Tom Hanks is currently starring in Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City. A good movie? In any case, in our official FILMSTARTS review we gave it only 2.5 out of a possible 5 stars. Even a talented actor like two-time Oscar winner Hanks doesn’t just star in masterpieces. The quota for Tom Hanks is already quite high, just think of “Forrest Gump”, “Apollo 13”, “Saving Private Ryan” or “Cast Away”.
The 66-year-old screen icon is quite critical of her career. While most people think of Tom Hanks’ hits and the star as widely loved, the actor knows that not all of his films are loved – or at least he doesn’t. In conversation with he chose clear words: “Okay, let’s admit it. We’ve all seen movies that we hate. I’ve been in movies that I hate. You’ve seen some of my movies and hate them.”
Honestly, the star went on to talk about which one five steps every filmmaker takes when making a movie – that determine how the movie is viewed. Hanks calls them the “five Rubicons,” meaning five points at which you embark on a risky venture and there’s no going back.
The 5 Rubicons by Tom Hanks
The first rubicon is what one transgresses when one says “yes” to a movie: “Your fate is sealed. You’re going to be in this movie,” Hanks said. The second rubicon when you see the finished movie you starred in or created. “Either everything works and it’s the movie you wanted to make, or it doesn’t work and it’s not the movie you wanted to make.”
Regardless of Rubicon 2, ie your own assessment, will still be there rubicon 3: the reactions of the critics, so to speak “a version of the voice of the people”, as Hanks puts it. Some hate the movie, some think it’s brilliant. Usually the truth lies somewhere in between. If fourth Rubicon Hanks calls the financial success of a movie. “If the movie doesn’t make money, your career might end up in the trash sooner than you’d like. That’s just a fact. That’s the business.”
Time can change the way you watch a movie
So the steps so far are deciding on a movie, and whether you, the critics and the audience love it, hate it, or something in between. And the fifth Rubicon? “It’s time.” Time can change the perception of a movie. As an example, Hanks cites his musical film That Thing You Do!, which he also directed. The film fared poorly at the box office in 1996 and was not well received by critics, but has since become a cult classic.
Unfortunately, Tom Hanks withholds the most exciting assessment from us: which one of his films he hates exactly after crossing all five Rubicons.