Tom Hanks starred in Clint Eastwood’s 2016 American biographical drama film; Sully, which was directed by Todd Komarnicki and based on the 2009 autobiography Highest Duty by Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger and Jeffrey Skiles.

The film earned over $240 million and was named one of the top 10 films of 2016 by the American Film Institute and National Board of Review after receiving favorable reviews from both the public and the critics. Despite the success of the film, Tom Hanks did not always get along with the director. Let’s learn more.

Tom Hanks on working with Clint Eastwood on Sully

During an appearance on The Graham Norton Show back in 2016, actor Tom Hanks was asked about his experience of working with filmmaker Clint Eastwood, to which he said,

“He treats his actors like horses. Because when he did Rawhide [in the 1960s]… a Western, he had all these old directors who made a big deal about yelling ‘action! We’re rolling, all right, stand by everybody ready, action!’ So when you’re in a Clint Eastwood movie you don’t even know the camera is rolling and you just hear over your shoulder, ‘All right, go ahead,’ [in a very quiet voice].”

The actor went on to share that even though the director was gentle and quiet when interacting with the actors as he did not want to scare off the actors he works with, he admitted that it was intimidating as hell working with Eastwood.

Tom Hanks describes working with Clint Eastwood as working for Mount Rushmore

The actor later appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live where he was once again asked about working with Clint Eastwood and he said it is like Mount Rushmore just came down from South Dakota and people are working for him now. Hanks added that he is obviously the man when he comes on set and actors want to please him, not look him in the eye for too long.

The Forrest Gump actor noted that people should not look Eastwood in the eye for too long because he has this Clint Eastwood squint stare and no one wants to experience that.

Tom Hanks also shared in an interview that the real Sullenberger made a strong presence on the sets of their movie and criticized the director for his lack of punctuality when he was 20 minutes late. He mentioned,

“Sully was very particular about how we portrayed the procedure and the emotions. He pulled out this dog-eared, stapled and notated script that he had read. Postits, 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.”

Tom Hanks was worried about Austin Butler’s mental health post-Elvis

There is no doubt that Tom Hanks is one of the greatest actors in the industry who is also very generous and kind and his kindness was showcased when Austin Butler revealed that he was hospitalized with excruciating pain after they wrapped up filming Elvis.

Tom Hanks, who played Austin Butler’s Elvis’ manager Colonel Tom Parker in the movie, told the young actor that he had immersed himself so deeply in Elvis that, for his mental health, it would be wise to go straight into something else.

According to Butler, Hanks added, “If you just, jump off the train, you might have emotional whiplash… you know, I’ve got this thing I’m producing.” It was later revealed that Hanks had offered Butler a role in his upcoming AppleTV+ series, Masters of the Air which he produced alongside ace filmmaker Steven Spielberg. There has been no update on the series as of now.