Legendary Hollywood actor Tom Hanks admits he can’t watch a pivotal moment from one of his Oscar-nominated films, calling his performance in the scene “false.”
Even for an actor of his stature, who has won two Oscars and is one of the most loved people in the industry, some roles are just hard to look back on. In a new interview, Hanks got candid about one scene from his 2000 movie ‘Cast Away‘ that he just cannot watch. When it comes on, he gets up and leaves the room.
Why Tom Hanks Calls His Own Performance “False“
The scene happens near the end of the movie, when Chuck Noland, played by Hanks, has finally made it back home after being stuck alone on an island for four years. He goes to see his old girlfriend Kelly, played by Helen Hunt, to give her back a pocket watch that has her picture inside. It is the same watch she gave him right before his plane crashed. “There is a moment in Cast Away in which I am back and Chuck is back in Kelly’s house and he gives her her watch back,” Hanks said on the podcast The Rest Is Entertainment. “There’s a moment where I just think I’m not there.”
For Hanks, the problem was a small move he made during this very emotional scene. He felt it did not feel real for the character he had worked so hard to create. Chuck was a man changed by years of being alone, with no hope, just trying to stay alive. “All it is is a turnaround on me, but I do this gesture that I just think is false and is me and is not Chuck,” he admitted. “And if the movie is on, I will get up and leave the room before that scene comes on.”
What makes this confession so interesting is that Hanks did not notice anything wrong while they were filming. He only saw the problem when he watched the finished movie for the first time. “I think that, oh, we were just moving on there. And I wasn’t there,” he added.
The Grueling Two-Year Journey Behind ‘Cast Away’
‘Cast Away‘ was a huge project for Hanks and the director Robert Zemeckis. They had worked together before on ‘Forrest Gump‘. This movie, though, pushed Hanks to his physical and mental limits. It earned over $429 million worldwide and took nearly two years to finish. The production actually stopped for a whole year so Hanks could lose 50 pounds. He needed to look like a man who had wasted away from eating only coconuts and fish for years.
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Hanks actually came up with the idea for the movie after reading an article about FedEx. He has talked many times about how hard the filming was on his body. While they were in Fiji, he almost died from a staph infection. He got a cut on his leg that got badly infected, and he needed surgery and three weeks to recover.
A Rare Self Critique From One of Hollywood’s Best
Even though Hanks loves the movie, and it won him a Golden Globe for Best Actor and got him an Oscar nomination, that one small move in Kelly’s house still bothers him. It is a rare moment where he is hard on himself, especially since most people see his work as the best example of real emotion on screen.
But even when Hanks thinks he failed, it is still better than what most actors can do. And for the people watching, the scene he cannot stand to see is still one of the saddest moments in a movie full of sad moments. It just goes to show how honest he is about his work.
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