Tom Hanks is an incredible actor, celebrity, and human being. Counted among the gems of Hollywood, the actor is also tremendously down-to-earth despite his star stature. Over the years he has starred in multiple movies and has been praised for his amazing acting prowess. However, when it comes to Steven Spielberg’s $482 million movie, Hanks not only proved himself as an acting genius but also saved the movie by taking a unique leadership role.
To prepare for the movie, Spielberg subjected the cast to an intense army boot camp, which almost made every actor quit the movie. But what angered the cast more was Matt Damon’s exclusion from the nightmare camp.
Matt Damon Was Excluded From Steven Spielberg’s Nightmare Army Camp
To prepare for the $482 million movie, Saving Private Ryan, Steven Spielberg decided to send his cast to an army boot camp. To say that the actors’ lives were miserable would be an understatement since they had to go through the same horrific experiences that any soldier would go through.
The actors were called ‘turds‘, run five miles or more every night, and survive on rations that looked like ‘vomit‘. During the camp, they would spend hours cleaning, loading weapons, and doing multiple pushups if they broke out of their ‘characters‘. However, ‘Ryan’ aka Matt Damon was exclusively excluded from the camp which made fellow actors like Vin Diesel very very angry.
“They started to harbor that kernel of resentment, ’cause I wasn’t there. These guys are lying facedown in the mud, and I’m, you know, in a bubble bath in America. When I showed up on set, a lot of that resentment just translated right onto the screen.” (via EW)
Stated Matt Damon as he revealed the true purpose of Spielberg excluding him from the boot camp. And in those tiring times, Tom Hanks came like a Knight in Shining Armour when the actors mutinied against the boot camp.
How Tom Hanks Saved Steven Spielberg’s $482M Movie
After harboring weeks of resentment and going through hellish times, the cast finally had enough and carried out a vote to quit. However, the Oscar-winning star, Tom Hanks was quick to make them understand how crucial the boot camp experience was since he had already been a part of one when shooting Forrest Gump.
“I knew what it was like to be in boot camp because I had done it with Dale Dye on Forrest Gump… It was the moment where I had to say; ‘look, you guys, we can’t do this. We can’t break off into two sections – the guys who went through boot camp, and the guys who didn’t. We have to stay together on this.” (via Take2MarkTV )
Thus the cast stayed, fortunately for Steven Spielberg, and the movie ended up becoming one of the best if not the best war-based movies in the history of cinema.
Saving Private Ryan can be streamed on Paramount+.
Source: Take2MarkTV and EW
