The 2000 survival drama Cast Away, starring Tom Hanks and Helen Hunt, was one of the best movies of not just the actor’s career but also Robert Zemeckis, who produced and directed the movie. The movie won Hanks an Academy Award nomination, and Zemeckis was praised for his artistry and vision.
The film, though not shot in a linear chronology, managed to capture the essence of the story perfectly, and most of it was thanks to Hanks’ dedication to his performance.
The film was shot within three months of work but was left in hiatus for more than a year in between. Which was both a good and a bad thing.
A movie in production being in hiatus for so long, though not ideal, helped Tom Hanks in achieving his desired physical goals for his character. And Zemeckis, like a pro producer, used the same crew to film another movie in the meantime – What Lies Beneath with Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford.
Tom Hanks Went Through Tremendous Weight-loss
After the initial two months of shooting, Cast Away was left in hiatus for more than a year before the cast and crew returned to finish filming. The last month of shooting was done on an island in Fiji, where Tom Hanks was the only actor around.
He lost a lot of weight in the one year gap to give his character in the movie the “cast-away” look, being sickly thin with long hair and unkempt beard. His transformation looked more dramatic as he had gained around 50 pounds for the initial shooting before his character gets into the shipwreck.
Hanks’ goal to mentally and physically become Chuck – his character from Cast Away won him many praises. But it was not without consequences.
The weight-loss he went through left his body vulnerable and weak, and on top of that, being the only actor around with just a handful of crew members was not ideal either. But his willingness to commit to his role in the movie is probably why it became such a big hit and earned so much critical acclaim.
Tom Hanks Was Hospitalized Shooting Cast Away
The movie not only faced a long hiatus, but its lead actor also had to be hospitalized after a life-threatening accident. While shooting for the movie in Fiji, Hanks suffered from infection because of a cut on his leg. Initially thought to be a trivial matter, things took a drastic turn when he almost died after things did not seem to be getting better.
He was promptly rushed to a local hospital, where the actor underwent surgery to cure the infection to save his leg (and possibly his life). The actor said,
“I went to the doctor who took one look and said, ‘I have to put you in the hospital because we have to get this infection out of you before it poisons your blood and you die’.” UNILAD(BBC via )
The actor stayed in the hospital for three weeks and then was given three more weeks off to recover from the harrowing event. The production was halted for the time being before he could return to finish the movie. Cast Away, till date, remains one of the most iconic movies of both the director as well as the actor.
Cast Away is available for streaming on AMC.
