The 2000 movie scene Tom Hanks never wants to see again: “I will get up and leave the room”
It’s a conundrum that’s affected countless film fans over the years: what happens if there’s a movie you really like, but one scene you can’t bear watching? If you’re Tom Hanks, you simply get up and fuck off.
There are several ways to handle the scenario, really. You could fast-forward through the sequence, you could shut your eyes and stick your fingers in your ears, or you could grit your teeth and power through, especially when the rest of the picture is of the highest quality.
The major difference between every other cinephile and Hanks is that he was in the movie, which adds an interesting caveat. The two-time Academy Award winner didn’t seem to have any problems when he was there in the moment and shooting the scene, but when he had to sit through the end results, he couldn’t handle it.
Nothing has changed in the last quarter of a century, either, adding yet another toll that Robert Zemeckis’ Cast Away has taken on him. Hanks dropped a massive amount of weight to play Chuck Noland in the survival drama, and while the director made the most of his downtime by filming What Lies Beneath in the interim, the yo-yoing had some adverse effects on Hanks’ personal health.
It almost killed him, basically, which shows the physical commitment he made to the part. You could say that it was worth it, though, since Cast Away earned him a deserved Oscar nomination for ‘Best Actor’ and endures as one of the finest performances in a career that’s hardly been lacking in top-notch turns.
After enduring his ordeal on the other side of the world with only a volleyball for company, most audiences expected Chuck to return to America and be reunited with the love of his life, Helen Hunt’s Kelly Frears, which was understandable, because that’s the way Hollywood has conditioned everyone to think.
However, after four years in isolation, where the pocket watch she gave him with her picture inside became his most cherished item, he discovers that she’s become a wife and mother in his absence. The watch, which belonged to Kelly’s grandfather, was a family heirloom, so Chuck does the honourable thing and returns it, so it can be passed on to her children.
“There is a moment in Cast Away, in which I am back, and Chuck is back in Kelly’s house, and he gives her his, her watch back,” the star explained. “And there’s a moment where I just think I’m not there. All it is is a turnaround on me, but I do this gesture that I just think is false, and is me, and is not Chuck.”
It’s imperceptible to anyone who’s seen the film, but for Hanks, that brief shot in the sequence is so disingenuous and artificial to him that he never wants to see it again. “If the movie is on,” he added. “I will get up and leave the room before that scene comes on.” Presumably, he comes back afterwards, but it just goes to show how invested he was in his performance that the one moment where he can catch himself being Tom Hanks instead of Chuck Noland has become unwatchable.
