Tom Hanks is known for his good-guy characters in his films. Be it romantic comedies such as You’ve Got Mail and Sleepless in Seattle, or dramas such as Forrest Gump and Philadelphia, the actor always plays roles that represent the morally right side of humanity. With his penchant for such sweet roles, he has been nicknamed the Dad of Hollywood.
However, Hanks reportedly does not have the need to stick to such roles. He recently played Elvis Presley’s antagonistic manager Col. Tom Parker in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, which was different from his usual good-guy roles. He has also mentioned that he fought against decisions made by directors to portray him as a good guy, especially in a pivotal scene in his Oscar-winning film Forrest Gump.
Tom Hanks Crossed Swords With Robert Zemeckis Over A Scene In Forrest Gump
Tom Hanks created history when he won two consecutive Oscar wins as Best Actor. He was the second actor to do so after Spencer Tracey. Hanks won the awards for Philadelphia, where he played an AIDS-infected, gay lawyer fighting for his rights, and for Forrest Gump, in which he played a mentally slow man who finds himself at important moments in history.
Hanks collaborated with Robert Zemeckis for the film, which won the filmmaker a Best Director Oscar. The Back to the Future filmmaker would go on to collaborate with Hanks multiple times. While the film has been lauded for its direction and performances, Hanks mentioned that he had one minor disagreement with Zemeckis while filming which led to a scene being completely different.
In the film, Hanks’ Forrest Gump joins the army and is sent to fight the Vietnam War. While Gump is mostly a pacifist, he is shown to be well-versed in assembling a gun and even fires many rounds during the war. He also saves his Lieutenant when he gets injured in the war. Hanks mentioned to the New York Times that the scene was initially different in the script,
“There’s the scene with the ambush in Vietnam, and Bob Zemeckis originally wanted Forrest to be confused and run away. I said, ‘Bob, why am I playing a soldier who is really good at his basic training without then showing me slapping in my clip and firing a set of rounds?’”
The actor responded to a question about his penchant for playing good-guy characters that are always morally right. He mentioned that he has strived to stay true to the character even if it does not appeal to his image.
Tom Hanks Does Not Always Stay True To His Good-Guy Image
Tom Hanks has always been known for his affinity for playing characters that the audience roots in to win. Be it the savior pilot in Sully or the firm but kind Captain in Saving Private Ryan, the actor has always played characters that have little to no negativity within them. While he stepped away from that in Elvis, his filmography filled with nice guys outweighs his negative roles.
Despite his penchant for playing morally right people, Tom Hanks has reportedly differed with directors when they wanted to avoid showing him in any kind of negative light. Hanks was asked about an alleged deleted scene from Charlie Wilson’s War which apparently showed him snorting c*caine in Las Vegas (via NY Times).
Hanks mentioned that such changes were made to stay true to the character for the rest of the film and not for his image. He said,
“On Saving Private Ryan, Steven Spielberg said, ‘I don’t think I want to see John Miller fire his gun and kill Germans.’ I told him: ‘I’m sorry, Steven. You’re not going to get me all the way over here and turn me into some other guy just because you don’t want Tom Hanks to kill soldiers’…Anyway, with Charlie Wilson, not snorting coke…I would have done it. I didn’t care. Those kinds of choices are in every single movie.”
The actor also mentioned that the reason the scene was omitted was because there were no other scenes with Charlie Wilson in such a state and that would be inconsistent in the movie. He said that if he had snorted coke in one scene in the film, then he would have to be in that state for the rest of the time the character was in Las Vegas.
