p'[ob/interuienr
KS
m
Hanks
used'fo
be
a
comedian.
Nowhe's
an actor.
After
a
two-year
sf,nt of
movie
farces
in
which
Hanks' quick-wittedcads
were
often
the
only
sav-
ing
graces,
last
summer's
Nothing in
Common gave
him
a
chance
to
prove
he
couldplay
a
three-dimensional, es-sentially
dramatic
rote.
A
bit-
fersyyeet
"dramatic
comedy,,
by
director Barry
Marshail(The Flamingo
Kid),
Nothing
rn
L;ommon
paved
the way
for
his
current fullJtedged
ro-
mantic drama,
Every Time
We
Say
Goodbye.
Now
critics
haye taken
to
calting
Hanks
"ayoung
Jack
Lemmlon,"
and
if
his
performances
here
are
any indication,
Hanks coutdindeed assurne
that manile.
A
funny
coincidence;
Hanks'
early drama coach,
Vincent
Dowling, recalls
that
he
and
his
former student talk
to
this
day
about
working
together
on
Eugene
O'Neill's
monu-mentalplay, Long
Day's Jour-
ney into
Night. Hanks,
says
Dowling, wants
to play
Ed-
mund
Tyrone,
the
decaying
younger brother
of a
theatri-
cal
fa:mily.
As
this
is
being
written,
Jack
Lemmon
is
on
the
London
stage,
ptaying
Ldmund
Tyrone's
authoritar-ian
father.
Hanks
was
raised
in
Oak-
land,
California,
and
by
his
own description
was
a
"loud-mouthed goof-off" with a very
funny streak.
He
attended
Chabot
Junior Coilege
in
Hayward
for
tuvo
years, then
sperd
a
year
at
California
State University
in
.Sacramen-
to,
majoring
in
theater
arts.
While
auditioning
for a
region-
al
production
of
Chekov's"The
Cherry
Archard," he
so
impressed Vincent
Dowling,
the
artistic director
of
the
Great
Lakes
Shakespeare
Festival,
that Dowting offered
him
a
place
in
his
resident
28
GENESIS
'.
j
*
'-
r*--{
company. Hanks quit
school
b
pertorm rotating
repertorytheater,
appearing
in
numer-
aus
works
from town
to
town
.
After moving
to
New
York
City
with
his
family,
Hanks
struggled and
did
stage
work
and
appeared
exceedinglybriefly in
a
1980 slasher
mov-
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
fa-
vorite
in
syndication.
And
actually, the
cancellation
caudn't
have come at
a
befter
time.
After
a
middling
TV
movie (Mazes
and
Monsters)
and
some
serles
guest-ap-pearances,
Hanks
landed
the
male
romantic co-lead
in
the
mermaid comedy
Splash
(1984).
And
the
roller-ceasterjust
kept
getting faster.
Hanks
was rn three movies
in
1985:
Bacheior
Party, The Man With
One
Red Shoe
and
Volun-teers.
None
of them
were
any
greal
success,
but
then
1986's critically
lambasted
and
extremely
popular,
TheMoney
Pit
erased
any
doubts
that
Hanks was
a
major com-
edy
star.
,Jackie
G/eason
sums
/t
up well
when he says
admiringly
that,
"Anybodycan
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
vour
divorce. 'rariks: Well
.
.
.
(shrugs)
Gr.:rEsts:
Do you
think
the
::.
r::l'rlli:
that
COmeS With
such
a
successful
acting
ca-
reer
as
yours might
havebeen the main
reason
for
it?
Hanks:
Oh, no. No.
That
would
be
pre5uming
that
what
I
do
falls
into
(searching for
right word)
Di-vorce
is
inbred
in
Western so-
ciety;
it's simply a part
of it. ll
I
had
been
in the
insurance
business,
I
think
it
would
have
been
the
same thing.
Those
continuing
annuities,
boy
(laughs). They get to
ya.
Grxests: Let's
go
back
a
few
==%EI
years. When
you
were
start-
ing out
in comedy, was thereanyone
who was
a
particularinsplraton,
or
role-model?
Hanks: Not really.
lwas
iust
a
complete product of
the
box
[W],
for
the most part.
I
knew
what time
it
was
to
go
to
school
by
what
show
wasover:
When
Love
of
Lrfe
end-
ed, I
was
on
my way
to
kin-
dergarten (laughs).
I've
al-ways
considered
myself very
lucky, because
I
have
some-
thing
those
TV
comedians
didn't:
I had thern to rip
off
Geruesrs:
lt's
sort
of
ironic that
you
began your career doingShakespearean
drama.
Hanks: Yeah,
that's
right.
Three years
of rotating
rep{er-
tory theaterl, which is
a
killer,
but
great
training,
fabulous
training.
I did a
lot o{
drama
and
comedv
Geruests:
Aren't you forgettingHe Knows
Yau're Alone?
Hanks,:
Ah-yeah,
that's
right.GeNesrs:
You don't
want
to
talk abo.rt ,tr
Hanks:
iDisr,"iissing
il)
lt
washaCk'n':lir:;1'r
rliriie
fOr
abOul
t
l;
:
,
i
29
ninety
bucks
on
Staten
ls-
land.
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 upand 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?
Hanks:
Oh, yeah,
it
Certainly
pressive thing
to
call
it
and
they
FOUND
taient,
dammitl
(slams
table
playfuilyl
I
wasone of the million people who
kind
of
walked
in
who
kept
making
it
through
the
cuts
Geruests:
Do
you
stay
in
touchwith
[ccstar]
Peter
Scolad lnowa
cestar
on
CBS'
Newhartl?Hanks:
Yeah.
We're not
ultra-
ultra
close,
but we
always
pick
up
right where
we
left
off
whenever
we see each
other.GeNesrs:
What
went
throughyour mind when Eosorn Bud-
dles
was
cancelled?
Were
you
worried
that your
career
was going to fade away
like
those
of
so
many old-sitcompeople?
Hanks. Oh, naw.
ljust
missed
-
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.
I
e
had
a
deal
with CBS,
we
were
tryin'
to
put a
TV
show on
the
$
air,
but
that didn't
work
out.
'
So
I did
some episodic
stuff
[including
a
memorable
ap-
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:
There was
no
inse-
curity
at
all?
Hanks:
Sure-p/enfy of
inse-
curity.
But
nothing
that
was
unique. Y'know,
I
had been
in
New
York
with
a
lamily
and
ten
dollars
lefl
in.
lhe.bank.
After
that
insecurity,
anything
else is
a
piece of
cake.
Geruests:
When
yeu
were
shooting
Sp/ash, your first
big
movie,
did
anybody
on
the
set have any inkling
how suc-
cessful it was
going
to
be?
Hanks:
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
ma-
kin'
a
rnoo-vie?'
Yes.
'Whuzzaname
o'
the
movie?
Spiash
'Whuzzit
about?'
lt's abollt
a
mermaid,
'Who
s
maxin
it?'
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
$
worked very,
very hard.
We
f;
weren't totally
prepared for
it
E taking off the way it did.
i
Genesrs:
But after
it did,
you
$
turned around and
did
Each-
8
elor
Party, which wasn't
ex-actly
Citizen
Kane.
Hanks:
While
I
was
doingSp/ash, Neal lsrael
and
PatProft
came
to me about
Each-
elor
Party,
and
I
said,
'Well,
I'm
really
busy right now,
so
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
filming
Sp/ash,
they
cameF
back
again, specifically,
I
4
guess, wanting me.
By
then
I
?
had
tirne
to
read
their script.
I
toto tnem,
'Look,
this
is
a
rock'n'roll
sex
comedy,
$
tnere's
some
funny
stuff,
$
there's something
to work
on
here,
so
let's
go
ahead
anddo
it.
lt was also
diametricallyopposed to the kind
of
movie
Sp/ash
was,
so
I
had
noqualms about
doing
it.
Geruess:
With
these two
mov-
ies and then
Volunteers,
The
Man
With One
Red
Shoe,
The
Money Plf
and especially with
Nothing
in
Common,
you'vegotten this "yuppie
comic"
la-
bel attached to you. .
.
.
Hanks: (Kiddingly)
Watch
that
GeruEsrs:
Well, to use
the
label
for
a
moment,
because
it
is
applied
to
you,
do
you
think
your
characters
are
mostly
personifications
of
yuppie
traits?
Hanks:
I
dunno. The
lovable
cad
of
Volunteers
is
certainly
a
different
guy than
who
lwai
in
Sp/ash. The
guy in
Bache-
lor
Party
was
a
smartass, but
he
was totally
monogamous,
adhering
to his fidelity to
the
woman he loved.
The
violinist
in
The
Man
With One
Red
Shoe,
he
was (quiet,
laugh)
kinda
thick;
'he
didn't
getmuch 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)
"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.
Hanks: (relenting)
Yes,
that
kind
of
thing gives you
an
amount
of
credibility.
Be-
cause
the first
thing
people
say [to
a
young
actor]
is,
do
you
have
any
film?
And
I
could
say
yes,
I
do. Not
wlthme,
of course
(suppresses
a
yuk). But
I
was able
to
stop
safing things
like,
Well,
I
made some student films-in
co/-lege.
I
actually
never
made
a
single
student
film
in
college.
GEruesrs:
How
did
you
land
Bosam
Buddies?
Hanks:
ABC was-having theirmassive
talent
hunt,
which
is(rue.ful
little laugh)
a
real
im-
30
GENESIS