Tom Hanks is often considered one of the world’s best actors, but there are scenes of his he cannot stand to watch, no matter how long ago he shot them. While appearing on “The Rest Is Entertainment” podcast this week, Hanks pointed to a moment from the 2000 film “Cast Away” that is especially painful.
The actor admitted that whether his movies are well-received or not, “they are all such profound experiences of success and failure.”
“I do not watch these movies after the first time,” he told co-hosts Richard Osman & Marina Hyde. “There are movies that have moments in it that I cannot watch because I didn’t get there. There is a moment that it was painful for me where I just think, ‘I’m not there.’”
“At the end of the 47th day of shooting, in the 14th hour of the day, you still have to capture an emotional bit of lightning in a bottle that is going to last forever, whether you do it well or not,” he continued. “There remains forever a terrifying moment of, ‘Am I going to be escorted off the set and off the lot because the authenticity police have dubbed me a crook?’”
Hanks was asked if he could cite a specific film.
“There is a moment in that it was painful for me in ‘Cast Away’ in which I am back, and Chuck is back in Kelly’s house and he gives her watch back,” he said. “And there is a moment where I just think, ‘I am not there.’ 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. And if the movie is on, I will get up and leave the room before that scene comes on.”
To make matters worse, he didn’t realize the mistake in the moment. “It wasn’t until I actually saw it when it went down, and I think that we were just moving on there, and I wasn’t there,” Hanks said.
He also said he doesn’t remember when he’s hit a scene perfectly. “The only time it happens was I don’t remember doing that. But it’s not a thing, I can’t linger on that. I don’t sit there and say, ‘Oh, watch this movie. Watch this move that comes up, we really nailed that.’ I look at it and all I can say is, ‘I was cold. It looks like I’m warm. I was really freezing that day, or that beard was sticky’. I can say things like that.”
You can watch the full discussion in the video above.
