Tom Hanks Regis Dialogue with Richard Schickel, 1996 Bruce Jenkins: These dialogues, and I know some of you have been here for others in the past, began with a grant from the MacArthur Foundation and it was a small part in their attempt to do for this period of time what the Carnegie's had done a hundred years ago. Carnegie's had built libraries and the MacArthur Foundation thought that they wanted to support the more contemporary form of literacy, which is the literacy of the moving image art. And we proposed doing a series of dialogues that looked at the craft of the oldest of those art forms, the cinema. Bruce Jenkins: We have since found support for this project from the Regis Foundation here in our own community and we've focused mainly on not what I think most film viewers look at as that arena of creativity, which is what you see on screen, namely the actors, the kind of most visible part of the creative aspect of cinema. But on that point, behind the screen or behind the camera. Producers, writers, and most especially directors. Over the years, we've been able to acknowledge and in a way celebrate and finally hear from a number of actors turned directors. Our very first program in this series was with Clint Eastwood, who at that moment had done I think about 15 or 16 features. He had been directing for two decades and was here to talk about yet another new film, the film made right before The Unforgiven. And our moderator that evening is our moderator tonight. Bruce Jenkins: We're very, very pleased to have Richard Schickel distinguished critic from Time Magazine, who six years later now has a book out on Clint Eastwood and it'll be coming out in November. But he's also the author of the Disney Version, a wonderful book on DW Griffith and many other volumes. I don't think I need to say very much about our main guest tonight. I think he's really a virtually an American icon, but I will say that his extraordinary talents, I think he's brilliant both in front of the camera. And I think if you get to see the new film behind the camera, are only exceeded by his personal generosity and what in show businesses called class. It gives me a great deal of pleasure to welcome here to Minneapolis, to the Walker Arts Center, Richard Schickel and Mr Tom Hanks. Richard Schickel: For some reason today, the following phrase popped into my head, probably because of its utter inappropriateness. It's the famous phrase of DH Lawrence in which he describes the American hero as stoic, isolate and killer. Richard Schickel: But the reason it popped into my head was that Bruce and I had been running through clips that we were thinking of playing for tonight's program, talking about. And one of the things that did become clear to me as we looked at some of what Bruce and I both regarded as the most powerful and interesting scenes that Tom had done, was how many of them had to do with one form or another of isolation and overcoming it, dealing with it in some way or other. And the fact that the one word that is seems always to be attached to him, likability. A word that I think you have said you would like never to hear again in your life. It is a combination of those two qualities it seems to me as a critic, that has made Tom Hanks the unique presence that he has become in the movies. Oct 11, 1996 1 Richard Schickel: The American hero is usually an isolated figure, but he is usually not necessarily maybe righteous. He is not necessarily likable. He is not necessarily somebody that we affectionately identify with. Maybe respectfully, maybe fearfully, all of those ways, but I think that's something that is unique in what Tom has brought to the movies. And I think it is something all of us, his critics have kind of groped for some phrase that's applicable to him. Some comparison that's applicable. At press conference this afternoon the names of Jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda came up. Once when he was quite a young actor, I compared him very specifically to some stuff that he was doing in a particular film that reminded me of stuff that Cary Grant had once done in films. Richard Schickel: But there is this quality that is modern, that is up to date, that is not quite like those other guys that preceded him to the screen. And it's that, that I think is what has fascinated us and made this a great career and probably is going to make it a career that will go on a long time. Richard Schickel: Anyway. One of the things I observed in- Tom Hanks: No wood- Richard Schickel: There is no wood, dear. Richard Schickel: One of the things that comes clear when you read profiles in the like of your early life is that it was in some measure I think an isolated life. Was it not? That is to say you moved a great deal. You were a kid who was in and out of new schools on a fairly regular basis. Your family was, as they say, a broken home. I don't know if that phrase is even applicable anymore. Tom Hanks: Busted. Richard Schickel: Busted in some ways. Does that in some way, first of all, I have observed that an awful lot of, a disproportionate number of actors come from homes in which you know the father or the mother is missing. And it does seem to me that there may be some need for attention that comes out of that circumstance. That's kind of like a first question to reflect on. And a second one might be is that isolation creep into your performances in some way? Some sense of the fact that many of us in life are perhaps lonelier or less communal than we once were in America, or at least like to think we once were. Tom Hanks: What I remember most about growing up at any given date on the calendar from 1956 to about 1993, was a sense of confusion, more than anything else. I was confused by what was going on in my own house. My folks divorced in 1961 which was pretty hip stuff to do in 1961. The only people who got divorced were like movie stars. Frank Sinatra got divorced. Oct 11, 1996 2 Richard Schickel: Right? Tom Hanks: Nikki Hilton got divorced, things like that. So I did begin moving around an awful lot. It wasn't a destitute lifestyle and there was always a lot of people around, but the sense of confusion I think translated for me into ... I was the youngest in whatever family I was in so there were times when I was home by myself a lot. And I think that if there is any one thing that sort of does in fact drive my artistic bent in choosing films or relating to characters or being interested in these themes, even if they're just comedies, is usually that combating against loneliness. The sense of loneliness that if you are honestly feeling it when you're six years old, it's not an easy thing to grasp. Tom Hanks: Now, my wife has never felt a lonely day in her life just because of the nature of who she is and the family atmosphere that she comes from. But it's not a desire. I don't recall being desirous of attention in order to balance out those feelings of confusion of loneliness. Really just what I wanted was I think, is some degree of engagement with other people. Our house was as dysfunctional as the vast majority of American houses seem to be, especially in years like 1966 and 1972, pick the year. But what I was always wanted to be in was just in a room full of bunch of animated people who were doing anything other than arguing with each other, because I had seen plenty of that. As soon as the argument starts, well that's time to go off and it's better to be by yourself then. Tom Hanks: But I was always just looking for the gang kind of ensemble that a family is supposed to be or a classroom is supposed to be or a playground is supposed to be. And then later on what a theater actually is, completely based on a group of people. Some of them are getting attention, but others are waiting for their moment. Richard Schickel: Theater and theaters and movie companies are funny, aren't they? They're very intense families that you're not stuck with for life. Tom Hanks: Thank God. Richard Schickel: I mean in other words. It's very intense, very loving, very close usually. And then everybody goes their separate ways and- Tom Hanks: Well that's about ... that's very loving for about the first two weeks. But as soon as you put the books down in the play, you begin to start hating some of those people now. Intensely, as a matter of fact. Really in having no respect for them or their work or where they came from. You don't want to be like them.