Tom Hanks reveals the origins of Forrest Gump’s voice
One of the most gifted actors of his generation, Tom Hanks has given cinema lovers over 30 years of incredibly diverse and interesting characters under the direction of some of the biggest names in cinema. From Sleepless in Seatle with Nora Ephron to Steven Spielberg with the groundbreaking Saving Private Ryan, Hank consistently proves his ability to give iconic performances. By far one of his most iconic, however, would have to be the eponymous character in Robert Zemeckis’ Forrest Gump.
This heartwarming film from 1994 tells the life story of Forrest Gump, a physically and educationally challenged man whose innocence and pure-hearted nature sees him intersect with some of the most prominent and defining moments of the 20th century. Zemeckis’ film was a resounding critical and commercial success at the time, winning six Oscars, including ‘Best Actor’ for Hanks, and earned nearly $700million at the global box office.
Whilst still regarded as a classic to this day, modern audiences are increasingly finding problematic moments in the narrative, in its depiction of certain communities, and in its portrayal of what we would now refer to as neurodivergence. Nevertheless, the film left a profound impact on the history of cinema, and almost all of that is down to Hank’s portrayal of Gump.
One of Gump’s defining characteristics is his distinctly slow, methodical Southern drawl. As it turns out, there was a very particular source of inspiration for this, and it was another actor on the set of the very same film.
Speaking on the Graham Norton chat show, Hanks recalls how early on in production, before he and the director had cemented how the character of Gump would talk, Zemeckis himself came up to the actor in a slight state of panic. “Bob Zemeckis came to me,” Hanks says, reflecting on the near-20-year-old film, “and said, ‘Hey, we got a problem on this!’ You got to teach this kid how to talk the way you want to talk’.”
Zemeckis was referring to Michael Conner Humphreys, the eight-year-old child portraying a younger version of Gump. Appreciating that perhaps asking a child actor to imitate his own devised voice might be counter-productive, if not outright ridiculous, Hanks very quickly had an idea that not only saved the production but ended up cementing his role in the film as one that’s remembered for to this day: “I thought, why don’t I just talk the way he talks right now?”
Humphreys, hailing from Mississippi, “deep in Mississippi”, as Hanks takes pains to stress, reportedly spoke in such a distinctly Southern accent that “he had this hard ‘G’ at the end of words”. Hanks goes on to recall his first humorous interaction with the young star, asking him questions about his family and life so as to hear him speak more and learn how he himself was going to provide the voice for Gump.
“I said, ‘What does your father do?’” Hanks, adopting the pronounced Southern accent, continued with Humphrey’s wonderfully quaint response: “‘My daddy makes grease’. That’s what he said!” Hanks laughed, elaborating further on how their conversation went: “I said, ‘What does he do with the grease?’ He says, ‘Oh, grease goes into lots of products. Grease goes into lipsticks’.”
Realising there could be no better voice suited to the character than the very actor portraying young Gump, Hanks very quickly knew what Gump’s voice should be. “I was like ‘Well, this is it’.” The result is a hilarious yet charming voice to accompany a wonderfully drawn portrait of a simple yet honest man, and whilst those who criticise the film certainly have ample reason to do so, it is hard to deny that the film will remain in our collective consciousness for a very long time.
