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Film interview - Charlie Wilson's War – Tom Hanks Interview part two

Tom Hanks talks about his favourite political films, the actors he used to look up to, and working with his son, Colin, on The Great Buck Howard...

What's your favourite political film and why?
Tom Hanks: I'd say All The President's Men. It just seemed like it was a documentary about what went on. It was also about guys on the phone asking questions. Usually they're crusading reporters or kicking down doors at slums, or something like that, when in reality crusading reporters sit at their desks and make a lot of phone calls [laughs]. I loved in that movie that you never saw the person on the other end of the phone. You just heard this disembodied voice of John Mitchell or whoever it was. They didn't even get to the end of it. At the end of the movie they were still continuing to write the story that eventually brought down the President of the United States. When you combine that with Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford and Jason Robards, I felt as though that's how it really was. Now, if you show a reporter in a movie he almost always has to have a red suit with a cape underneath his outfit and go save the world.

Was there anyone you modelled yourself on, or thought you might like to emulate in their career?
Tom Hanks: Well, I've previously mentioned Jason Robards and he was one of the guys. I used to go into the library in college and listen to the recordings of Jason Robard's O'Neill monologues on CBS Records. He'd have a monologue from The Iceman Cometh or A Long Day's Journey Into Night. So, when I made a movie with Jason [Philadelphia] I said: "I've got to tell you, you got me through a lot of hours in college..." And he said: "What are you talking about kid?" So I explained about the CBS records and he replied: "Oh those things! We recorded them at about 10am on a Monday!" [laughs] If you're an actor you realise you're not at your peak then.

So, he and Robert Duvall were my favourite actors. I mean I'd come to all the big movie stars: I loved James Bond films and Steve McQueen and all that kind of stuff, but the guys who were up there doing things that I couldn't quite recognise stayed with me. I thought: "I'd like to try and sound like him or be as mysterious as him." It was movies like Joe Kidd or Hang Em High, or A Thousand Clowns with Robards. I thought these weren't things like Hollywood movies; these were things that you sit down and watch.

How did you enjoy working with Philip Seymour Hoffman?
Tom Hanks: He's actually got a thing like Jason Robards. When I met Jason Robards I thought he might be a cranky guy, like: "Get out of my way, kid!" And I thought Phil was going to be the same thing: "Oh yeah, hi Tom..." But he wasn't anything like that [laughs]. He was just a guy getting a cup of coffee and saying: "Hey, how you doing?"

You've worked with your son, Colin, again on The Great Buck Howard and you're playing a father and son. Can you tell us about that?
Tom Hanks: Yeah, Colin found a Sean McGinly script called The Great Buck Howard, which Sean directed, and it's going to premiere at Sundance. John Malkovich plays the great Buck Howard. I read it and said: "Oh, there's a role for a cranky father in this! I'll do it." And Colin said: "Dad just wants to do this so that Dad can yell at me over a breakfast table." That's basically what we do. John is phenomenal in it; it's a great, delightful little movie.

Interview: Rob Carnevale
Photo: Universal