The “Academy Award performance” nobody saw Tom Hanks give
The number-one rule of any actor like Tom Hanks is to never take a single role for granted.
A few gigs might not be as lucrative as others and it might be easy to get lost trying to figure out what a character needs in a certain scene, but the minute that you hear the words ‘ACTION’, you need to give it everything you have to make sure that you give it everything you have so that people can see the humanity instead of an actor hamming it up. And while Hanks perfected that in every single character, he could bring that energy even if he wasn’t in the spotlight.
But Hanks prided himself on playing a vast array of characters throughout his life. Sure, playing a Bond villain may have been a bit too weird given his eternal nice-guy persona, the fact that he could play everything so well comes down more to the subtleties in his performance than one amazing monologue or the occasional over-the-top scene.
When looking at his iconic performances throughout the 1990s, Hanks could make the most with any scene he was in. Forrest Gump could have easily gone the route of being humorous at best and insulting at worst, but by inhabiting this man as he goes through life, Hanks turned in the kind of performance that made people forget that they were seeing one of the greatest actors of their time.
And while everything from Saving Private Ryan to Philadelphia saw him showing a few more of his everyman moments, there’s something about The Green Mile that tears at people’s soul whenever it comes on. As much as Hanks’s Paul Edgecomb is doing his job in the case of John Coffey, seeing the gentle giant underneath Micharl Clark Duncan’s performance was what tied the whole thing together.
Even if his face was on the poster and all the promotional material, Hanks knew that he didn’t need to be in every single scene. One of the most pivotal scenes in the movie is focused squarely on Coffey in the days leading up to his execution when he talks about the pain of the world wearing down on him, and yet director Frank Darabont was as in tune with what Hanks was doing as he was with Duncan.
The actual shot that Darabont was looking for was all focused on Coffey, but the director felt that Hanks is equally responsible for that scene working, saying, “He’s off-camera, not feeding lines. He’s delivering an Academy Award winning performance. He knew that the whole movie was about this scene, and it was about this other character. He’s giving him all the fuel that he needs to shine. To be fantastic.”
At the same time, it’s hard for anyone to see Michael Clarke Duncan in those later scenes and not get a little bit emotional. This is a man that never wanted any sort of trouble, and after trying as hard as he could to escape death, hearing him say that he doesn’t want the hood over his head because he’s scared of the dark practically puts the tears in everyone’s eyes for them before the scene even starts.
For any aspiring actor, though, let this be a lesson on how to perfectly sculpt a scene. Everyone is on the set to do a job, and while Hanks could have easily been home for the day after getting all of his scenes in, he knew that the movie was only going to survive on the strength of Duncan’s performance, and if he could bring even one iota of energy to help him, that would have been enough.
