box office hit, and three of them have been nominated for ‘Best Picture’ at the Academy Awards.
In fact, the quintet has netted a combined haul of 21 Oscar nominations and multiple wins, cementing them as one of Hollywood’s powerhouse creative partnerships, and that’s without even mentioning their small screen trilogy that yielded Band of Brothers, The Pacific, and Masters of the Air.
When it comes to naming Hanks’ directorial muse, then, Spielberg is at the head of the pack. However, Robert Zemeckis would comfortably take second place, even if their more recent features together haven’t hit the heights of the first two.
The Back to the Future creator steered Hanks to his second consecutive ‘Best Actor’ Oscar with Forrest Gump, the cultural phenomenon that also won ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’. They followed that up with another heavyweight and awards-friendly drama in Cast Away before The Polar Express tried desperately hard to pioneer an innovation that was never going to catch on.
Zemeckis’ ImageMovers eventually went bust after his repeated attempts to convince the ticket-buying public performance-capture blockbusters were the way forward fell flat on its face following a string of disappointments, even if the dead-eyed fantasy endures as a festive favourite that takes viewers straight into the uncanny valley every time Christmas rolls around.
For Hanks – who played no less than eight different characters in The Polar Express – squeezing himself into mo-cap leotard wasn’t the greatest performative experience of his life. “I hated it because you were robbed of the greatest ally an actor has, which is a costume,” he explained to Bafta.
The star shared that he had “one day in which the entire costume would be put on us,” but the reasons behind it had nothing to do with acting. “You were photographed and digitised, and you went inside this machine that X-rayed you and did all that kind of stuff,” he continued. “But that was only for computer references in post.”
Funnily enough, Hanks has never given an entirely-digital performance ever since, although he did re-team with Zemeckis for a fourth time on Disney’s abysmal live-action remake of Pinocchio, so there’s clearly no bad blood between them. In fact, their fifth flick, Here, is scheduled for release in 2024, but there’s the distinct possibility Hanks will endure the same frustrations, seeing as the experimental drama uses generative AI technology to face-swap and de-age the cast in real-time to tell a story spanning decades.
