The appeal of iconic 1994 film Forrest Gump wasn’t immediately obvious to its star, Tom Hanks.
He made the confession Tuesday night at the New Yorker Live event in New York City.
“I say, ‘Hey Bob, I’ve got a question for you. Is anybody going to care about this movie?’ ” Hanks said to the film’s director, Robert Zemeckis.
” ‘This guy sitting on a thing in these goofy shoes and this cuckoo suit with a suitcase full of Curious George books and stuff like that. Are we doing anything here that is going to make any sense to anybody?’ ” Hanks said.
“And Bob said, ‘It’s a minefield, Tom. It’s a g— minefield,’ ” Hanks added. ” ‘We may be sowing the seeds of our own destruction. Any footstep we take can be a bouncing Betty that’ll blow our nuts right off.’ ”
Fortunately for Hanks and everyone concerned, things turned out well. Hanks won a Best Actor Academy Award, Zemeckis was Best Director, and the film was voted Best Picture. The film has grossed more than $1 billion worldwide.
“Bob Zemeckis — God bless him, I’ve worked with him more than once — landed on the absolute truth of anybody who has gone forward and said, we are going to commit something to film today, and eventually we’ll cut this into something,” Hanks said. “You do not know if it is going to work out.”
He added, “You can only have faith.”