Back in 2013, Tom Hanks portrayed the role of Walt Disney in Saving Mr. Banks. Based on the life of Walt Disney, Disney was very invested in the film and wanted only the best actors in the 2013 movie.
They offered the role of Disney to Tom Hanks who initially refused at first. Stating his reasons, the actor did not want any kind of pressure to make the movie a success. It wasn’t until Bob Iger, the CEO of The Walt Disney Company personally called the actor and asked him to portray the role.
Tom Hanks Initially Refused To Star in Saving Mr. Banks
With a plethora of movies to his name, Tom Hanks has had quite an impressive career over the years. Portraying the role of Captain Phillips in the 2013 movie had already taken a toll on the actor when Disney asked him to portray the role of Walt Disney in Saving Mr. Banks.
Portraying the real-life story of the man who created Disney, Hanks initially refused the offer. Stating that he did not want that kind of pressure, Hanks recalled his conversation with his friend Tony, who is the head of physical production at Disney. As per their talks, the Cast Away actor rejected the offer by saying “Geez, who needs that pressure”.
“The burden, you know. Honestly, the responsibility. I heard about it first from Tony. I think he’s head of physical production at Disney. But he and I executive produced and worked and created From The Earth to the Moon, Band of Brothers, The Pacific. We had done a lot of stuff. So he was over there. We have lunch every now and again. He says, ‘You’ve got to play Walt Disney in this movie we have.’ And I said, ‘Geez, who needs that pressure,’”
It wasn’t until the CEO of The Walt Disney Company Bob Iger personally called Tom Hanks with the offer to read the screenplay that the actor started considering it seriously.
“Then Bob Iger called me which, you know, he even said, ‘Look, this is not usually the way this works. I call you and say well, will you do it?’ And I said, ‘Well, I haven’t read the screenplay,’”
After reading the screenplay, Hanks agreed to do the role, and Saving Mr. Banks was the end result. Although it is a family movie, there were quite a few references to the real-life habits of Walt Disney that were quietly hidden from the children but Hanks wanted to portray him accurately.
Tom Hanks Wanted To Portray Walt Disney As a Smoker
This is pretty uncommon knowledge but the real-life Walt Disney was a smoker. Hiding his smoking habits from the public and especially the children, Disney used to smoke two packs a day. Tom Hanks wanted to portray the smoking side of Walt Disney as well and so, there were some references throughout the movie to Walt Disney’s smoking habits.
As per film trivia, the audience only ever sees the aftermath of Walt Disney’s smoking sessions throughout the movie since they cannot show smoking in a family movie. A scene where the habit is referenced is Walt Disney stubbing a cigarette after his session but he was never seen smoking. With a rating of 7.5/10 on IMDB and 79% on Rotten Tomatoes, Saving Mr. Banks is available to stream on Disney+.
Source: Collider
