The role that brought out Tom Hanks’ petulant side: “I was complaining and cranky”
Tom Hanks is the consummate professional. It’s hard to find a single negative story about him from a fellow actor or filmmaker. Most of the stories about him revolve around his friendliness, his collaborative spirit, and his enthusiasm for every project.
In fact, at this point, it’s kind of irritating how much people adore him. Geena Davis said that working with Hanks on A League of Their Own was one of her greatest joys in life. Not her career. Her life. Taraji P. Henson, who appeared with him in Larry Crowne, said she would play a tree if it meant that she could work with him in another movie. No lines, just a tree. Meryl Streep said he was so prepared and polished in their scenes together in The Post that it forced her to up her game. When Meryl Streep has to up her game for someone, you know they’re the real deal.
Instances of Hanks’s dark side are so rare that the one person who does have a negative story about working with him turned it into an entire podcast and career. In true Hanks fashion, he became a guest on the show, thereby nullifying any doubts as to whether he is, in fact, the nicest man in Hollywood.
But according to the actor, he can sometimes be a real pain to work with. In an interview in 2016, he talked about how reluctant he was to star in Clint Eastwood’s Sully, which follows the real-life incident of a pilot who was forced to land a commercial flight in the Hudson River when the engines failed.
Hanks had just finished filming the Da Vinci Code sequel Inferno in Budapest and had planned to take some time off from acting. He’d earned it. And when his agent, Richard Lovett, sent him Eastwood’s script and said the director wanted him to play the lead, he was not thrilled.
“I was complaining and cranky, like a big fat baby actor,” Hanks told The Hollywood Reporter. “But Richard said, ‘Just read it.’” So, Hanks agreed and read the first seven pages. “22 minutes later, I’m on the phone, saying, ‘All right, when?’” Hanks recalled.
The star may have been a dream to work with in every other situation, including, most likely, the set of Sully, but the same cannot be said of Eastwood. He isn’t a tyrant or relentless about doing take after take the way some directors are. It’s the opposite. Eastwood is notorious for moving quickly and saying little.
For some, this is a dream come true. Tommy Lee Jones called him one of his favourite directors of all time, and Angelina Jolie acknowledged that while his style can be scary at first, it does help actors give every scene their all. On the flip side, Judi Dench has said that her experience working with Eastwood was extremely frustrating because she was never able to do another take even when she wasn’t happy with her performance in the first one.
Hanks’s reflections of working with the director were candid but lighthearted. “He treats actors like horses,” he said, adding, “It’s intimidating as hell!”
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