The only co-star who gave Tom Hanks an acting masterclass: “He is our Brando, Nicholson, Olivier”
Only the most arrogant and self-absorbed of actors would think there’s nothing any of their peers could teach them, and because he’s always been regarded as one of the nicest guys in Hollywood, Tom Hanks would never dream of being one of those snobbish thespians who think they’ve mastered their craft.
He may have been working solidly for over 40 years, spent the majority of that time as one of the biggest draws in the business, achieved the rare feat of winning back-to-back Academy Awards following his consecutive ‘Best Actor’ victories, and built his brand on delivering consistently excellent performances under a myriad of different directors in virtually every genre, but for Hanks, every day is a school day.
Becoming rich, famous, acclaimed, and awards-laden is all well and good, but in a business where the career doldrums are only one or two missteps away at any given time, no actor should ever allow themselves to become too comfortable with their position. The best surround themselves with the best in order to get better, and for Hanks, one of his colleagues gave him a masterclass without even noticing.
Funnily enough, the co-star who left Hanks amazed by their effortless gravitas and top-class approach to their profession is another one of the all-time greats and a name that’s become synonymous with nothing but success. Whether it’s recognition, adulation, or box office glory, many stars in the business would kill to enjoy a career even half as storied as Denzel Washington.
The pair co-starred in Jonathan Demme’s Philadelphia, which scooped Hanks his first Oscar, and while he was the one taking to the podium at virtually every awards ceremony on the calendar, it was his regular onscreen sparring partner who helped the leading man reach the top of his game in the first place. Hanks didn’t even have anything to say on camera, which turned out to be even more beneficial when he could sit there like a sponge instead.
“I sat beside him for three weeks during the trial. I had no dialogue,” he told The New York Times Washington. “It was a thriller of an acting class. He follows no rules but pursues the moment. No nonsense, but a looseness that can’t be faked. A one-on-one scene with him is a game of hardball catch; he is both daring you to keep up and propelling you to do more.”
In an even more glowing assessment of his fellow two-time Oscar winner, Hanks directly compared Washington to three indelible icons of the silver screen. “He is our Brando. Nicholson. Olivier,” he said before offering a more light-hearted kinship they found on set. “And, like me, he steals office supplies and notebooks from the set dressing.”
High praise coming from one of the best around, but hardly out of the ordinary for a talent of Washington’s calibre, who’s long since grown used to having flowers thrown at his feet by his contemporaries.
