Tom Hanks reveals the “only thing that matters for me” in movies
As one of the most beloved and prolific actors still working today, Tom Hanks has given us a rich array of iconic characters and delved deep into nearly every genre under the sun. His filmography, which spans over 50 years and includes an eye-whopping 80 movies, begins, bizarrely, with a bit part in a slasher film in 1980 called He Knows You’re Alone. After that, however, it settles comfortably into a decade’s worth of classic comedies of the era, with the likes of The Money Pit, Big and Turner and Hooch serving as particular highlights.
The 1990s saw him collaborating closely with the indelible, talented and much-missed writer/director Nora Ephron, and by the time he entered the 2000s, he’d begun award-winning and fruitful creative partnerships with the likes of Ron Howard, Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg.
His work with Zemeckis continued in the form of a live adaptation of the famous and innovative 1980s comic Here, which focused on a single space and the objects and beings that inhabit it, spanning hundreds of billions of years. Set for a 2024 release, Hanks and Zemeckis’ movie will utilise revolutionary generative AI technology to de-age and face-swap the actors in real-time.
So, before the 2020s are out, Hanks will have worked on a western, biopic, war movie, and cerebral, tech-driven, time-hopping odyssey. The man clearly isn’t bound by one genre. So what makes Hanks tick? Whilst the actor hasn’t specified how he picks the movies he will star in, his explanation of what movies he loves to watch gives us some insight. As it turns out, there are very few guiding principles – in fact, only one thing “matters” for him.
When compiling five of his favourite films for the German magazine Bild, which included classics like The Godfather and 2001: A Space Odyssey, as well as more leftfield choices like Boogie Nights, Hanks chose one specific movie by the Coen brothers, which also served to illuminate what exactly it is about a film that will draw him to it. The film? The iconic snow-covered neo-noir, 1996’s Fargo.
Piling praise onto the film, Hanks said, “That’s what I’m looking for when I go to see a film, just like any other cinemagoer. The period, the topic or the genre don’t matter to me. The only thing that matters for me is: ‘Boy, what would you do if that were you?'”
This chilly black comedy, directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, followed the increasingly comic yet devastating consequences of a man who commissions two contract criminals to kidnap his wife. From its unforgettable emphasis on the specific Minnesota accent to its legendary pregnant heroine in the form of Marge Gunderson, Fargo remains one of the greatest movies ever made. As Hanks says, it makes you question what you’d do in the same situation – and thank your lucky stars that you’re not.
