(Credits: Far Out / Tom Hanks / Publicity)
Mon 9 February 2026 20:45, UK
When Tom Hanks first appeared on screen in the 1980 slasher He Knows You’re Alone, audiences probably didn’t suspect that they were witnessing the debut of a future two-time Oscar winner and Hollywood icon.
He actually disappeared from the silver screen for four years after that, only to return with a main role in Ron Howard’s Splash, which really did the trick when it came to elevating Hanks from a nobody into a leading man. Over the coming years, Hanks’ position in Hollywood continued to grow, and with his loveable guy next door persona and Jimmy Stewart comparisons, there was no way that the actor wasn’t going to have a successful career.
By the early ‘90s, no one could dispute Hanks’ place in the industry, unable to be toppled from the top of his shiny tower. One of his biggest roles was, of course, playing the lead in Forrest Gump, which introduced him to Back to the Future director Robert Zemeckis.
The pair would go on to collaborate various times over the years, with their most recent movie being the critically panned Here, in which Hanks is digitally de-aged to horrifying effect. Yet, despite the criticism the pair have faced over the years, their careers both seem to be getting progressively worse, and even Forrest Gump is held in much less impressive esteem these days compared to when it was released –Hanks is adamant that Zemeckis is the best director he has ever worked with.
The pair suit each other well, with both Hanks and Zemeckis representing the kind of mainstream Hollywood cinematic affairs that revel in efficiency rather than experimentation. It seems like Hanks prefers this, citing Zemeckis’ methodical approach to filmmaking as his reason for loving him so much.
Hanks explains to Richard Schickel, “Bob Zemeckis is possessed by the movies that he makes. He works himself, you, and the crew into the ground in the course of making the movie, but it is never from a position of not knowing what he wants. A lot of times you’ll work with directors and you’ll waste a good chunk of the day just trying to figure out how to do it and where to da da da.”
The actor doesn’t want to waste time – he’s an in-demand guy after all – so he appreciates Zemeckis knowing exactly what he wants. “You show up, the camera is there, the shot is ready, you don’t even have to rehearse it sometimes,” he adds, but you can’t help but feel like this systematic approach seems a little sterile.
He claims that “there’s a joke about Bob Zemeckis movies that all you do is remove the slates at the beginning of every scene, just cut that out of the film and the movie is cut, it’s released like that, you put it in post, and it’s done.” That might sound appealing to some, but surely that sucks out the impulsiveness, the creativity, and the non-linear process of making a piece of art?
Clearly, it works for Hanks, with the pair also teaming up for the unnerving festive favourite The Polar Express, the mega-hit Cast Away, and the Razzie-winning Pinocchio. Their collaborations don’t exactly rival Hitchcock and Stewart.