{"id":70595,"date":"2025-08-16T06:05:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T06:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/70595\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T06:05:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T06:05:08","slug":"the-one-movie-that-finally-let-tom-hanks-be-an-artist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/70595\/","title":{"rendered":"The one movie that finally let Tom Hanks be an “artist”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Tom<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Universal Studios)<\/p>\n

Fri 15 August 2025 16:26, UK <\/p>\n

Hollywood has fostered many hugely successful careers, but few names have become so universally well-known and loved than Tom Hanks<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Born in 1956, the actor spent his early years watching plays before moving to New York to pursue a career in the arts.\u00a0The kid knew he had star quality right from the start and even went so far as to send a cold letter to an acclaimed director<\/a>, calling himself the next big star and demanding he be cast in the filmmaker\u2019s next project. <\/p>\n

A few minor parts in cinema and television defined the start of his acting pursuits, although he soon landed a leading role in 1984\u2019s Splash, which shot him to widespread recognition. The movie performed exceedingly well at the box office, giving Hanks his first taste of commercial success \u2013 something he would soon become very familiar with.<\/p>\n

A leading role in Big also gave Hanks further star power, earning him his first Academy Award nomination. However, it was the following decade that proved most fruitful, giving Hanks a chance to demonstrate his full acting abilities through a range of diverse projects. He appeared in movies like Forrest Gump<\/a>, Sleepless in Seattle, Philadelphia, Toy Story, Saving Private Ryan and The Green Mile, making him one of Hollywood\u2019s biggest icons.<\/p>\n

Commercial success is perhaps the one elusive thing that all studios are chasing, and Hanks seemed to have a habit of bringing it to them. It might not be what every artist sets out to achieve, but it sure is handy to be able to share with your employers. Hanks built box office takings that dwarfed his counterparts, and because of it, he became a go-to guy. <\/p>\n

\"Tom<\/a>(Credits: Far Out \/ Dick Thomas Johnson)<\/p>\n

Yet, it wasn\u2019t until the release of 1995\u2019s Apollo 13 that Hanks truly felt like he was coming into his own as a creative. The movie, directed by Ron Howard, sees Hanks star as the astronaut Jim Lovell, who was on board the third manned trip to the moon, which was aborted several days in. Apollo 13 also stars Kevin Bacon, Gary Sinise and Bill Paxton as the rest of the crew. <\/p>\n

The film won two of its nine Oscar nominations \u2013 \u2018Best Film Editing\u2019 and \u2018Best Sound\u2019. As well as being critically praised, Apollo 13 was a significant box-office success. For Hanks, he considered the movie to be a turning point in his career<\/a>. It was the moment he moved out of the spotlight as just another leading man and finally got to stretch his muscles and go for a jog down a more creative path. <\/p>\n

Talking to the New York Times, he recalled his agent Richard Lovett asking him, \u201cWhat do you want to do?\u201d He added: \u201cNo one had asked me that question, either. People always said: \u2018What do you want to do with this opportunity?\u2019 But what do you want to do? I said I\u2019d like to make a movie about Apollo 13. That was the first time where I was saying, \u2018This is the type of artist who I want to be.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Hanks continued: \u201cBut if you look at anybody\u2019s career, there\u2019s hits and misses. There\u2019s movies that simply don\u2019t work, and if something not working is debilitating to you, you\u2019re toast.\u201d These moments provide artists a reason to keep on going. Making money is always great, but achieving critical success and allowing yourself to grow as a creative is the real feeling we all chase. <\/p>\n

Reflecting on the trajectory of his career, he explained that he \u201cwas not an overnight sensation.\u201d However, by this point in his career, he realised that he had enough experience to know that he didn\u2019t have to take every role that came his way.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of that was, What am I going to do instead? Wait for the phone to ring?\u201d he explained. Luckily for Hanks, \u201cThe phone rang! I said yes! But I was fortunate in that my sense of self and artistic thirst grew at the same time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The movie goes down as one of Hanks\u2019 finer productions in a sea of incredibly well-received and well-paid-for pictures. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Universal Studios) Fri 15 August 2025 16:26, UK Hollywood has fostered many hugely successful…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,2839,35692,25685,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-70595","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-movies","10":"tag-ron-howard","11":"tag-tom-hanks","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}