A Brief History Of Tom Hanks Being Scandal-Proof
Tom Hanks, arguably the most beloved actor in America, can currently be seen in movie theaters everywhere, co-starring in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis as … The Penguin’s Transylvanian cousin?
Hanks has obviously been a Hollywood fixture for decades and impressively has somehow managed to sidestep any major career-torpedoing scandals – thus ensuring that Pixar won’t have to make a whole goddamn movie about the live-action cowboy character that inspired Woody the toy.
These days, the biggest Hanks-based controversy involved him dropping an F-bomb on a fan … who had just bumped into his wife, Rita Wilson. Not only did it not harm his reputation, he quickly earned accolades for being the internet’s ultimate wife guy.
Hanks was also asked about the movie Philadelphia in a recent interview; and while a more clueless actor may have said something dumb enough to enrage the internet for a full day and a half, Hanks instead thoughtfully answered the question of whether or not a straight actor could play his role today by stating: “No, and rightly so.”
And back in 2012, a video resurfaced of Hanks seemingly participating in a racist skit along with a man in blackface, wearing an afro wig and leopard print, at a public event in 2004. Hanks later clarified that the event was at his kid’s school fundraising auction and that he was “blindsided when one of the parents got up on the stage in a costume that was hideously offensive then and is hideously offensive now” – but the video also shows that Hanks still continued with the auction/minstrel show. Nevertheless, Hanks’ so-called “blackface-gate” has now largely been forgotten.
Perhaps the oddest near-scandal involving Hanks was the time the tabloid news show A Current Affair aired a 1995 segment alleging that Hanks “copied” much of his soon-to-be Oscar-winning performance as Forrest Gump, from his brother Jim Hanks’ performance as Jeeter Buford in the 1993 sex comedy Buford’s Beach Bunnies (which we’re pretty sure won precisely zero Oscars).
Needless to say, the allegation didn’t stick, and the implied association with that embarrassing turd of a movie thankfully didn’t harm the reputation of Buford’s Beach Bunnies.
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Top Image: Paramount Pictures
