p'[ob/interuienr

om Hanks used'fo be comedian. Now he's an actor. After a two-year sf,nt of movie farces in which Hanks' quick-witted cads were often the only saving graces, last summer's

KS
'. j
*

'-

him a chance to prove he could r*-{ play a three-dimensional, essentially dramatic rote. A bit-

Nothing in Common gave

by director Barry
rn L;ommon

fersyyeet "dramatic comedy,, paved the way for

Marshail (The Flamingo Kid), Nothing

his current fullJtedged ro-

any indication, Hanks coutd indeed assurne that manile. A funny coincidence; Hanks' early drama coach, Vincent
Dowling, recalls that he and

mantic drama, Every Time We Say Goodbye. Now critics haye taken to calting Hanks "ayoung Jack Lemmlon," and if his performances here are

his former student talk to this day about working together on Eugene O'Neill's monu-

younger brother of a theatri-

mund Tyrone, the decaying

fa:mily.

ney into Night. Hanks, says Dowling, wants to play Ed-

mentalplay, Long Day's Jour-

cal

written, Jack Lemmon is on the London stage, ptaying Ldmund Tyrone's authoritarian father.

As this is being

funny streak. He attended Chabot Junior Coilege in Hayward for tuvo years, then sperd a year at California
While auditioning for a region-

mouthed goof-off" with a very

Hanks was raised in Oakland, California, and by his own description was a "loud-

to, majoring in theater arts.

Chekov's "The Cherry Archard," he so impressed Vincent Dowling, the artistic director of the Great Lakes Shakespeare

State University in .Sacramen-

al production of

him a place in his resident

Festival, that Dowting offered

GENESIS

28

==%EI

company. Hanks quit school b pertorm rotating repertory theater, appearing in numeraus works from town to town . After moving to New York

such a successful acting ca-

City with his family,

Hanks

struggled and did stage work and appeared exceedingly briefly in a 1980 slasher mov-

would be pre5uming that what I do falls into

reer as yours might have been the main reason for it? Hanks: Oh, no. No. That

! t

ie, He Knows You're Alone. Probably in spite of that, his

big break soon followed: The popular ABC sitcom Bosom Buddies. Though cancelled
after just two years, fhe show has srnce become a cult favorite in syndication. And
caudn't have come at a befter

(searching for right word) Divorce is inbred in Western society; it's simply a part of it. ll

l;

I had been in the insurance

business, I think it would have

continuing annuities, boy

(laughs). They get to ya. Grxests: Let's go back a few

been the same thing. Those

actually, the cancellation

time. After a middling

TV

years. When you were starting out in comedy, was there anyone who was a particular insplraton, or role-model? complete product of the box
Hanks: Not really. lwas iust a

movie (Mazes and Monsters) and some serles guest-appearances, Hanks landed the male romantic co-lead in the

mermaid comedy Splash

(1984). And the roller-ceaster just kept getting faster. Hanks was rn three movies in 1985: Bacheior Party, The Man With One Red Shoe and Volunteers. None of them were any

[W], for the most part. I knew what time it was to go to school by what show was
over: When Love of Lrfe end-

ed, I was on my way to kindergarten (laughs). I've always considered myself very lucky, because I have something those TV comedians didn't: I had thern to rip off! Geruesrs: lt's sort of ironic that you began your career doing Shakespearean drama.

greal success, but

then

1986's critically lambasted and extremely popular, The

Money Pit erased any doubts that Hanks was a major comG/eason sums /t up well when he says

edy

star. ,Jackie

Hanks: Yeah, that's right.

Three years of rotating rep{ertory theaterl, which is a killer,

admiringly that, "Anybody can do a lirie. But Tom has moves. That's the ,imporlant thing. The right moves. And hes got 'em all." 'GEr'rESrs: I'm sorry to hear
abcL it

training. I did a lot o{ drama and comedv

Geruests: Aren't you forgetting

but great training,

fabulous

He Knows Yau're Alone? Hanks,: Ah-yeah, that's right.

GeNesrs:

vour divorce. !'rariks: Well . . . (shrugs)

You don't want to

Gr.:rEsts:

Do you think the ::. r::l'rlli: that COmeS With

talk abo.rt ,tr Hanks: iDisr,"iissing

haCk'n':lir:;1'r

rliriie

il) lt was fOr abOul

29

ninety bucks on Staten lsland. I got the role because I walked into an audition and did a reading and they said oh, okay. I had three days ori this movie. I didn't know what I was doing; I just showed up and learned how to hit a mark and then moved on. I mean, c'mon, it was a long time ago? (laughs) GENEsrs: Well, it did help your career to have a movie, didn't
it?

name o' the movie? Spiash 'Whuzzit about?' lt's abollt a

mermaid, 'Who

Disney. 'Oh. Cute. We were all just really too scared to think that we were doing anything fantastic. We reallv liked the movie. we had F a loiot fun doing it and we all E taking off the way it did.

s maxin it?'

$ worked very, very hard. We f; weren't totally prepared for it $ turned around and did Each8 elor Party, which wasn't ex-

Genesrs: But after it did, you

Hanks: Oh, yeah, it Certainly

I was doing Sp/ash, Neal lsrael and Pat

Hanks: While
just send it to the people that you send these things to.' They did, and they [also]tried to make it [without me], and it didn't work. When I was done

actly Citizen Kane.

elor Party, and I said, 'Well, I'm really busy right now, so

Proft came to me about Each-

filming Sp/ash, they came F back again, specifically, I

4 guess, wanting me. By then
I

? had tirne to read their script. I ! toto tnem, 'Look, this is a $ tnere's some funny stuff, $ there's something to work on here, so let's go ahead and
do it. lt was also diametrically opposed to the kind of movie Sp/ash was, so I had no qualms about doing it. Geruess: With these two movies and then Volunteers, The Man With One Red Shoe, The Money Plf and especially with Nothing in Common, you've gotten this "yuppie comic" label attached to you. . . .

rock'n'roll sex

comedy,

goin' to work every day; that

$ was a lot of fun. But I wasn't 3 particularly scared or worried. fr I didn't work lor a long time. e had a deal with CBS, we were

"Tn,
a rnztrh gryater rish in doins cumcdy because ,f y* stinh, people will tzll yru."
went to the top of my resume!
GEHess: Oh, c'mon.

! tryin' to put a TV show on the $ air, but that didn't work out. ' So I did some episodic stuff
pearance on faxil. But it wasn't like: Oh my god! My show's been cancelled! I'm dead, DEAD! Quick! Call up
Cross-Mfs/ I'll do a couple of
weeksl -Genests:

[including

memorable ap-

Hanks: (Kiddingly) Watch

the label

that!
GeruEsrs: Well, to use

pressive thing to call

it

and

kind of thing gives you an amount of credibility. Because the first thing people say [to a young actor] is, do
could say yes, I do. Not wlth me, of course (suppresses a yuk). But I was able to stop

Hanks: (relenting) Yes, that

they FOUND taient, dammitl (slams table playfuilyl I was

one of the million people who kind of walked in who kept making it through the cuts Geruests: Do you stay in touch with [ccstar] Peter Scolad lnow a cestar on CBS' Newhartl? Hanks: Yeah. We're not ultraultra close, but we always pick up right where we left off whenever we see each other. GeNesrs: What went through your mind when Eosorn Buddles was cancelled? Were you worried that your career

There was no insecurity at all? Hanks: Sure-p/enfy of insecurity. But nothing that was
unique. Y'know, I had been in

for a moment, because it is applied to you, do you think your characters are mostly personifications of yuppie
traits? a different guy than who lwai in Sp/ash. The guy in Bachelor Party was a smartass, but he was totally monogamous, adhering to his fidelity to the woman he loved. The violinist

you have any film? And

New York with a lamily and ten dollars lefl in. lhe.bank.
After that insecurity, anything else is a piece of cake.

Hanks: I dunno. The lovable cad of Volunteers is certainly

Geruests: When

yeu

were

safing things like, Well, co/-lege.

shooting Sp/ash, your first big set have any inkling how successful it was going to be?

made some student films-in

movie, did anybody on the Hanks:

I actually never

made a single student film in college. GEruesrs: How did you land Bosam Buddies? Hanks: ABC was-having their massive talent hunt, which is (rue.ful little laugh) a real im-

was going to fade away like those of so many old-sitcom

people?
Hanks. Oh, naw. ljust missed

I can't tell you h.ow many times .people wolild come up to us on the street
where we were shooting and say (obnaxious voice) "Whaddya ya do-in'? Ya makin' a rnoo-vie?' Yes. 'Whuzza

in The Man With One Red Shoe, he was (quiet, laugh) kinda thick; 'he didn't get much of what was going on. And Walter Fielding in The
Money Plt, I always felt, 'Why

does he let the world make such a schlemiel ol him, why can't he fight back a little bit
(continued on page 95)

30

GENESIS

INTERVIEW
lc(.)ntrrtued from

tlon he s gonna have to go through in

page 30)
the role. Like David Basner in the movie, mi, parents were divorced when I was very young. And my father had been very ili and there were times I was sitting in a hospital room thinking this was the

made. lt not onlv srrL\,,5 1"6u, happens. it shows what it was iike GeruEsrs: But how eractly do you shift
gears from comecjv to drima?'

more?' The most Walter could ever say was, 'Oh, YEAH?' But what these guys

were always able to do,

guess.

rs

come up with a halfway decent quip I've found that for what are more or
less limited roles, I've been able to work in a lot of variety. lt may be very hidden,

last tlme I was going to see him.

Hapks: ln making movies. one'ol the prerequisites is having this kind oi re-

But

(bilghtedng), making the movie was not a three month experience of cinematic psychoanalysis! So while it wouldn't be
{air to say it's autobiographical, you bet I took a bunch of my own stufl in there

very subtle variety (laughs) but variety

nonetheless.
Geruesrs:With Nothing in Common,l galh-

laxed concentration didn't want to make the big, dramatic crying scene the event of the movie {for myselfl: 'OK, here it comes, I gotta do this. Because I
had done it that way before and failed
miserably.
GEtrEsrs: ls that one of the reasons that

with me.

er you were able to have a bit more input into your character's formation. Hanks: I did have input,b lot, because [director Garry Marshall and the producers] came to me, and they were nice

So this "dramatic comedy" gave ybu what your broader comedies

Geruesrs:

Fed Shoe and Volunteers just didn't

didn t? Hanks: lt gave me an opportunity to act in a much bigger, a much more obvious

enough to ask me what I thought. But I don't think that means I had any particu-

way than I'd been able to do on any

I figure those movies didn't touch any kind ol resonant chord. lt also may be that they weren't perhaps
Hanks:
well-made films. They're not the greatest movies, they're not seamless movies, they have some faults. But I think in general, what can you say? Something happened, we took a shot, they didn't do real well. But perhaps in the first place, the actual gut issues we
were addressing were not interesting to people. Geruests: Would you want to stretch

click?

lar say over what was done and what

was written. I guess the best translation is, I complained a lot about some things.

We all wanted to play to the strengths

that were already there in the script, but nothing was absolutely, totally planned. Geruess: Nothing in Common also gave you a chance to play drama, something you hadn't done on film before. Was it difficult to switch gears? Hanks: (thinking it over) I did what any

other job, alry other gig. I've always tried to invest as much realistic emotion into whatever part it is, in whatever movie it's going to be, even something that turned' out to be as innocuous as the Ihe Man With One fred Shoe, or as I guess kinda

actor does, and that is, having gone

through something in life and then dredging it up so that he can use it as the key or template for whatever emo-

stupid as Bachelor Party. I think what we do as actors and fllmmakers is capture a period of time. And the best movies don't just capture what happened at this period of time, but they capture what it was like. One of the best examples, I think, is Ihe Eesf Years of Our Llves (William Wyler's 1946 classic about returning WWll vets), which is one of the greatest motion pictures ever

yourself so far as to play a villainous

character?

Hanks: Yeah. Yeah. I guess my desire is

not necessarily to do everything, bul

certainly to be able to do anything. The problem with villains is they're not really logical, like the guy in the hockey mask who never dies [in lhe Halloween movies]. I could never understand that. What is most important to me in play-

ing a villain whoOver it would be is to have him very firmly rooted in the real
world and also be kind of witty. I always thought the greatest villain was lago [the

in Shakespeare's Othellol. He was a very {unny

manipulative .nobleman
guy, evil.

lery witty but that doesn't stop

him

from being a complete manifestation of

Let's talk about your Nothing in Common co-star, Jackie Gleason. Hanks: Oh, boy, Jackie! Geruests: You say you were a product of
Ger.rEsrs:

TV, was Jackie someone you always

dreamed of working with?

Hanks: Yeah. lt was the kind of thing

like, who wouldn't want to? From a very selfish actor's point of view, to work with

somebody who's got the body of work

Jackie does in just about every medium that reqr:ires.an acting professional, this is global scope, really. And as just a guy whb had a TV in the house, I wanted to be in the same room with Mr. Gleason.

As it turns oul (laughs), was I in the

same rooml
GEruess: Did you two spend much time

togethef'off-screen? Hanks: No. I mean, what am I gonna do, 'Hey, Jackiel Come by.my trailer, we'll play cardsl' C'mon. What am I gonna do?'Can I come in?! Can I come in and hang out?!'

cause if I do that, I'm not being an actor, I'm being this pesky titile fan. .Remember th-at scene where you'n' Norton got drunk?! How' ja do thai, huh?!, GENEsrs: At the same time, weren't you concerned that Jackie Gleason's iast few films were ail prefty bad and alt died at the box otlice?

tions, I'm not going to bothei nim,

ing tor things to go, and he would offer a lew things, but I made a conscious choice before we went in to the movie llat l'm not going to ask this guy quesOe-

we'd be sitting together on the set wait-

There would be some moments where

Geltesrs: Gleason and Nothing in Common director Garry Marshall Came trom a different generdtion of comedy than

what acheap shoilButl could handle

rt.

their vaudeville/sitcom sensibilities wit6 your Any creative differences in that regard? Hanks: Well, 'creative ditferences'is this somebody walks off a movie. yeah, we hld arguments, we had all kinds of disagreements. But creative differences no, because we were all involved in the creative process. There were times when I yelled (assumes an upset voice), 'l'm not gonna say this, I'm not gonna say it, I'm not gonna say it. y'know whf (laughs) No, actuaily, whdn we naO Oisagreements like that, I did not just say I

you did. Was

it ditficutt meshini

more contemporary sense

of humor?

phrase that's now utilized every time

didn't even think aboui that other

aspect.

Hanks: No. Not at all." I guess as an actor I realize that just because a movie stinks, you can't blame a single person lor that. Because as an actor, the first thing I thought of was The Husiler [the classic '1961 Gleason / paul Newmin / George C. Scott poot-ptayer dramal. I

and .'.

'Cuz it's stupid. 'Cuz, it's stupid an'd, 'cuz I'm not gonna say it!'

refuse to do this;

audiences might stay away from

GeHesn: You weren't at all worried that

,,a

Jackie Gleason movie"? Hanks: I don't think they do. I think peo. ple forget the flops. lt's onty when (jokingly) newspaper writers bring up thbse

thingsl

belleve me,

reviews: 'Tom Hanks, who CAN'T make a decent movie to save his life since

read stuff about that myself, I read a lot of really- bad

Sp/asfr,' de da de da de da. Geesh,

Pryor says he does, about someday just not being funny anymore? Hanks: Well, Richa-l.d pryor's a standup comedian. There's a lot more validity iir that, a lot more risk. I don't stand up by fys_elf and say, 'Thank you for comingi, l'm funny and l'm gonnabe funny for thi

some instances you plead your case. which to me is viable. So yein, we had stuff like that go on ail the iime. GENEsrs: Do you ever worry, as Richard

sons why we couldn't do that. I guess in

I explained tne rea-

i i

!t qlalk to high heaven., And it's your fault. So you're out there much more onthe-line with comedy than you are in a clrama. ln a drama, an audience can sit very silently and you can have the biggest smash in the world with everybody absolutely loving it. tn a comedv ft tnev sit silently, you are dead, DEAD, OfnOi And because of that it's much scarier and much more difficult than drama and. you can't really explain it. lt's either tun_ ny or it's not. One thing I learned from Jackie Gleason: Just trust your instincts imolicitlv. And never, never allow anyO6Oy io screw that up. lf you have a system of working, work that way and you'lll be fine. Trust yourself, trust that initiat gut direction you're goin' in- you won't "do" wrong. D

that thing you said was gonna be funny?

risk. in doing comedy, oecluje"it vt-u stink to- high heaven, you t<now right ,you away. And people telt you: kn6w

same worry to me. lf I'm really not funny. someone else will be. Genesls: But you do seem to be movino away from straight, larcical comedy and into light drama. Which is thg harder of two for you to do, comedy or drama? !f.re Hanks: I think there's a much greater

",*uu. didn't write it. I had !9 say it., t ian always hide behind m:at. ti s not rhe

next twenty minutes.' lf I reairv want to l?ke,.a cleap shot, I can say, i