Robert Zemeckis names the two actors who will “make anything work”
In the glittering realm of American cinema, there are a handful of directors who serve as genuine champions of the medium, and while the likes of Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino certainly fit comfortably into the group, it’s fair to say that Robert Zemeckis is also in with a decent claim.
Zemeckis has, of course, delivered a very different kind of cinema to the two aforementioned directors, but his works are equally important to the foundations of contemporary American film. For instance, his efforts in the Back to the Future trilogy are vital to the world of science-fiction comedy as is 1992’s Death Becomes Her to the world of black comedy.
However, one can’t think of Zemeckis and not immediately recall his 1994 comedy-drama Forrest Gump, which won the ‘Best Director’ Academy Award, while the film itself won ‘Best Picture’. While Zemeckis is, of course, an important facet of such movies’ success, it’s important to remember the kind of contributions his actors have made to them as well.
In an interview with DGA, Zemeckis once named the two actors with whom he could trust anything to and have them serve the purpose of a movie in whatever way he saw fit. “Most actors that I work with are wonderful,” the director said. “Jodie Foster or Tom Hanks will make anything work”.
Zemeckis continued: “I’ll say, ‘I’m sorry, but I need you to do the most unnatural thing and twist your body like this and lean over here and say this line,’ and they’ll say, ‘Yeah, I can do that.’ They’ll make it work, and they won’t chafe about having to do something unnatural.” Clearly, Hanks and Foster are two of Zemeckis’ favourite actors to work with, if only for their professional commitment to the cinematic medium itself.
It was back in 1997 that Jodie Foster played for Zemeckis in the science fiction drama Contact, based on Carl Sagan’s 1985 novel of the same name. The actor played Dr. Eleanor Arroway, a scientist who discovers evidence for the existence of extra-terrestrial life and is chosen to be the person to make first contact with them.
Hanks, on the other hands, has performed for Zemeckis on many occasion, the most significant of which was in Forrest Gump. However, he has also starred for the director in the likes of Cast Away, The Polar Express and the upcoming drama film Here, which also reunites the pair with Robin Wright of Forrest Gump.
In the same DGA interview, Zemeckis also explained that brilliant cinema is only possible when there are talented people with a professional mind frame on set. “You can only do elaborate, beautiful cinema when you’ve got really professional people doing the technical things,” he said. “If you’re working with an actor who absolutely will not match anything because they basically refuse, then your cinema suffers.”
“It’s a selfish and ultimately futile attitude for actors to take because they have to understand that they’re in a technical art form,” Zemeckis added. “At the end of the day, the matching always wins.” Thankfully, Zemeckis has been afforded to work with some of the greatest actors in American cinema history in the shape of Tom Hanks and Jodie Foster, and they have indeed contributed vastly to the kind of brilliance and admiration that the director has often been adorned with.
