Tom Hanks on the TV series ‘Chernobyl’: “One of the greatest things I have watched”
If you consider yourself a film lover, it’s likely you’ve watched a fair few Tom Hanks movies. Since the 1980s, the actor has appeared in countless brilliant efforts, ranging from moving dramas to family favourites, establishing himself as a Hollywood giant.
Hanks rose to prominence in the 1980s, starring in movies like Splash, Bachelor Party, Big, and The Money Pit. By the 1990s, his reign over Hollywood was even greater, with the actor winning two ‘Best Actor’ Oscars for Philadelphia and Forrest Gump. With appearances in movies like Sleepless in Seattle, Toy Story, Saving Private Ryan, and The Green Mile, it was a very successful decade for Hanks, who used his status to then take a step behind the camera.
Alongside writing and directing 1996’s That Thing You Do!, Hanks also co-created and starred in the 2001 television series Band of Brothers, directing some of the episodes, too. Hanks had directed a few odd television episodes in the past for series like Tales From The Crypt and A League of Their Own, but now he was able to take a leading creative role – alongside Steven Spielberg. The show was a significant success, giving many young British actors, from Michael Fassbender to Dominic Cooper and Tom Hardy, early roles.
While we might associate Hanks with big, award-winning movies, the actor does love television as a medium, too, and in an interview with The New Indian Express, the actor revealed his love of a certain acclaimed drama which first aired on HBO in 2019.
We’re in an age of excessive streaming, with many movies no longer receiving cinema releases and instead becoming available to watch on Netflix or Amazon Prime from the comfort of our own homes. With so much content to consume, including an increase in well-made television series, the question of whether streaming is a help or a hindrance within the industry is hotly debated. However, Hanks thinks that when a show is as good as Chernobyl, streaming can be a good thing.
Created by Craig Mazin, the five-part series recounts the horrors of the Chernobyl disaster. It was instantly acclaimed, with standout performances from Stellan Skarsgård, Emily Watson, Paul Ritter, Jared Harris and Jessie Buckley. The series was essentially an epic film divided into parts, with each instalment around an hour long. By having each episode available to stream straight away, viewers could get lost in the series’ cinematic world, which seemed to be the case for Hanks, too.
He explained, “Streaming works great for some things and it’s perhaps a handicap for others. One of the greatest things I have watched in the last few years was the five-part HBO series, Chernobyl. It was fantastic.” The series won various Emmys for its brilliance, including ‘Outstanding Directing’ for Johan Renck and ‘Outstanding Limited Series’.
When you find a good television series, you often want to binge as many episodes as possible, and Chernobyl was certainly a show that many people found themselves addicted to. Hanks hasn’t appeared in many television shows as a regular cast member, but if he was offered something on the same scale as Chernobyl, he would surely thrive on the small screen.
