Tom Hanks: A "Lucky Guy" in more ways than one
(CBS News) His latest acting engagement has taken Tom Hanks down a very different road, which is why Rita Braver tracked him down for some Questions and Answers:
He's become one of America's best-liked and most enduring actors, starring in dozens of films, with Oscar-winning turns for Best actor in both "Forrest Gump" and "Philadelphia."
And now, at age 56, Tom Hanks is making his first appearance in a Broadway play.
Hanks is playing Mike McAalary, a real-life reporter and columnist who bounced around the rough-and-tumble world of New York's tabloid newspapers from the 1980s through his death in 1998. The play is called "Lucky Guy."
"He was incredibly lucky," Hanks said of McAlary. "He was also incredibly stupid. He was also incredibly reckless at times. He could be lazy. He could also be forceful. He could also be the hardest working guy in the newsroom."
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The play is by Nora Ephron, who died just this past June. She had earlier written and directed two big hits with Hanks, "Sleepless in Seattle," and "You've Got Mail."
Still, Hanks was not enthusiastic when Ephron approached him with the idea of doing what was first going to be a movie about Mike McAlary.
"No, I hated it, and I hated the guy. I hated Mike McAlary," Hanks told Braver. "I said I had seen no reason to portray a tabloid journalist in any brand of light that is flattering. I think they're all jerks and I hate 'em all, 'cause they ruin my day."
But by 2011, when Ephron had turned the story into a play, he saw it differently.
"This was about the working life of journalists, which is quite frankly different," Hanks said. "And it was in her voice, and it was with her affection for the job that I had never seen before."
"As you worked on it and it was developed and all of that, did you have any idea that [Ephron] was sick?" Braver asked.
"Nope, no," he replied. "It was only after we lost her that the question became, 'Well, do we still go on?' And there was never a question. Of course we do."
Hanks says he was touched when Mike McAlary's widow brought their children on opening night.
And the play has brought Hanks a reunion with Peter Scolari, who plays one of the reporters -- and who was his co-star in the TV sit-com "Bosom Buddies," more than 30 years ago.
"You two must look at each other and say, 'Man, we've come a long way,'" said Braver.
"Oh yeah, do we ever. Oh my Lord," said Hanks. "Well, no, it's kind of great because we have the focus. We now have kids -- I only had one at the time, now I've three. Now, I've got grandkids."
Hanks clearly loves performing at the Broadhurst Theatre, where Humphrey Bogart once performed in "The Petrified Forest." "I would like to think that he was in dressing room number one, which is where my dressing room is," Hanks laughed.
Braver asked, "I think a lot of people will say to themselves, 'Hey look, Tom Hanks, he does not have to show up in a theater every night. He's a big movie star, why is he doing that?' "
"I don't have to do anything, yes, it's true," Hanks said. "Well, because I'm an actor. I'm sorry. This is what we do. This is the job. This is the fever that we have for which there is no cure.
"I love being an actor so much that everything else in show business is work compared to the moments where I get to put on clothes and pretend to be somebody else. That's play.
"And the great secret is, we would all do it for free."
And Mike McAlary loved his job, too. After a tumultuous career, he was the columnist who broke the dramatic story of Abner Louima, the Haitian man who was brutalized by New York City cops in 1997. That reporting earned McAlary a Pulitzer Prize, shortly before his death from cancer the next year.
Now the play about him has earned 6 Tony Award nominations, including one for Hanks for Leading Actor in a Play, and one for Courtney Vance (who plays McAlary's editor) for Best Featured Actor.
And as for Hanks, well, he says the sell-out crowds and getting a Tony nomination for this role makes him a lucky guy.
For more info:
- "Lucky Guy" (Official site)
- brigittelacombe.com
- Sardi's Restaurant