Behind the Scenes with Tom Hanks

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

News, David, Books, Arts, Storytelling, Wnyc, New, Remnick, News Commentary, Yorker, Politics

4.2 • 5.5K Ratings

🗓️ 19 May 2023

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Tom Hanks has been a constant presence on the American movie screen for forty years. He has played a mermaid’s boyfriend, an astronaut, a soldier on D Day, an F.B.I. agent, an AIDS patient, a castaway, and a strange, innocent character running across America—among dozens of other roles. Hanks won the Academy Award for Best Actor two years in a row. Now in his sixties, Hanks has added another line to his résumé: novelist. “The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece”—an overstuffed, often funny, work of fiction—captures what he’s learned from forty years in the business. Hanks describes the process of moviemaking as equal parts chaos and monotony. “If anybody who we call a noncombatant, or a civilian, wants to visit the making of a motion picture, they will be bored out of their skull,” he tells David Remnick, insisting that it’s impossible to know on set whether a production will be a masterpiece or a flop. “You do not know if it is going to work out. You can only have faith.”

Hanks spoke with Remnick onstage at Symphony Space as part of The New Yorker Live to kick off his book tour.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNWC Studios and The New Yorker.
0:11.2	Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour, I'm David Rebnik.
0:15.4	Tom Hanks has been a constant presence on the American movie screen for 40 years.
0:21.0	He's played a mermaid's boyfriend, an astronaut, a soldier on D-Day, an FBI agent, a young man
0:27.6	dying of AIDS, a castaway, and a dimwit of innocent who runs clear across America.
0:34.4	He hasn't just won an Oscar for Best Actor in the mid-90s, he wanted two years running,
0:40.0	and in his 60s, he still sells a lot of tickets.
0:43.8	Now Hanks has just added another line to the resume, novelist.
0:48.4	His new book is called The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece,
0:52.5	and he's put everything he's learned in the business into an overstuffed,
0:56.2	often funny work of fiction. The story, which seems real enough,
1:01.1	involves an old comic book that's being made into a big budget superhero movie.
1:06.2	I joined Hanks on stage the other night at the symphony space in Manhattan.
1:11.1	Now, one note, it's kind of interesting because of the persona that comes with Tom Hanks,
1:15.2	and we'll get to that later for sure, I was expecting a certain kind of laconic modest presence.
1:21.7	Jimmy Stewart in Modern Dress, but the Tom Hanks I met was more excitable, more performative,
1:27.6	edge-year, and though the movies have made him very rich and very famous, he was a lot more conflicted
1:34.4	about what it is to be a star.
1:39.0	Tom, I want to start with your novel The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece,
1:44.0	which comes out today. I have a question, and of course it comes in the form of a complaint.
1:51.6	It's what we call a Jewish question.
1:57.6	In 1952, the New Yorker, center writer named Lillian Ross, who got access,
	...

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