'Exhausted' Tom Hanks almost derailed 'Forrest Gump' filming, until Robert Zemeckis came up with novel idea based on 1950s sitcom
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: As per Tom Hanks, Forrest Gump lived a famously full life. Appearing on a panel at The New Yorker Live, the actor discussed the significant travel necessary for the role that earned him his second Oscar. According to Hanks, appearing in the movie's most crucial parts was tough because of the demanding procedure of recording the montage of his character, Forrest, sprinting across America.
Hanks said, "I was so exhausted because we had shot twenty-seven days straight, Remember how Forrest ran across the country? Well, there's only one way to get those scenes in those days. You had to fly to the goddamn place, put on the costume, run for an hour and a half, then go back, get on the plane, and then fly to, say, New Hampshire, and do it all over again. So I'm exhausted. I don't know what's going on. The scenes on the park bench have oceans of dialogue, and we shot them in a day and a half," as per The New Yorker.
'Bob, my head is fragile, frazzled'
Given his exhaustion, Hanks admitted that he had severe doubts about his capacity to recall each monologue. He apparently told the director, Robert "Bob" Zemeckis — "Bob, my head is fragile, frazzled. We're doing all these scenarios with different people, and every one of them has a page and a half of dialogue. I will never be able to keep this in my head."
Luckily for Hanks, his director had a strategy. In order to expedite things for his leading man, Hanks said that Zemeckis chose to film several sequences in the manner of a multi-camera comedy, obtaining numerous perspectives at once and letting Hanks rely on cue cards.
'We'll put the words up on cards if you need it'
He said, "Oh, don't worry, Tom. We'll shoot it like 'I Love Lucy.' We'll have four cameras. We'll put the words up on cards if you need it. You can just read' em,'" Hanks recalled Zemeckis' words. "I said, 'Oh, great, thank you. Let's make this an even more artificial atmosphere!'"
Hanks' worries proved to be unjustified, as 'Forrest Gump' went on to become one of his most well-known performances (it's probably not on his list of movies he despises). The actor expressed admiration for Zemeckis' willingness to take creative chances on the movie even though he didn't know if it would be a success when they were doing it.
'You do not know if it is going to work out'
Hanks said, "And so 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,'" Hanks said. He concluded by saying, "You do not know if it is going to work out. You can only have faith."