With a filmography like Tom Hanks‘s, anyone would be hesitant to single out specific projects as the finest moments from a career littered with gems. Featuring collaborations with immensely talented artists like Steven Spielberg, Jonathan Demme, Baz Luhrmann and many more, Hanks has developed a body of work that spans decades and has garnered some of the most prestigious accolades out there. Despite all of that, there are a few movies that remain more memorable for the celebrated actor.
While films like Forrest Gump and Saving Private Ryan cemented Hanks’s status as one of Hollywood’s most recognisable icons, the American star remembers one Ron Howard movie particularly well from his impressive 1990s run. Titled Apollo 13, the 1995 drama saw Hanks portray astronaut Jim Lovell opposite other skilled actors like Kevin Bacon, Ed Harris and Bill Paxton. It was a personal experience for Hanks owing to the project’s connection to his own childhood memories.
During an appearance on the Chris Evans Breakfast Show, Hanks said: “I remember rushing home in order to see if Apollo 13 was going to come around on the other side of the moon. I was literally on my couch waiting for them to come around on the far side of the moon. And the first voice I heard when they came around was Jim Lovell saying, ‘Houston be aware there really is a Santa Claus’ because it was a gift that Santa Claus came. So the idea that I would get to meet the man and hang out with the man, and Jim Lovell took me flying at night, over South Texas, and he made me fly the aeroplane at night. I’d never flown a plane in my life. He said, ‘Go ahead, take the controls, Tom.’”
In addition to how close Apollo 13 was to him, the movie was memorable for Hanks because of the demanding acting conditions. He had to spend extended amounts of time in a reduced-gravity aircraft that simulates the weightlessness astronauts experience in space. For Hanks, it proved to be extremely tricky, and the shoot was complicated by periods of physical illness.
Expanding on the challenges, Hanks revealed: “The second time I went up, I said, ‘I don’t have to take the medication because I know what this is like now’. I had a bout of nausea that was actually an out-of-body experience. I went out of my corporeal self. I saw myself turning green. My spirit rose out of my body and looked back at my glassy eyes, and then came back in. I had never been that sick, except last Friday when I dodged doing your show.”
All of it definitely paid off because Apollo 13 emerged as a critical and commercial success, earning nine Oscar nominations in the process. Howards’s dedication to historical accuracy and his collaboration with NASA on the production resulted in one of his finest achievements, constructing a memorable cinematic spectacle of an important event.
Watch the trailer below.
