Tom Hanks: Clint Eastwood is 'intimidating', treats actors 'like horses'

Working with Clint is, as you might expect, a bit intimidating, says Tom Hanks.

Hanks was under Eastwood’s directorial gaze for the movie ‘Sully’, in which he played feted pilot Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger, who safely landed his plane on the Hudson River in 2009 after it hit a flock of geese, saving the lives of all 155 passengers.

Speaking on tonight’s ‘Graham Norton Show’, Hanks said: “You certainly don’t want one of those Eastwood looks.

“He treats his actors like horses because when he did the 60s series Rawhide the director would shout ‘Action!’ and all the horses bolted.

“So when he’s in charge he says in a really quiet soft voice [imitating Clint], ‘All right, go ahead,’ and instead of shouting ‘Cut!’ he says ‘That’s enough of that.’

“It’s intimidating as hell!”

Hanks also reveals that the real Sully was just as hard a taskmaster.

“Sully was very particular about how we portrayed the procedure and the emotions,” he went on.

“I’ll just say this, I visited him and he said, ‘Nice to meet you, glad you were on time. Clint turned up and he was 20 minutes late.

“Then he pulled out this dog-eared, stapled and notated script that he had read. Post-its, stapled index cards all over it – I’m sure his wife had even written ‘No’ across it in lipstick!

“We went through every page and every moment, every beat had been commented on. He had opinions.”

The show goes out tonight on BBC1 at 10.35pm.

Read more:
Peter Jackson’s Mortal Engines movie set for December 2018
Lin-Manuel Miranda wants to play a terrifying Spider-Man villain
Donald Trump’s most awkward movie cameos