Tom Hanks, best known for his performance in films like Forrest Gump (1994), Catch Me If You Can (2002), and The Da Vinci Code (2006), once expressed in an interview with The Irish Times that he was blown away by watching another legend, Denzel Washington (Training Day) act in a $206 million film they worked together in.
Hanks, who is a legend himself, said that he learned acting after he shared the screen with Washington in 1993’s Philadelphia. He elaborated on how Washington can push his co-stars to put maximum effort into a scene.
The Forrest Gump star once told PBS magazine that his way of acting calls for completely submerging himself into the character. Talking about Washington, he said that he “follows no rules” and reflected on his struggling days in New York.
Tom Hanks Learned Acting From Denzel Washington In Philadelphia
Hanks’ performance in the film rewarded him with an Academy Award for Best Actor, but he didn’t forget to dedicate that performance to his co-star Denzel Washington. He said that Washington’s ability to be uncompromising in a scene taught him a lot about acting.
“I sat beside him for three weeks shooting the trial. I had no dialogue. It was a thriller of an acting class. He follows no rules but pursues the moment. No nonsense, but a looseness that can’t be faked. A one-on-one scene with him is a game of hardball catch – he is both daring you to keep up and propelling you to do more.”
Philadelphia followed the story of a homose*ual lawyer Andrew Beckett played by Tom Hanks, who gets spotted by his peers at work for skin lesions as he had HIV and gets thrown off the firm. Washington played Joe Miller, who helps him fight a case of discrimination. Hanks added that watching him was like, “going to film school.”
Tom Hanks And Denzel Washington Hustled In New York
It wasn’t long before Hanks found his breakthrough opportunity with 1988’s Big, and Washington was rising up with his performance in the TV drama St. Elsewhere. But prior to that, both actors were on the streets of Manhattan, trying to make it big.
Praising Washington, Hanks said –
“He is our Brando. Nicholson. Olivier. And, like me, he steals office supplies and notebooks from the set dressing. At one point on the set, we were talking about our New York City days as broke actors – about the same age, peers, trying to learn craft and get work. I noted that we were in the same boat at the same time.”
Hanks consecutively won another Oscar for Forrest Gump the following year, and Washington, already having one for Best Supporting Actor in Glory (1989), won another for Training Day in the Best Actor category.
Philadelphia is currently streaming on Hulu.
Source: The Irish Times
