The James Bond character Tom Hanks is desperate to play: “In a little putt-putt boat”
Inevitably, Tom Hanks is one of those stars who can pretty much guarantee a brilliant performance and a decent box office. In turn, ever since his breakthrough in the 1980s, he’s found himself highly sought after and has consistently turned in his talents for some of the biggest directors in cinema.
Across a truly impressive career, Hanks has done pretty much everything. He has been a World War II hero, a real-life hero, a cowboy, a full-grown adult boy, a train driver and just about everything in between. But even still, with a career as dense as Tom Hanks’, there are roles he wishes he could play.
Though Hanks has featured in countless iconic movies over the years, he’s never been able to take on every role that he might have liked to. Hanks is not necessarily known for his franchise work, managing to hide away from the shadow of Marvel and DC, excluding the Pixar behemoth Toy Story, but has previously expressed his admiration for the legendary James Bond films.
“Who doesn’t love James Bond?” Hanks said in an interview with the BBC. He remembered the first James Bond movie he ever saw, the 1967 film You Only Live Twice, directed by Lewis Gilbert and starring Sean Connery as 007. Hanks said it was “hands down the greatest, most spectacular motion picture I had ever seen. I saw it seven times!”.
Hanks admitted that he feels like there should be a James Bond film every couple of years. When asked if he had ever had any ambitions of becoming the first American Bond, though, Hanks resisted taking on the mantle. In fact, if he were to be involved in a Bond movie at all, Hanks would rather be Bond’s friend Felix Leiter.
“I’d like to be the first good Felix Leiter! I’ve never seen a really good Felix,” Hanks had said. Now, it’s worth bearing in mind that the actor’s comments came before Jeffrey Wright had played the character in Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace and No Time to Die, so he hadn’t meant to throw shade on the American Fiction star.
It was rather the actors who preceded Wright that were lower in estimation that Hanks thought he might be able to provide himself. Backtracking somewhat, he said. “I mean, Jack Lord has played Felix, David Hedison has played Felix Leiter. Those were two good Felixes throughout the course of the series.”
Leiter is a CIA operative and a friend of Bond, so at least Hanks would slot into the role without having to put on a British accent. “I’d like to be that American CIA operative who comes up in a little putt-putt boat,” he said, “And says, ‘Hi James!’ And James replies, ‘Well, Felix Leiter of the CIA!’ That’s who I’d like to be.”
Considering the franchise is now in the hands of Amazon and the streaming giant seems ready to do just about anything to make good on its likely mammoth investment in the series, who knows where it might be taken. Hanks may yet get his chance to be the CIA agent to star opposite the new Bond. Whomever that may be.
In 2023, Hanks put out his suggestion for the actor who should play James Bond after Daniel Craig retired from the character following No Time To Die. “Understand this: James Bond has a licence to kill,” Hanks noted. “I would issue that licence to Idris Elba just based on the work that I’ve seen him do.”
However, Elba, who had seemingly given a nod to Bond in Luther: The Fallen Sun with a scene in which he orders a martini, shot down the idea of him ever playing 007, saying, “My Bond audition? Oh my God, no! I’ve been saying for years, no… The martini line is a bit cheeky, isn’t it?”
Whether Elba will ever play Bond and whether Hanks will ever get his dream of being able to play Felix Leiter remains to be seen, but it looks as though Hanks at least has the insight to know that an American Bond would likely never work.
Check out the trailer for Tom Hanks’ favourite James Bond movie below.
