Veteran celebrities like Tom Hanks were often inspired by the passion for acting by looking at other actors on the theater screens. Although iconic director Steven Spielberg and Hanks became one of the most renowned actor-director duo in Hollywood, the Forrest Gump actor was still a stage manager when he saw Spielberg’s film which inspired him.
Starring Richard Dreyfuss in the lead role, Hanks was inspired by the 1977 film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Stating the power of cinema about how an ordinary person working for a power company was able to meet aliens, Tom Hanks regretted that he wasn’t the one starring in the movie but it was Richard Dreyfuss.
Tom Hanks Regretted Not Starring In a Steven Spielberg Movie
Back in 1977, Tom Hanks worked as a stage manager and used to sleep on his friend’s floor at night. Being a struggling man with a passion for acting, the actor was overjoyed when he got to see Steven Spielberg’s 1977 movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind on the theater screen.
In an interview with Time, the actor-director duo talked about the move and how veteran actor Richard Dreyfuss came to be. Hanks vividly recalled that Dreyfuss wasn’t known at that time but his acting skills were beyond exceptional and he quickly broke an Oscar record after the 1997 movie.
“It was the first showing, it was a weekday, so there were maybe 40 people in the theater, but this was a movie we had studied the making of without having seen a single frame of the movie. What was great about it, too, both me and my friends commented on it: it had no iconographic casting to it.”
The Captain Phillips actor further continued,
“Richard Dreyfuss was a guy who worked for the power company. We had never really seen a movie where a guy who worked for the power company met the aliens.”
Richard Dreyfuss went on to win an Oscar for a movie titled The Goodbye Girl which was also released in 1977. The actor became the youngest actor to win an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role at the young age of 30. This record would later be broken by Marlon Brando when he achieved the award at 29.
Tom Hanks Wasn’t That Far Behind In The Oscar Race
With the actor finding fame with several iconic movies, Hanks also achieved a notable feat in the Oscars race. Starring in the 1993 movie titled Philadelphia, the Angels & Demons actor received his first Oscar for Best Actor in a Lead Role for the movie.
A year later, Tom Hanks starred in the iconic 1994 movie Forrest Gump which earned him another Oscar for his performance and the movie became immortal in Hollywood. The 1977 Steven Spielberg movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind is available to rent on Apple TV+ in the U.S.
Source: Time
