“It was an honour”: when Tom Hanks went to bat for Stephen Graham
It’s taken a long time, but Stephen Graham has finally reached the position his talent deserves.
After toiling away in various British indie movies and TV shows, he is now a globally famous name with countless hits and awards under his belt, having worked with legendary directors and dozens of superstar actors, and has become a master at hiding his native accent to the point where hearing him speak in his real voice is like a haymaker to the ear.
In 2020, the Scouse icon appeared in a good old-fashioned war movie, Greyhound, starring Tom Hanks as a US naval commander serving in World War II, who, during the Battle of the Atlantic in 1942, must protect a convoy of vital cargo from the devastating threat of German U-boats, and Graham plays Cole, a navigator aboard one of the ships. The movie overcame an initial cancellation due to the pandemic to receive rave reviews and even an Oscar nomination for ‘Best Sound’.
Graham is easily one of the biggest stars in the whole film, alongside Hanks and Elizabeth Shue, and despite the lack of other recognisable faces in the cast, he wasn’t the first choice to play Cole. According to an interview with Esquire, a combination of Graham’s nationality and low self-confidence almost cost him the gig.
“I don’t see myself as a big name,” he said, “It’s an American role. so I think they wanted an American actor to play it. But [Hanks] said, ‘No, I want him’. So it was an honour. What a good film to do, and what a wonderful man he is. He’s charming, absolutely charming, and really lovely.”
Filming on Greyhound started in 2018, and though he was yet to give some of the best performances of his career in Boiling Point, Adolescence, and more, Graham still had some noteworthy arrows in his quiver.
He’d appeared in two Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and sure, they were the worst two, but they still made a boatload of money (if you’ll pardon the pun). He’d played significant characters in Tomas Alfredson’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Michael Mann’s Public Enemies. If that didn’t make him a “big name”, then I don’t know what to say.
Hanks is obviously one of the most powerful men on any film set and was heavily involved in Greyhound, even going as far as writing the screenplay for the film based on the novel The Good Shepherd by C S Forester. He has a long-established interest in World War II, having appeared in a number of films and TV shows based on the conflict, so he obviously felt that Graham brought something to the role that nobody else could, even though he was playing a character he wasn’t technically qualified for.
As is so often the case, Hanks was absolutely right, because Greyhound was a massive success and Graham was perfect in the role. A sequel to the movie is currently in development, with both Hanks and Graham reprising their roles, but only time will tell if they can keep up the momentum of the original.
