10 Fun Facts About FORREST GUMP
It's been 20 years since Forrest Gump was released in theaters. The movie went on to win Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor for Tom Hanks, Best Director for Robert Zemeckis and Best Screenplay. It's one of the most universally loved movies ever made, but at the same time it has also been listed as one of the most overrated. I personally love the film, and I pop it in the dvd player to watch it at least once a year.
- With every transition of Forrest's age, one thing remains the same- in the first scene of each transition he wears a blue plaid shirt.
- When Forrest gets up to talk at the Vietnam rally in Washington, the microphone plug is pulled and you cannot hear him. According to Tom Hanks, he says, "Sometimes when people go to Vietnam, they go home to their mommas without any legs. Sometimes they don't go home at all. That's a bad thing. That's all I have to say about that."
- When Forrest first learns to play ping-pong in the infirmary, he is told the trick is to "keep his eye on the ball" by another soldier. After that moment, whenever he is shown playing ping-pong, he never blinks.
- The line, "My name is Forrest Gump. People call me Forrest Gump," was ad libbed by Tom Hanks while filming the scene and director Robert Zemeckis liked it so much that he decided to keep it in.
- Every still picture of Forrest during this film shows Tom Hanks with his eyes closed.
- Bill Murray, John Travolta and Chevy Chase turned down the role of Forrest Gump. Demi Moore and Nicole Kidman turned down the role of Jenny Curran. David Alan Grier, Ice Cube and Dave Chappelle turned down the role of Bubba.
- The running scene was inspired by an actual event. In 1982, Louis Michael Figueroa, aged 16, ran from New Jersey to San Francisco for the American Cancer Society, unknowingly inspiring a line for Forrest Gump's famous run on the silver screen. "I just put one foot in front of the other," it goes. "When I get tired I sleep. When I get hungry I eat. When I have to go to the bathroom, I go."
- Kurt Russell has said that he did the voice of Elvis Presley (uncredited) in the film.
- Jenny's last name, Curran, is never said in the film. The only places you can find it are on the back of an envelope that Forrest mailed to Jenny while he was in Vietnam, on her mailbox when she is a child, and on the letters that are returned to him in the hospital.
- Tom Hanks wasn't paid for the film. Instead he took percentage points which ultimately netted him in the region of $40 million.