Tom Hanks’ vital off-camera role on ‘Apollo 13’: “He was sort of the guiding force”
Several of the most vivid memories of Tom Hanks‘ childhood growing up in California involve watching the various launches of NASA’s Apollo space program on television. The future movie idol grew up at the height of the Space Race, of course, and like many other kids all over America, became obsessed with the infinite possibilities of outer space.
Amusingly, when Hanks was interviewed by Entertainment Weekly in 1995, on the eve of the release of Apollo 13, his NASA nerd flag was still flying as high as ever. “I followed the space programme heavily when I was a kid,” he said, which amounts to one of life’s great understatements. “I could name all the crews of Apollo 7 through 12”. After a little digging, though, EW found that Hanks could actually name every crew up until Apollo 17, plus a scattering of the Gemini programme launches, which only operated between 1965 and 1966. This was a true uber-fan.
Naturally, given his status as Hollywood’s biggest space buff, Hanks had wanted to make an Apollo 13 movie for years before he got involved in Ron Howard’s 1995 Apollo 13, the one project that finally made it to screen. “I talked to my crack staff of show business experts long ago,” Hanks claimed with tongue firmly in cheek, “And I said, ‘Man, we’ve got to find somebody to write Apollo 13‘. It’s an incredible saga.”
As anyone who has seen this Oscar-winning docudrama will tell you, the story of NASA’s fifth crewed mission to the moon is undeniably incredible. After all, this was a mission in which everything that could go wrong did go wrong, leading to an onboard explosion that stranded three astronauts in orbit, unable to land on the moon’s surface. A desperate race against time then ensued as NASA’s flight controllers and the astronauts themselves tried to figure out scientific and mechanical ways for them to somehow return to Earth safely.
From the beginning of the project, Hanks, who played Commander Jim Lovell, was like a kid in a candy store; if that kid was also a major movie star hellbent on the movie being as technically accurate to his spacefaring heroes as possible. In fact, he was so fascinated by the minutiae of NASA’s operation, and so excited to be around the real equipment and uniforms astronauts actually used, that co-star Bill Paxton quipped, “Tom is gonna build a lunar module in his backyard”.
While Paxton enjoyed having a little fun at Hanks’ expense, the Forrest Gump star’s dedication to the material did make him a vital part of the production, and his enthusiasm couldn’t help but rub off on his co-stars.
For instance, the actor was instrumental in convincing Paxton, Gary Sinise, and Kevin Bacon to log some time in NASA’s KC-135 aircraft, charmingly nicknamed the ‘Vomit Comet’, that replicates the feeling of zero gravity. The lunar module sets were subsequently constructed inside that aircraft, meaning the actors weren’t mimicking weightlessness with wires that could be digitally removed later. Instead, they were actually experiencing zero gravity the same way an astronaut would.
“Tom Hanks was very much behind the project,” cinematographer Dean Cundey told SyFy Wire. “He was completely behind doing all of this practical stuff. He was sort of the guiding force; he was interested in it and trying to do it so well that the other actors—Kevin and Bill—were completely committed.”
Overall, Hanks’ relentless quest for authenticity created an environment in which each performer arrived on set ready and willing to “really understand, blend in, and adopt the mindset and the science” of being an astronaut, and his impact on the finished film can’t be overstated.
