Actor Tom Hanks has given many incredible performances in his career. From Saving Private Ryan to Sleapless in Seatle to Sully, he has wowed audiences in every genre and every way. His dedication to his craft has brought him numerous accolades, including two consecutive Academy Awards for 1992s Philadelphia and 1993s Forrest Gump.
But this dedication almost turned deadly at one point, when the actor almost lost his life while filming for the 2000 movie, Cast Away. The Robert Zemeckis movie was a success among the critics as well as at the box office. Hanks won a Golden Globe for his performance and was also nominated for an Oscar. But all that would have been in vain if the actor had lost his life to a staph infection he got while filming on the island of Fiji.
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How an Infected Cut Almost Killed Tom Hanks
Tom Hanks and the crew of Cast Away were filming on Monuriki, one of the Mamanuca Islands in Fiji, when a cut in his leg got infected. Things got worse when playing an isolated man in a deserted island started to feel like reality for the actor.
Hanks said to BBC Radio 1 (via Digital Spy),
“[Cast Away] put me in the hospital. I was there for three days with something that, believe it or not, almost killed me,” he revealed. “I got an infection from a cut, and it was eating its way through my leg. I didn’t know it, I just thought I had a sore.”
He further added,
“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.'”
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The actor was taken to a hospital for surgery where he stayed for three days, and filming was suspended for nearly three weeks. Hanks eventually got better and returned to filming after recovery before finishing shooting for Cast Away.
Tom Hanks Had Conversations With a Volleyball in His Head
While filming for Cast Away, things took a pretty dark turn for the actor. Hanks was playing a man marooned on a deserted island after surviving a plane crash. His dedication to his art got to him so bad that Hanks almost became unable to differentiate between what is real and what is not.
Hanks said to Graham Bensinger that he had dialogues with the ball and could hear what he was saying in his head. The actor mentioned that he was just doing his own thing as the whole point of being marooned was to show his survival while being all on his own.
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Talking about the volleyball, which was named Wilson, Hanks said,
“When Wilson was born, I had dialogue with him. And I heard his dialogue in my head. I did go crazy, coz I never had a day off.”
Cast Away is available for streaming on Fubo TV.
