Tom Hanks Says He Wondered If Anyone Would Care About FORREST GUMP; Robert Zemeckis Called It "A Minefield"

The 1994 film Forrest Gump is one of those movies that fans continue to watch and enjoy decades later. Winning six Academy Awards in 1995, including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Screenplay, the unique story of a heartwarming man in his fictional trek through American history won over audiences, but it was a total gamble according to its star, Tom Hanks, and the film’s director, Robert Zemeckis.

During a recent New Yorker Live event to promote his new book, The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece, Hanks admitted that he doubted if anyone would care about the 1994 historical fiction epic. Zemeckis even warned Hanks the film would be “a minefield.” Hanks said:

“I say, ‘Hey Bob, I’ve got a question for you. Is anybody going to care about this movie?’ This guy sitting on a thing in these goofy shoes and this cuckoo suit with a suitcase full of ‘Curious George’ books and stuff like that… are we doing anything here that is going to make any sense to anybody? And Bob said, ‘It’s a minefield, Tom. It’s a minefield. We may be sowing the seeds of our own destruction. Any footstep we take can be a Bouncing Betty that’ll blow our nuts right off.’”

Hanks went on:

“Bob Zemeckis — God bless him, I’ve worked with him more than once — landed on the absolute truth of anybody who has gone forward and said, ‘We are going to commit something to film today, and eventually we’ll cut this into something. You do not know if it is going to work out.”

Well, hindsight is 20/20, and the movie was obviously a hit. Forrest Gump could have gone either way, but it will always be a classic, and will always be thought of as one of Tom Hanks’s best performances.

via: Variety