My life in film
As his new war drama, Masters Of The Air, arrives on Apple TV+, Tom Hanks revisits some of his most iconic big-screen roles
Tom Hanks is often described as one of the nicest actors in Hollywood – and he’s also one of the most talented. His vast variety of film roles has seen him survive on a desert island in Cast Away, travel to space in Apollo 13 and lead a band of soldiers behind enemy lines in Saving Private Ryan.
For his latest project, the two-time Oscar-winner – who is now a successful author, director and producer – has stepped behind the camera. He has teamed up with Steven Spielberg for the third epic in their trilogy of miniseries, Masters Of The Air. The war saga is inspired by the true story of an American bomber squadron during the Second World War, who fought against Nazi Germany.
Now 67, Hanks admits that he has no plans to give up his craft. ‘I don’t have any desire. I’m not working for the sake of working. I’m in a very lucky position; it has to be fabulous,’ he says. ‘Rita [Wilson, Tom’s wife] and I talk about it all the time: there are only two reasons to go to work: it’ll be good or it’ll be fun. And if it’s neither one of those, I’ll stay home.’ Here, Tom, who lives with Rita in Los Angeles and has four grown-up children, takes a trip down memory lane.
SPLASH (1984)
‘I didn’t know anything. I was operating purely on instinct, and God bless Ron Howard [the director]. He did take me aside in the course of making the movie and said, “Listen, you’re doing this wrong.”’
BIG (1988)
‘What I dug about this was that there was no car chase, no bad guys, no guns. A massive amount of the movie is just two people sitting around talking. And there’s a simplicity and humanity to that, which appealed to me.’
A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN (1992)
‘A League Of Their Own was a ridiculously pleasant movie to make. All I did was flirt with girls and play baseball all day. It’s one of my favourite films.’
SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE (1993)
‘I wouldn’t be a writer if it wasn’t for Nora Ephron [the director]. She put something into this film that I said in rehearsals. When it was done, she said, “You wrote that!” I said, “I didn’t write that! I was just complaining in rehearsals and you put it in.” Nora replied, “Well, that’s what writing is, isn’t it?” From then on, I would always send her ideas and say, “Is this writing?”’
FORREST GUMP (1994)
‘All the stuff that we shot on the park bench in Savannah, Georgia, was fodder for a possible narrative piece. And I said to Bob [Zemeckis, the director], “Is anyone going to care about this guy sitting on a bench? What is this?” And we ended up shooting probably 13 pages of dialogue. But Bob said, �
