Tom Hanks and his son Truman recently starred together in the film A Man Called Otto, which is based on Fredrik Backman’s 2012 novel.
Truman Hanks, 27, plays a younger version of his father’s character in their new movie, which will be released on Jan. 13.
During a post-screening Q&A, Tom spoke about being able to work with his son, whom he shares with his wife, Rita Wilson. He said, “Without a doubt, it’s special because, you know, I changed his diapers. But you get past that right away because you gotta show up, and you gotta hit the marks, and you gotta do it on time, and you gotta be right there.”
Tom also opened up about the realities of being an actor, saying, “The thing that we both know is … you don’t know if you did a good job. All you can do is wait for that very surrealistic moment when you see the movie, and it’s like, ‘There it is.’ It’s gonna last forever. Even then, I don’t think you have an idea of whether it works or not.”
Truman also spoke about the project and the nepotism in Hollywood conversation, saying, “Whenever I do my imitation of him, people are like, ‘That’s not what he sounds like.’ But I have to convey to you the way I hear him. Everyone else hears, ‘Houston, we have a problem’; I hear this grumpy old man who’s mad at the DVD player.”
Tom weighed in on the nepotism conversation as well, saying, “This is what we’ve been doing forever. It’s what all of our kids grew up in. We have four kids — they’re all very creative, they’re all involved in some brand of storytelling.”
He went on to say, “The thing that doesn’t change no matter what happens, no matter what your last name is, is whether it works or not. That’s the issue anytime any of us go off and try to tell a fresh story or create something that has a beginning, middle, and end. Doesn’t matter what our last names are. We have to do the work in order to make that a true and authentic experience for the audience. And that’s a much bigger task than worrying about whether anybody’s going to try to scathe us or not.”
