He may be a Hollywood heavyweight himself, but during the filming of his latest movie, Sully, Tom Hanks was left a little intimidated by the film's director, Clint Eastwood. Appearing on Friday's episode of The Graham Norton Show, the 60-year-old opened up about his experiences on working with the legendary actor-turned-filmmaker.
"You certainly don't want one of those Eastwood looks," the American star explained. "He treats his actors like horses because when he did the 60's 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 (Tom imitates Clint), 'All right, go ahead,' and instead of shouting 'Cut!' he says 'That's enough of that.' It's intimidating as hell!"
Tom Hanks has said he was intimidated by Clint Eastwood during the filming of Sully
The acclaimed actor plays heroic pilot Captain Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger in the new movie, which is based on the true events of the 2009 Hudson River crash. The real-life pilot saved the lives of 155 passengers on board when he made an unpowered crash landing on the strip of water in New York after the plane's engines were hit by a flock of geese. Sully and his co-pilot Jeffrey Zaslow recounted their story in their book, Highest Duty: My Search For What Really Matters, which Clint has adapted for the film.
Speaking about his latest project, Tom revealed: "I thought I was going to make a movie that lasted 208 seconds (the length of time the real life drama took to unfold). Which would have been a fine payday! The film is act two and three to what happened on the day."
"He treats his actors like horses," he said during an appearance on The Graham Norton Show
"Sully was very particular about how we portrayed the procedure and the emotions," he noted, before recalling the moment he first paid him a visit. Tom added: "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!"
On the red sofa, Tom was joined by fellow actors Gemma Arterton and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as well as Olympic star Mo Farah and pop star Olly Murs. The episode will air on Friday 25th November, on BBC One at 10.35pm.