Tom Hanks Returns

Summary

Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend - Episode: Tom Hanks Returns

Hosts: Conan O’Brien, Sona Movsesian, Matt Gourley, Eduardo Perez
Guest: Tom Hanks
Duration: Approximately 79 minutes

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1. Introduction to the Episode and Guest [02:05 - 10:00]

The episode kicks off with Conan welcoming his co-hosts—Sona, Matt, and Eduardo—before introducing the esteemed guest, Tom Hanks. Conan humorously laments his perpetual quest for genuine friendships despite decades of celebrity interactions.

Notable Quote:

• Conan O’Brien [02:05]: "My guest today is a two-time Academy Award-winning actor... Tom Hanks, welcome."

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2. Sports and Cultural Differences: Boston vs. Los Angeles [02:19 - 10:00]

A significant portion of the conversation revolves around Conan's deep-rooted loyalty to Boston sports teams and his humorous struggles to acclimate to the Los Angeles sports scene. The discussion highlights the cultural clash between Boston's unwavering team allegiance and the more laid-back LA sports environment.

Notable Quotes:

• Conan O’Brien [03:01]: "In Boston, the minute you're born, they, like, brand your forehead... You don’t get to decide them."
• Sona Movsesian [07:27]: "You also can't do that if your team's not playing in the game."

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3. Tom Hanks' Show Business Journey [10:01 - 26:23]

Tom Hanks delves into his extensive career in the entertainment industry, sharing experiences from iconic films like Forrest Gump, Saving Private Ryan, and Toy Story. He reflects on the evolution of television and filmmaking, touching upon the transition from traditional TV setups to modern podcasting formats.

Notable Quotes:

• Tom Hanks [11:20]: "We start doing it as a joke. It becomes big."
• Conan O’Brien [26:23]: "You have the career. No one here is buying it."

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4. Filmmaking Experiences and Challenges [26:24 - 47:20]

The conversation shifts to the intricacies of filmmaking. Tom shares behind-the-scenes stories about working with directors like Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg, emphasizing the unpredictability and emotional toll of movie production. They discuss memorable scenes, the pressure of live performances, and the collaborative nature of creating compelling cinema.

Notable Quotes:

• Tom Hanks [32:39]: "And I said, buddy, you should ask that Tom."
• Conan O’Brien [43:59]: "You can't handle that. I can't handle the psychic break."

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5. Collaboration with Directors [47:21 - 57:59]

Tom Hanks elaborates on his collaborations with renowned directors, describing their unique working styles and the dynamic between actors and directors on set. He recounts specific instances of improvisation, creative disagreements, and the mutual respect that underpins successful film projects.

Notable Quotes:

• Tom Hanks [50:56]: "Everything's great. How about that scene and how... that's that."
• Conan O’Brien [55:14]: "And he directed it. Right? Right."

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6. Use of Technology in Movies [57:00 - 66:38]

The duo explores the role of technology in modern filmmaking, particularly focusing on AI and deepfake technology. Tom discusses the challenges and innovations involved in creating realistic visual effects, while Conan humorously relates it to his experiences with high-tech gadgets disrupting his focus.

Notable Quotes:

• Tom Hanks [65:38]: "They use AI in order to do all the work and make it happen faster."
• Conan O’Brien [66:38]: "When someone opens a window, you want a donut."

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7. Personal Anecdotes and Relationships [66:39 - 78:35]

Tom and Conan share personal stories that highlight their friendship and mutual respect. Tom praises Conan's genuine nature and the positive impact he has had on his life, while Conan expresses heartfelt gratitude for Tom's kindness and support over the years.

Notable Quotes:

• Conan O’Brien [73:01]: "I have to say, you guys would love it, and you'll watch it on a real screen."
• Tom Hanks [77:17]: "We had a good time."

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8. Conclusion and Final Remarks [78:36 - 81:19]

As the episode wraps up, Conan and Tom exchange light-hearted banter, reinforcing the camaraderie between them. They discuss the importance of genuine connections and the value of shared experiences, concluding with playful remarks and well-wishes.

Notable Quotes:

• Tom Hanks [78:58]: "Hi, my name is Tom Hanks, and I feel competitive about being Conan O’Brien's friend."
• Conan O’Brien [79:13]: "You're not competing against many people, trust me."

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Key Takeaways:

• Authentic Friendships: Conan's endeavor to build genuine friendships with celebrities, illustrated by his warm interaction with Tom Hanks.
• Cultural Dynamics: The contrast between Boston and LA's sports cultures serves as a humorous backdrop for their discussion.
• Filmmaking Insights: Tom Hanks provides a rare glimpse into the challenges and triumphs of his illustrious career, offering valuable insights into the collaborative nature of film production.
• Technological Evolution: The episode touches upon the evolving landscape of technology in entertainment, highlighting both its potential and complexities.
• Personal Bonding: The episode underscores the deep mutual respect and friendship between Conan and Tom, making it a heartfelt and engaging conversation.

This episode is a must-listen for fans of both Conan O’Brien and Tom Hanks, offering a blend of humor, heartfelt moments, and insider perspectives on the entertainment industry.

Transcript

[Conan O'Brien]

This holiday season's almost here. Hey, Sona. You ready to celebrate?

[Sona Movsesian]

I sure am.

[Conan O'Brien]

Well, guess what? There's still time to create space for overnight guests with all the comforts of home, even the surprise ones. It's those surprise guests. Yeah, that sometimes show up. Hey, it's Uncle Buddy Boy. You didn't think I was coming? Oh, hi, Uncle Buddy Boy. I'm gonna stay here for nine weeks.

[Sona Movsesian]

Nine weeks?

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah, and I take seven baths a day. Anyway, check out sleep products to make the guest room the best room. And dining solutions to help set a table that has space for family, friends and unexpected side dishes. Like Uncle Buddy Boy. Shop now by visiting in stores or online at ikea-usa.com for special offers and new items.

[Tom Hanks]

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[Conan O'Brien]

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[Tom Hanks]

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[Conan O'Brien]

Possible loss of principle.

[Tom Hanks]

ALPS Distributors, Inc. Distributor My name is Tom Hanks and I feel blank about being Conan O'Brien.

[Conan O'Brien]

You feel blank?

[Tom Hanks]

I love it. You don't even, like, give hint words. Could you just put adjective in there in parentheses or something like that?

[Conan O'Brien]

What's wrong with that?

[Tom Hanks]

I feel blessed to be Con O'Brien's friend. I feel old.

[Matt Gourley]

Fall is here Hear the yell Back to school Ring the.

[Tom Hanks]

Bell Brand new shoes Walk and loose.

[Conan O'Brien]

Climb the fen Books and pens I.

[Tom Hanks]

Can tell that we are gonna be.

[Eduardo Perez]

Friends.

[Conan O'Brien]

I can tell that we are gonna be friends hey there. Welcome to Conan O'Brien needs a friend. I am, of course, the aforementioned Conan O'Brien, famed in song and story. I just threw that in. Sonam of session. Good to have you here.

[Sona Movsesian]

Yeah, it's good. It's good.

[Conan O'Brien]

Great. You know what? I love the burst of energy you supply.

[Sona Movsesian]

I can't.

[Conan O'Brien]

Pushes us. Yes.

[Sona Movsesian]

That's good.

[Conan O'Brien]

And Matt Gourlay. Nice to see you, too. That's good. Okay, you're clearly on life support. Like someone they've decided. Just double up on the morphine and get them out. Let's slide him out of this realm. I come From Boston, Massachusetts. I've made that clear many times. And Boston, from the second you're born, it's all about your sports team. You know, and you're assigned your sport teams at birth in Boston. You don't get to decide them. Now, Eduardo, I know in different. Like, I've talked to people, like with soccer, who their father might root for one team, but their son roots for a different team.

[Eduardo Perez]

That's exactly my case.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes. Right. That's not the case in Boston. In Boston, it's all. The minute you're born, they, like, brand your forehead. Hockey, Bruins, you know, baseball, Red Sox, basketball, Celtics, Football, Patriots. I mean, it's just, like, across the board. These are your teams, and it's not open for discussion. Which is fine. I accept that. Here's the thing. I've been living in LA for a long time, and I feel disconnected because.

[Matt Gourley]

You can't switch even if you move.

[Conan O'Brien]

No, no, I would never. I can't switch. Those are my teams or Boston teams. You can't switch. You can't switch. That is just.

[Matt Gourley]

You can.

[Conan O'Brien]

No, it's just sports. No, no, you can't, because I'm from. You don't understand. I'm from Boston, and you can't switch. And anyone who's from the Boston area will understand that. That's just the way it is. Those are my teams for life. But I'm here in Los Angeles, and my team's out of it right now is baseball. And I don't know what the etiquette is. I would like to be part or take part in the Los Angeles sports scene.

[Matt Gourley]

So you think you can. Even if your team's out of it, you can't do a substitute. Second favorite team.

[Conan O'Brien]

You're not even allowed.

[Sona Movsesian]

It doesn't feel right to me because Eduardo.

[Conan O'Brien]

Eduardo understands. Eduardo speak.

[Eduardo Perez]

You can't. You can't. That's like, kind of front runner.

[Tom Hanks]

Ish.

[Eduardo Perez]

If you're.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes.

[Tom Hanks]

Yeah.

[Sona Movsesian]

You know, you root against the Yankees. Yankees. That's what you should be doing.

[Conan O'Brien]

No, no, no, no, that's okay. But rooting against the Yankees, you can't participate in. I can't go to a. I can't go to a Dodgers game and be shouting yankees suck. If they're not even playing the Dodgers.

[Matt Gourley]

Conan, you're in an abusive relationship.

[Sona Movsesian]

I know this is ridiculous.

[Conan O'Brien]

No, but what I'm saying is I actively want to. What's the thing you were telling me about, Eduardo? Where there's a falcon.

[Eduardo Perez]

Oh, yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

Tell me about this.

[Eduardo Perez]

This is for the language football Club. Los Angeles Football Club, which is part of the mls. Yeah, it's our home team here in la.

[Conan O'Brien]

You mean soccer?

[Eduardo Perez]

Soccer.

[Conan O'Brien]

So let's call it Soccer Place.

[Sona Movsesian]

One of two.

[Eduardo Perez]

Yeah, one of two teams. Although the Galaxy plays in Carson, which is not really.

[Conan O'Brien]

Let's just call it soccer.

[Sona Movsesian]

We just want to piss people off.

[Eduardo Perez]

Exactly.

[Tom Hanks]

Scary.

[Eduardo Perez]

So they have an opening ceremony every game where they have their. Their mascot is like a falcon, and.

[Conan O'Brien]

It'S the coolest thing I've ever heard of. And keep going.

[Eduardo Perez]

It's really cool. And they have an honorary Falconeer. Is it Falconeer? Is that the person that you.

[Conan O'Brien]

Falconista.

[Eduardo Perez]

There you go. Falconista. That kind of kicks off the whole game. And there's a falcon that starts on your arm and gets released and then comes back to your arm. It does, like this whole hoopla thing. And I think. And oftentimes there's notable figures who are invited to be that person. I think Conan would make the wait.

[Conan O'Brien]

Do you think they would let me do it?

[Eduardo Perez]

Absolutely.

[Conan O'Brien]

What kind of. What notable figures are we talking? Am I in their league? I mean, if it's a bunch of a listers. And I wouldn't be in their league. That's just teasing me, and that's mean.

[Eduardo Perez]

So like somebody like Elizabeth Banks.

[Conan O'Brien]

Oh, I know Elizabeth Banks.

[Eduardo Perez]

Yeah. She's been called upon to do it. There's.

[Tom Hanks]

I.

[Conan O'Brien]

Wait. So I would be in the middle of a stadium and I would hold on my arm and a falcon would come and land on it.

[Tom Hanks]

Exactly.

[Conan O'Brien]

See, I just. Here's the thing. Maybe soccer is okay, because I don't. Yeah, I don't really, you know, Boston.

[Eduardo Perez]

Soccer, to be fair, like the New England Revolution, which would. Was technically the team that you should have been rooting for.

[Conan O'Brien]

It.

[Eduardo Perez]

They didn't exist by the time you moved over here. So that's why.

[Conan O'Brien]

I don't think so. Maybe I'm allowed to get involved in soccer.

[Eduardo Perez]

Yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

But I feel funny, you know, rooting for any LA team, because I feel like, oh, that's going to get back to Boston. And the next time I land at Logan, they're going to be three guys there with pipes. They're just going to work me over.

[Sona Movsesian]

I don't think. I think it's a problem if you root for the Lakers because there's a very notable. Like if you're in Boston with a Laker hat. Oh, my God, can I please be there for that? They would brutally be.

[Matt Gourley]

Are you allowed to watch a movie without Mark Wahlberg in it?

[Conan O'Brien]

You know what's Interesting. You have to get it clearance.

[Tom Hanks]

Okay.

[Conan O'Brien]

You have to get clearance first.

[Matt Gourley]

So that's essentially what you're doing now. You're kind of asking forgiveness before.

[Conan O'Brien]

I am trying. There's so many rules when you're from Boston. If you get coffee, it has to be Dunkin. And if you're seen not having Duncan again, guys with pipes work you over.

[Matt Gourley]

God, you're living in the Soviet Union.

[Tom Hanks]

I know.

[Sona Movsesian]

What is this? Why not Boston?

[Conan O'Brien]

It's like the Soviet Union, but it's. Guys are wearing a lot of acid wash Boston caps sideways. They listen to that jump around rap song over and over and over again.

[Sona Movsesian]

What if you just want to go watch a baseball game, can't you just go to a Dodger?

[Conan O'Brien]

It's really tricky.

[Sona Movsesian]

You can wear your Boston Red Sox hat.

[Matt Gourley]

Oh, that's interesting.

[Conan O'Brien]

It's weird. See, Eduardo understands.

[Eduardo Perez]

You also can't do that if your team's not playing in the game. You don't want to be that guy. That's where.

[Conan O'Brien]

Or girl.

[Tom Hanks]

That's.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah. What are you doing that for? That's like going to. That's like going to temple for someone's, you know, bar mitzvah. And I'm wearing a quinceanera tiara. Exactly. And I'm like, it's just my quinceanera tiara.

[Matt Gourley]

Why not wear a quinceanera tiara to the Dodgers?

[Conan O'Brien]

That I could do. Okay. But I want it known. I want it announced to the world that I'm going in. I just love to watch baseball live, but my heart is with the red socks. And that's why I'm wearing a tiara. Or is it tiara? I guess in Boston it'd be a tiara.

[Sona Movsesian]

Okay.

[Conan O'Brien]

But anyway, I.

[Eduardo Perez]

Maybe you could stretch it. For instance, Mookie Betts, long time Red Sox.

[Conan O'Brien]

No, he left.

[Tom Hanks]

Right.

[Eduardo Perez]

There's some fans who would be like, well, I still love Mookie, and he plays for the Dodgers now, so that doesn't work.

[Conan O'Brien]

No.

[Sona Movsesian]

You can't leave them once they leave.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Matt Gourley]

This is insane. Listen to you people.

[Conan O'Brien]

OJ Great football player. I'm going to go support him in his trial. It doesn't work that way.

[Matt Gourley]

This is insane. I am so happy that I'm not a sports person, because I don't have to.

[Conan O'Brien]

I like that you're just saying sports person. I'm glad I don't indulge in this folderol of sport history.

[Tom Hanks]

My dad was a big sports person.

[Matt Gourley]

And he took me to all these USC games, and as soon as we get there, I would turn around, get on my knees and play with my GI Joes with my back to the game the entire time. And my dad had his head in his hands.

[Sona Movsesian]

You know what's funny, you loser.

[Conan O'Brien]

You know what? I imagine USC games. Yeah? I imagine you're. I imagine Goarly going. I just imagine Gorley going to a gym. And it's all equipment that you've seen in the Titanic. It's like from 1911. It's wooden pins that he throws around. And everyone's got to have a mustache.

[Matt Gourley]

I do like soccer, though. Quite a bit.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah. And don't call it football.

[Matt Gourley]

I won't.

[Conan O'Brien]

We're not having that bullshit.

[Eduardo Perez]

We should all go to a game.

[Matt Gourley]

We should.

[Eduardo Perez]

Let's get a box.

[Matt Gourley]

You do the Falcon thing and we get a box and we hang out.

[Eduardo Perez]

Will Pharrell is a part owner. Isn't he your homie or something like that?

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah, he's my homie. He hasn't returned my calls in years. And every time I call, a Falcon answers. Gah, gah. I just want to talk to Will.

[Sona Movsesian]

No, no, he's moved on.

[Conan O'Brien]

Moved on.

[Sona Movsesian]

I do think it's okay if you wear a Boston hat to a Dodger game. It is. You guys are making shit up. I've seen people wear hats from other teams.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah, it's not. I don't care what you've seen other people do.

[Tom Hanks]

I've seen other people.

[Sona Movsesian]

Everyone knows you're from Boston. I know.

[Conan O'Brien]

I've seen other people throw up on a cab. No, that doesn't make it cool. I'm not going to do it.

[Sona Movsesian]

Okay?

[Conan O'Brien]

Not going to happen.

[Sona Movsesian]

Just don't go to. I went to a Game 5 recently against the Padres. That shit was fun.

[Matt Gourley]

I turned my back on the USC Trojans at three years old.

[Conan O'Brien]

Oh, you dick. You'd probably do that now.

[Sona Movsesian]

Those games are fun.

[Conan O'Brien]

You know what I love is you now going to a game and turning your back and getting out your little Dungeons and Dragons figures and laying them out.

[Sona Movsesian]

I hope people beat you.

[Conan O'Brien]

I hope you are beaten.

[Sona Movsesian]

I hope you are so badly beaten.

[Conan O'Brien]

Badly beaten. Sports people. And you know what?

[Matt Gourley]

You're assholes.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah. So much so that when we first visit you in the hospital, we're not allowed to see you because you're still being stabilized there. That's not a mean thing to say at all. What a specific. I hope you're beaten so badly that on our first visit, we're not allowed to see you.

[Matt Gourley]

I turned my back on you.

[Conan O'Brien]

Oh, yeah.

[Tom Hanks]

So.

[Conan O'Brien]

Oh, wow. Oh, look, Jesus. Back turned on us. He's, he's.

[Sona Movsesian]

Hey, nerd, stop playing with your GI Joe toys.

[Tom Hanks]

You'll get yours, lady.

[Conan O'Brien]

My guest today is a two time Academy Award winning actor. Hey, one more than me. You know him from such iconic films as Forrest Gump, Saving Private Ryan, Philadelphia League of Their Own and Toy Story. Now you can see him in the new movie here, which is currently in theaters. He's a scholar, he's a gentleman. He's one of the great people of all time. Tom Hanks, welcome.

[Tom Hanks]

Remember this, this thing in show business happened, this thing of ours, when you didn't have to drive to a studio and work with the segment producer and have your hair, have your bald spot covered and wear free clothes that Zinnia is giving you. And then you had to go, and then you didn't have to do that anymore. Could you do a podcast from your house with a decent microphone? And now we're back on TV without stylists.

[Conan O'Brien]

I appreciate that we keep talking about this, how I started this five years ago because Adam said, do a podcast. And I said, why would I do a podcast when I've been on TV for 30 years? We start doing it as a joke.

[Tom Hanks]

As a joke.

[Conan O'Brien]

It becomes big. Then they start to say, is it okay if we put cameras in there? And I said, fine. And then they said, is it okay if we occasionally do five a year in front of a live audience in big theaters because people like it. And I said, okay. And then they said, is it okay if we add a band?

[Tom Hanks]

I said, you. We're right back. And listen, we're going to need a warmup comic.

[Matt Gourley]

Yeah, it's going on NBC.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah, it's going to be on NBC at 12:35.

[Tom Hanks]

It is. It is.

[Conan O'Brien]

All right, I want to make sure I get you out of here because we have a lot to.

[Tom Hanks]

Oh, I don't. I got plenty of time.

[Conan O'Brien]

I'll give you a ride home. I know where you live.

[Tom Hanks]

I get. Hey, by. Yeah, by the way, you have. You. You've been to Conan's house? Yes. We have competitions in the neighborhood. Who has the longest house? Oh, you mean as you're driving up the street, which house takes the longest to drive past the start of the property line and the end of the property line.

[Matt Gourley]

You guys each think it's your own.

[Tom Hanks]

I think you've got like two and a half miles of property line.

[Conan O'Brien]

I do. You do. Cessna can land and a Cessna has landed.

[Tom Hanks]

Now, it used to be, you know, Jerry Lewis used to live on the block.

[Conan O'Brien]

Did he really?

[Tom Hanks]

Yes. Yeah. I won't say. I won't. Are we on yet? So I won't say what the address is, but at one point we were at. Because I saw this old thing and I ran. You meet Jerry Lewis and you think, first of all, that's a surreal experience. All into it. Hey, Tom, you know, my God, Jerry knows my name.

[Conan O'Brien]

You know, crazy.

[Tom Hanks]

I saw the Bosom Buds, you know, and.

[Conan O'Brien]

Why can't we use this?

[Tom Hanks]

You can. Go ahead, go ahead. We're using it.

[Conan O'Brien]

Okay.

[Tom Hanks]

And I said, is it true or not? Did you live in our neighborhood? And he said, ma, ma, ma, nah. The number of the. Of the number of the house. And it's a brick, a white, red brick, white house. And it is almost as long as yours is. And I just think, because I saw this, you know, he was really into, like making home movies and stuff like that. And he used to do kooky things. And I saw this one thing, some Tony Curtis and Janet Lee drove up and did kooky things on their lawn as they were coming into a party at his house. So how's that for a neighborhood?

[Conan O'Brien]

He would make films. He would make films. I mean, start going back to like the early 50s. He would make films with all of his friends.

[Tom Hanks]

That's right.

[Conan O'Brien]

And. But I didn't realize he lived in our neighborhood.

[Tom Hanks]

Right there. Right there. And, you know, he had a radio station and he had. I think he had restaurants and stuff. He had a podcast for a while, a true sign, very early version, true.

[Conan O'Brien]

Sign that it's over.

[Tom Hanks]

I was out once, and by the way, you find this thing, maybe I was at like a thing. They were showing one of his movies, and we all kind of like went in order to vet him, you know, celebrate him a little bit. And someone got up, he had a question and answer, and somebody asked him about the video tap, the world famous video tap. Cause he was directing movies. He was the first guy, one of the first guys to star in and direct his own movies. And he had to have a video tap, meaning that he was the first guy to put a TV monitor matching what the camera saw. So there was a cable coming from the camera and ran into a tv. And everybody thought, this is amazing. He said it was, but I didn't tape. What do you mean? I had no playback. I just had to look when I was doing with the stuff. And it looks then. Now, let's do it. But then I'd do it and I couldn't see it until the daily and I said, actually, now, if he had invented videotape that. Well, he would have gotten the Nobel prize along with everything else. He would have got it all. Jerry Lewis. How did we get. Talking about Jerry Lewis?

[Conan O'Brien]

You just. What do you mean, how did we. You.

[Matt Gourley]

Yeah, you.

[Tom Hanks]

Because it's the neighborhood.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes. We live in this neighborhood. And I take a hike. I sometimes go by your property.

[Tom Hanks]

Right.

[Conan O'Brien]

I've thought about. There's a. There's a wall.

[Tom Hanks]

Yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

I think I could get over that wall.

[Tom Hanks]

You know what? You are, too. You could. So tall. You could. Might be able to crawl through the razor wire if you know how to. How to do that.

[Conan O'Brien]

I. You scared the hell out of me. I was on a bike with a friend of mine. Won't get into the exact. But on a. Taking a bike ride with a good friend of mine, Brad. And we're going up this. Yeah, maybe. And Brad Paisley. Suddenly this car, like a kind of a jeep SUV thing starts coming. And all of a sudden the window comes down. And you lean out the window and start yelling at you.

[Tom Hanks]

I did. I yelled at you.

[Conan O'Brien]

And you start doing some bit. I was really funny doing a bit. And then my friend is like, that was Thomas.

[Tom Hanks]

It happens all the time.

[Conan O'Brien]

But you know what it was like laughing, like your head just came out of a.

[Tom Hanks]

Knock, knock.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah. Or it was like Batman when he was climbing up the side of a building and suddenly a window would open and it's. It's. You know, it's Jerry Lewis. It's Jerry Lewis. It's Tom Hanks. I thought I live the most amazing life where a darkened window can come down and a goofy Tom Hanks can pop out and yell at me when I'm on a bike.

[Tom Hanks]

But think about everybody else. Cause on that. There's a lot of people that come there to walk that. You know, it's a long line. And they're all kind of like bicycle weenie geeks. You know, guys with $6,000 mountain bikes saying on your left, you know, as. They're. As. They're going up and coming down. But they're gonna see you. I mean, you're as tall as Big Bird, for crying out. I know. And they're gonna say, I believe I saw Conan O'Brien struggling up the hill.

[Conan O'Brien]

Have you heard that halfway up that ridge, there's this place that apparently in the late 30s. You probably know about this.

[Tom Hanks]

Absolutely true.

[Conan O'Brien]

In the late 30s, some people who were pro Hitler and pro what the Nazis were doing, so.

[Matt Gourley]

Nazis.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Tom Hanks]

Okay. Okay, go ahead. They, as a lay Historian. I'll come in and get the record straight. By the time they weren't members of.

[Conan O'Brien]

The party, there were people who were sympathetic to that cause in the late 30s, before America was in the war, and they purchased a piece of land. Am I correct?

[Tom Hanks]

You are correct, sir.

[Conan O'Brien]

That they. That they thought. That they thought would be a place that the Fuhrer would like to hang when and if he comes to America, Maybe because he conquered it. I don't know the whole story. Do you know the story?

[Tom Hanks]

It was owned by the German Bund. And there was a period of time a German Bund. The Bund was essentially, hey, we're all Germans. We all live America. Let's form a fraternal organizations like other nationalities. Do you know. And I'm going to hope that before they found out just how bad Hitler was. But I swear I have seen photographs of like a Fourth of July in the 1930s up there with a fireworks thing. And they would have no lie. A picture of the founding fathers and a picture of Adolf Hitler, an American flag and a Nazi flag, the German Nazi flag. And they were saying, our country is coming back, et cetera, et cetera. And I just hope that maybe you can get away with that in 1930, you know. But it continued along and in fact it is now a scout camp, or it had been for a while. I have gone there to scout a location and there is like the main lodge, you know, there's tents and stuff like that, but there is a main lodge that honestly looks like, you know, a German Alpine chalet that all you have to do is paint it red, put a couple of Hawken cruisers on there, and you are right back in Nazi Ville, usa.

[Conan O'Brien]

So this is a place that in our neighborhood you go up this. There's this big hill and.

[Tom Hanks]

Did I say Jerry Lewis also lived in this neighborhood?

[Conan O'Brien]

Why did you choose to live here, sir? Listen, we have these meetings that are none of your business. No, but this is my story, which is that they. That was something I've always heard. And then occasionally you'll find that it mentioned that this piece of land lives and that maybe. And some people get the story, they get it wrong and they think that Hitler spent time there like in his board shorts, looking out at the Pacific.

[Tom Hanks]

He did come out for Pilot season.

[Conan O'Brien]

One.

[Tom Hanks]

And he did, you know, he needed a place to stay.

[Conan O'Brien]

Six pilots didn't get one of them, not a one. It was almost a seventh friend. But anyway. But I'm with my friend once, my same friend Brad that you saw. I'm riding, grinding up that hill on our bikes to just try and get to. It's very steep in parts. We're grinding along these two women, blonde, 22 year old, I swear to God wearing like bikini tops. Very. And they just looked like they were just come from a sorority party. They flag us down like they were in trouble. And I said, what is it? And they went, do you know where the Hitler camp is?

[Tom Hanks]

There you go.

[Conan O'Brien]

Where's the Hitler camp? And I went, oh, ladies. Well, all right. Like God.

[Matt Gourley]

He's still pulling in the trim.

[Tom Hanks]

That Addie Hitler.

[Matt Gourley]

My God.

[Conan O'Brien]

Jesus.

[Tom Hanks]

Still pulling in the trim.

[Conan O'Brien]

I know.

[Tom Hanks]

What. Jesus. We are making light of a very, very dark period. Without a doubt. So. Yeah, I mean, you don't want to say. How do you get to Conan's house? Oh well, you've gone too far. If you hit the Hitler camp.

[Conan O'Brien]

Right.

[Tom Hanks]

Make a U turn at the Hitler camp.

[Conan O'Brien]

When you get to the Mussolini cul de sac. Yeah. Take a left.

[Tom Hanks]

Yeah, right. But yeah, that's up there. And yeah, yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

I'm gonna switch gears here a little bit.

[Matt Gourley]

Let's see how you do this.

[Conan O'Brien]

And I wanna talk about the Japanese and Jerry Lewis and 1944.

[Tom Hanks]

What year, what year did we. The first year I was on SNL and you were back in. We called you. I called you the boiler room boys. Yes, it was you and Odenkirk and.

[Conan O'Brien]

Smigel in the back. The guy back in the day when I was working at SNL who was money in the bank and still is to this day was Mr. Tom Hanks. Because. Because he would show up and caffeinated. There were the caffeinated ready to go. Hey everybody, what have you got? And he. I remembered coming out once and I swear to God, I think it was maybe 2 in the morning. Most hosts, they hang around a little bit. They sense the sadness, the desperation. They smell the odors and they leave and then they come refreshed at read through. I came out and there's this giant in the conference room.

[Tom Hanks]

Oh yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

There's this big table. And you were sitting there and you had been working on your own idea.

[Tom Hanks]

Oh God. Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

And you were lying on. They had shoved all the tables together. You were lying on the tables like Christ with some pages over your eyes. Cause you were trying to catch a. A couple of winks before you woke up and got back to writing at 3 in the morning.

[Tom Hanks]

I had always heard that that was a great power of the hang that you got there. An all night Monday and all night Tuesday. You're going from now, they kind of like take the host around and they. But, you know, I want to get in there and get in there and mix it up. Because here's one thing I learned about maybe the third time I did the show there is you say, hey, you're the host. And say, hey, I have some ideas for some sketches. And every writer goes, well, that's just great.

[Conan O'Brien]

Oh, my God.

[Tom Hanks]

You have ideas that will rob us of the opportunity to get our ideas. Oh, no. Read how wonderful. And I would like to say, I don't think you. Then learn that. Look, you're the host. Concentrate on the monologue and then walk away. But it's a great hang, man. Everybody's carrying on.

[Conan O'Brien]

And yeah, it's amazing. Amazing to me that again, I've had this experience at the Simpsons. I've had it at Saturday Night Live. I've had it places where I worked there. And as I left, thought, this probably has a little bit of time left. You know, I remember thinking that at the Simpsons, like, this is going great. I bet you they got a couple more years, but I think I'll step off now and get a, you know, or the same thing with snl. I remember thinking, this is great. But when I got there, I get there in 88. I'm there only 13 years after it begins.

[Tom Hanks]

Oh, yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

And I'm looking at the wall and it's black and white photos of Akaroi and Belushi. And it looked to me like civil war photographs. It looked to me like the olden times.

[Tom Hanks]

Daguerreotypes.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes. Like, oh, my God, the olden times. Now, if someone says, hey, let's look at Conan's first year, 1988, as a writer that is on a giant one and a half inch brick that someone has to put into a machine. They don't. Yeah.

[Tom Hanks]

There was a period of time where to watch TV, you needed $8,000 video deck that had more moving parts than the cars we drove to Conan, Conan land Conan, Conan land Conan land today. But, you know, this remained. I went to the Joni Mitchell jam at Hollywood. My wife Rita was singing along with everybody. And I sat next to Fred Armisen, you know, and we compared notes on how many. Listen, I'm a guy who grew up in a house without any women. I know four Joni Mitchell songs. They're going to sing 32 of them tonight. I'm going to love it. It's like going to the opera. It's great. But I asked him, you know, because. No, I mean, no, I Completely appreciate it. I'm an absolute fan. But I asked him that question that I always. You're trying to say, like, anytime somebody has retired, you know, I said, when you left the show, did you know that it was time to leave the show or, you know, five months later? Do you start getting cold sweats at the same time you got cold sweats? Do you start writing things? And God bless anybody who is a really great thing? And they said, no, no, no. You know, after all my time there, it was time to move along, because I come from that school of you do not walk away from a gig if they are inviting you to come and be funny. Make sandwiches, sharpen pencils, have an idea. I don't walk away from that gig, but I guess after a while, it devours you and you gotta go along. Or did you get fired? Conan.

[Conan O'Brien]

Leno came and took my writing job at snl. Yeah.

[Tom Hanks]

Did you get this?

[Conan O'Brien]

Oh, oh, oh.

[Tom Hanks]

Here's a note from Lauren. Let me open it up. Conan, thank you for all your service. We're not gonna.

[Conan O'Brien]

Sona, when you take a big trip with the family, and I know that you love to travel and your kids are getting old enough now where they like to travel, too.

[Sona Movsesian]

Yeah, that's true.

[Conan O'Brien]

Who looks after the house?

[Sona Movsesian]

That's the thing. Nobody. And so I've actually been toying with the idea of maybe, you know, putting my house up on Airbnb, making some extra cash, having someone there.

[Conan O'Brien]

It's like you're hosting people.

[Sona Movsesian]

Exactly.

[Conan O'Brien]

It's like you're getting paid to travel. You can use the money that you get from putting your house up on Airbnb to help finance your trip.

[Sona Movsesian]

Exactly. And you know what? There's people there that are looking after my relics.

[Conan O'Brien]

You have a lot of people don't know this, but Sona has a lot of ancient Greek relics. Etruscan relics.

[Sona Movsesian]

Yes, exactly.

[Conan O'Brien]

You have a lot of sculpture from the Assyrian empire. Sona has billions and billions of dollars worth of ancient, ancient artifacts that have never even been looked at by archaeologists.

[Sona Movsesian]

They should all be in a museum.

[Conan O'Brien]

They really should be.

[Tom Hanks]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

But it's nice when you're away. Your home could be an Airbnb, and that's something to keep in mind. So your home, AKA your future Airbnb, might be worth more than you think. Find out how [e-mail] host everyone's got the big villain in their life. You know who mine is?

[Tom Hanks]

Who?

[Conan O'Brien]

The person in my house that opens a vanilla yogurt a little bit, takes, like, one or two spoonfuls and then closes that foil back up again.

[Sona Movsesian]

This is so passive aggressive because it's just you and your wife and you.

[Conan O'Brien]

Gotcha, baby. I need just a little for my smoothie. Take the whole thing and leave it alone. It's not that big. She's the villain in my life. How do you sleep at night, honey? Well, you already know the answer. Mattress Firm. Mattress Firm will find you the right bed with their wide selection of quality mattresses at every price. Rest easy with Mattress Firm's 120 night sleep trial. Love it or your money back. You can sleep on this for 120 nights and then say maybe not and ship it back. I don't think so. You're gonna love it. See a lower price somewhere else. Plus, Mattress Firm will match it with their low price guarantee.

[Tom Hanks]

Wow.

[Conan O'Brien]

Get matched at Mattress Firm's Black Friday sale and sleep at night. Restrictions apply. See mattressfirm.com or store for details and text CONAN to 766693 for 100 bucks off your next purchase at Mattress Firm. Exclus. There's nothing quite like the feeling of an upgrade when you're traveling. Well, as a T Mobile customer, you can take the perks with you. Check this out. Whether you're going on a weekend getaway to the mountains or let's say you're on a dream vacation or in my case, a work trip to Thailand. It's just fantastic. Let me explain. It starts the moment you take off with free in flight wifi so you can stream your favorite show on the go. I mean, that's incredible.

[Sona Movsesian]

That is actually pretty sweet.

[Conan O'Brien]

I love that. I mean, that's insane. I'm always there with my credit card. You know, I can't figure it out. I lose the credit card, the phone is stolen, someone punches me, you start crying. I cry a lot. When you land, T Mobile's got you covered with 15% off all Hilton brands and an upgrade to Hilton Honors Silver. Plus you're covered with 5 gigabytes. 5 gigabytes. That's more than 4 of high speed data in over 215 countries and destinations. With the Go 5G or next plans, these are just a few of the perks that feel like big wins when you travel with T Mobile. And it's nice to stay connected to your family. I travel a lot. I do these travel shows and if I'm filming another country, I know I can get to my family right away. They usually don't want to speak to me, but they screen your calls a lot.

[Sona Movsesian]

Don't they.

[Conan O'Brien]

I suspect them of screening. Yes. Find out how you can experience Travel [e-mail] TravelToday qualifying plan required. WiFi where available on select US airlines. Registration and Hilton Honors membership required for Hilton Honors Silver. Terms and conditions apply. No, I burnt out. I burnt out. I was going. Lauren could not have been nicer. I said, I've got to go. And that's when I went to the Simpsons. I just have to. I wish I could go back in time. People always say, no regrets.

[Tom Hanks]

I regret nothing but.

[Conan O'Brien]

Nothing but. I regret being so intense about that job. I was way too intense. And I think I robbed myself of some fun that I could have had. I did have a lot of fun, but I think I could have had more fun. And I think I could have maybe written there a little longer if I didn't make it such a grind for myself.

[Tom Hanks]

Well, people have asked me, what is it about? And I think the creative atmosphere of that is the writer is on the floor producing the piece. And that's not standard stuff.

[Conan O'Brien]

No, no.

[Tom Hanks]

A guy who wrote it with great passion is over there. In between sweating bullets and vomiting out of anxiety, he's telling Sting how to do a comedy bit. You know, or, you know, say, could you make. You know. But that's. I think that's the great power of it. You get to produce the thing that you wrote then and there.

[Conan O'Brien]

The thing that Lauren does that's brilliant that I. I didn't exist anywhere else. I'd only worked about three years in television before that, but no one had let me near anything. You get to snl, you write a sketch, and Steve Martin's gonna be in it. And Lauren says, well, go in and tell Steve how it should be done and what you're thinking, and then go and talk to the props people about how the restaurant should look. And I thought, I'm 26. I've never been to a restaurant. I don't know. And I remember Lauren. Lauren once saying to me, like, what restaurant are we in here?

[Tom Hanks]

You bought fast food. But it's so to actually sitting down.

[Conan O'Brien]

You did a sketch that a couple of us did called Mr. Short Term Memory.

[Tom Hanks]

Oh, God, yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

And so we wrote the sketch, Mr. Short Term Memory. And Lorne called me in and he said, what restaurant are we in? And I said, what do you mean? And he said, are we in Orso? Are we at Elaine's? And I didn't. Those are just. I don't know what those are. And I said, the worst thing you could say to Lauren, I Said, it's a restaurant, like in a Carol Burnett sketch. Immediately, nine assistants took me out of the room.

[Tom Hanks]

Wow.

[Conan O'Brien]

Lauren was immediately anesthetized.

[Tom Hanks]

Not that she isn't a legend.

[Conan O'Brien]

I just thought, like, oh, restaurant, like, big menu.

[Tom Hanks]

Okay.

[Conan O'Brien]

Snooty waiter.

[Tom Hanks]

By the way, you gotta. It is a mar. You do have to learn how to survive physically when you do the show. And the last time I did it, I told everybody who was in charge of me, particularly our wardrobe and stage manager people, I said, I want you to understand that my goal on this week's hosting duties is to take as few steps as possible. So I am going to come here and I will get dressed. And where can we get dressed next time? Because I don't have to walk all the way back here. I'm going to take as few.

[Conan O'Brien]

I've noticed that you were. You were sitting in most of your sketches.

[Tom Hanks]

I'm going to do that. I'm going to do that as much as possible because, look, you know, it's a young man's game. And there was a time, there was a time that you just, you know, it's just balls to the walls and you just fill up every minute with activity. No, no, no, Take it easy, Tom.

[Conan O'Brien]

Just before we started the podcast, we were chatting and you were talking about how both of us having highs and lows in our career. And I was thinking, I know what you're talking about, Tom, but no one thinks that about you. I think you have the career.

[Tom Hanks]

Well, let me just. I've printed up my IMDb, okay? Now, you notice I'm almost to 100 films here, right? I'm getting up there, but I'm gonna.

[Conan O'Brien]

Say, really crinkly paper.

[Tom Hanks]

I'm gonna say, well, you know, coming out of the printer, I'm gonna say, sit out. All these, I'm gonna say, six of these are pretty damn good, you know, the rest of them are checkered. It's all a checkered career.

[Conan O'Brien]

Well, that's. No one here is buying it. Nobody's thinking about the time when you were down and out, because I don't think it exists. I don't think that's ever existed.

[Tom Hanks]

Oh, okay, first of all, everybody wakes up at 3:00 in the morning, sometimes, splashes cold water on their face, and asks this question of the zeitgeist. What is happening to me? Why can't I rest? Why am I torn, tormented and haunted yet again?

[Conan O'Brien]

That's your mattress.

[Tom Hanks]

Okay, look, without a doubt, I really dig my job. And I go into everything with an insane amount of enthusiasm and faith in the collaborative process. Faith in the collaborative process. And it is the. I don't want to go over used sports analogy, but it really is the baseball analogy. Ted Williams hit.400 for one season of his baseball career. And that's about the best you can do if you're somewhere between 282 and, you know, three something that they will put you in the hall of Fame. And the thing that there is nobody, nobody starts a movie and says one of these two things. This ain't gonna work. No one says that on the third day of shooting. We have made a terrible mistake. None of this is actually things. All these peoples that are getting paid are liars. They are income. No one says this, nor does anybody say on the third day of shooting. We're in clover, boys.

[Conan O'Brien]

Well, that's cause it's not 1940. This thing's aces, fellas.

[Tom Hanks]

Hold on to your quarters. Jas. No, no one, no one says this. I was, okay. Roger Spottiswood, who is about as facile a filmmaker as I. We were shooting Turner and Hooch and this was back when I really put, you know, an import on the reports. You know, you wanted, like, how's it going? Great. Oh, we saw this and it was great. And that was great and everything's great. How about that scene and how. That was it. And Roger Spottswood came back from looking at DAV dailies one day at lunch and I said, roger is English. And I said, hey, hey, how were the dailies? And he said, they were not half bad. And that's all you can shoot for. How was it? Well, not. I don't know, you know, maybe I hope it'll cut. That's all. That's all you can. That's all you can hope for. And so at the end of the day, the thing that is now an advantage of is I talk about this sometimes with people who are as old as us. I am. We got into this. Let me tell you a story about technology. Speaking of 1 inch VHS cassettes, the in between. In between the two years of the Bosom Buds, the VHS machine was invented. The first season was in 1980. And in 1981, you could go to mad bad months or, you know, something, and for $4,000 buy a video cassette machine, right? And that's. That altered absolutely everything. So as of episode, you know, 22 of Kip and Hendry's adventures in. In Bosom Buddies, everything has since been rentalable and it sits there forever. So I have had count and now, of course, you can watch a movie any damn time you want to. I can't tell you how often I've been somewhere and someone will come up to me and say, excuse me, Mr. Hanks?

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Tom Hanks]

Oh, hi. How are you? I just want to say your films have always been a great salvage for me. I've really enjoyed many, many times I've turned to you, and I was home at one point and came across and saw a film that you made in 1993 that really, really spoke to me. You played a Air Force pilot in World War II in Israel. And I had never heard of the film before. I didn't know it existed, but I really, really, really enjoyed it. And I said, oh, that movie was called Every Time we say Goodbye. It was directed by Moshe Mizrahi, and I made it for about eight weeks in Jerusalem long before the intifada began. Very good, sir. And I also enjoyed Toy Story very, very much. So all of you know, all of this stuff lives. All of this stuff lives. And. And now what happened is that time has become one of the metrics for how these things matter, right in the day. I mean, it was just a fistfight. It was every movie you came out. Are you going to make the playoffs or not? And guess what? No, kid. You're 2 and 12, and you ain't going nowhere. Or you got a shot. It used to be you had these Rubicons that you crossed when you came to Al. First of all, do you love it or not? That's the first thing. Hey, I read this thing. I love it. I can't get out of my head. Yes, okay. You have crossed the Rubicon. You have crossed the Rubicon, right? The next Rubicon you cross is when the movie is completely done a year and a half later and you see it for the first time. And you might like it, or it might. It doesn't matter if it works or not. You look at it and say, hey, I think we acquitted ourselves pretty good. That's Rubicon number two. Then the critics weigh in Rubicon number three. And that's always up, down. We hate it. We like it. This is the worst thing. Oh, hey. Oh, hi, Tom. I saw you in a movie. Oh, did you? Yeah. It was. It was cute.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Tom Hanks]

That's when you ask the wife, hey, honey, could you take the revolver out of the glove box and hide it somewhere? Because I think this is Saving Private Ryan. I think it's cute. And so then. But then this other thing is how it does at the Bo how it does at the box office. Then a ton of time goes by when none of that stuff matters anymore and the movie just exists exactly as it is, outside of loser winner status. Thumbs up, thumbs up, thumbs down. And that's when this stuff comes around where it's like that this thing that didn't work back then kind of does work now. Or just the opposite. A thing that was huge back then is a museum piece and doesn't really speak to anything.

[Conan O'Brien]

That thing you do.

[Tom Hanks]

Oh, yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

You were disappointed when it came out. And it has this whole other life now.

[Tom Hanks]

It is.

[Conan O'Brien]

It is this cult classic. But that's an example of.

[Tom Hanks]

Let me tell you something about these cocksuckers who write about movies. Can I say that? Yeah. Okay. It's a podcast.

[Conan O'Brien]

My father writes about movies, and his name is Cocksucker.

[Tom Hanks]

Somebody. Somebody who. Somebody who wrote about it is that this is just, you know, Tom Hanks has to stop hanging around with veterans of tv because this is just, like, shot on tv and it's not much of anything. You know, that same person then wrote about the cult classic that thing you do. Same exact person. It's all you need is 20 years between now and then and it ends up speaking somewhere. But, you know, that's the thing we all signed up for. That's, you know, that's the carnival. That's the contest. Yeah, I got faith in that.

[Conan O'Brien]

You had a moment on Forrest Gump, and of course, you're working with Robert Zemeckis. You're working with him on Forrest Gump. You're sitting there on the bench and you just thought, is anyone going to watch it?

[Tom Hanks]

That's exactly right. What did you say?

[Conan O'Brien]

Is anyone going to watch this? Is anyone going to care about this guy?

[Tom Hanks]

We had worked so hard, so much, and we were only about 40% through with the movie. We still had a ton of stuff that we had to do. We had shot 27 straight days in a row, which included helicopter rides to, like, places in America where Forrest runs across the country, you know, with a beard, without a beard. You know, we've been all over the place, and I'm exhausted. I'm fried. And we've got, like. We've got, like, 36 hours to shoot this stuff in Cherokee Square in Savannah. You know, I'm there dressed, and we have a ton of act kind of actors that are coming. They're gonna sit next to me on the bus bench, and we are trying to shoot so much that I said, bob, there is no way my sad little brain can Learn this much dialogue, because I've got a page and a page and a page and a page and a page, and that's just up to lunch. You know, if you think I'm gonna be word perfect on this, you're out of your mind. And don't worry about it, Tom. We'll just put it on cards like.

[Conan O'Brien]

It'S I Love Lucy.

[Tom Hanks]

And, you know, we'll slide the cameras around so you don't want to have to get bonded.

[Conan O'Brien]

Robert Zumeckis is a ventriloquist dummy.

[Tom Hanks]

We've worked together a lot. So I actually know. I know what that means now. I know what it means. And so we were doing it, and in all honesty, you know, you do it twice and then you get it down. So it goes pretty fast. And we were midway through, like, a day. We shot all that stuff in a day. All the stuff on the thing. We were a little.

[Conan O'Brien]

It was you on the park bench. Iconic. Yes.

[Tom Hanks]

Yeah, we shot it in a day. And at one point, you know, I'm just. You know, I'm. What is this? We're trying to read it. I said, guys, can you make the print a little bit better? Just for these first couple of takes, but then I'll get it down. Don't worry about it. The other actors are coming in. You want to run this going like that. At one point, you know, Bob is sitting there next to me, and I said, I don't know, Bob. You know, anybody going to care about this guy dressed up in like a. This kooky ice cream suits and on this bench saying. Saying stuff. You know, is it. Is it going to cut together? Is it going to matter? Is it going to make any sense? And Bob. Well, that's the thing about making movies, Tom. It's a minefield. It's just a fucking minefield. We don't know if we're sowing the seeds of our own destruction or not.

[Conan O'Brien]

Oh, my God.

[Tom Hanks]

And that, you know, that is the truth of every single moment that you're standing in front of. Look, I made this movie that was altered, you know, And I always say in years to come, we'd be talking about a movie called Cloud Atlas. I made it with the Warshowskis, and that was one of the most vibrant, loving, hardworking, magnificent thing. And when it came out, it was just like, oh, oh, hey, nice movie. Meanwhile, the Incredibles are. You know, you're always. We got lost in the horse race, so all you can do is show up and go there. Everybody says, how'd you do that scene. Oh, I'll show you. I showed up that day and we all went there. Is there any trick to it? Yeah, here's the trick. Go there and it. If that means you gotta put yourself through some sort of psychological hell in order to get there, go there. Now you might know this. You show up to work and you're gonna do a convivial, happy, hilarious scene, right? Everything works great. And you know what happened the day before that? Your dog got hit by it. Every tragedy has happened to you eight hours prior to show up and just be correct. Isn't it fun to be in love and shoot a montage where we're licking ice cre, we're holding hands and we're skipping stones and playing a beach ball and it's. And then we're dancing in a gazebo and it's on one of the worst days of your friggin life, right? And then other days where you gotta go and you have to like go to a place that's incredibly dark and stormy and crazy and all you did last night was laugh like crazy at the karaoke bar with the rest of the guys and the crew and said, Guys, it's 2:00 in the morning. I love to sing another Elvis song, but I have to weep and cry at 8 o'clock in the morning. So I think I'm gonna, I think I'm gonna go retire. All you can do is go there no matter what. Cause guess what? You don't know where you're stepping. It's a minefield, Conan. It's a fucking minefield.

[Conan O'Brien]

Just think about it. You worked with all these directors.

[Tom Hanks]

Spielberg more than once.

[Conan O'Brien]

More than once, yeah. But you've worked with all these iconic directors and Ron Howard and Zemeckis and I mean the list goes on and on and on. And Nora Ephron.

[Tom Hanks]

Nora, yeah, worked with her three times.

[Conan O'Brien]

You've gotten to a point where is it possible for you, Tom Hanks, to be intimidated by a director on the setter? But is that going to happen now?

[Tom Hanks]

The first three days are three days of terror because it's a combination of everybody else who is there. And also just on the third day, you realize no matter what the movie is, you realize I should have said no. There just should have been something wrong with it. I don't know. Cause here we are. Here we are. The intimidate. I will. Look, I've done this long enough, so I now am aware that I intimidate other people, you know, because, you know, because you show up and then somebody said, okay, okay, I'm ready. I'll tell you this story. Okay, here's a show business story. We are shooting perhaps the most scary, intense, truly scary, intense real life scene in Captain Phillips. We are honestly, we're overweight old, middle aged guys who are going to be taken over by these pirates. And we have never met the guys who play the pirates. We don't know who they are. All we know is that they are coming. Because the way Paul Greengrass shot that, he had cameras on us and cameras on the four guys, Barkhaab and Abdul and Big B, little B, all the guys, and we have never met them and they are firing automatic blanks, you know, machine guns. We hear all this stuff that's going on and we don't see anything until the camera outside the bridge, bridge of the Maersk Alabama. We see the camera backing up with the guys pulling the cable. And then four of the scariest human beings I have ever met come in and they are screaming at us, they are slapping us, they are hitting us, they are pushing it down and they're holding, they're real guns, you know, they're holding them in our faces, screaming at us. And it was honestly, we are all bug eyed with some form of terror even though we know it's a movie that is removed because guess what, we all went there. All right, so we're all there. This initial scene went on for about 20 minutes because Paul does this thing where he has secondary and third cameras that don't start shooting until later on. So film is always rolling and then one camera will go quickly reload and then join back in the scene. So this is going to be, you.

[Conan O'Brien]

Gotta stay in that space.

[Tom Hanks]

We are right there because the camera's on us and it's working. I so four of the skinniest, scariest looking guys, their eyes were all bloodshot, they all had this teeth, they were all built like wires, they had muscles like rope. They're dressed in rags and they're holding AK47s on us and they're screaming at us. And it went on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on. Relatively unrehearsed. When it was finally done, Paul says, all right, all right. Okay, all right, all right. That went well. That went well. Why don't we. And while like this and we said, why don't if we can. What I'd like to do is just take it back and come back in. I said, okay, yeah, all right. Okay, good. And then one of the actors Mahat was his name. Mahat says, I can't believe I'm working with Forrest Gump.

[Conan O'Brien]

He just tried to kill you.

[Tom Hanks]

So a countenance, right, comes along with the whole bit. And, you know, once we got that done, we were just guys making a. We were just guys making a movie. It was fantastic. But that's an example of, you know, there was a moment where you have to do all this suspension of the reality of, you know what it is. And all you can do is. All you can do is go there.

[Conan O'Brien]

The only thing I have that's a little similar is for years, occasionally, we would have a band on, like, Slipknot for the first time. Guys with skulls, you know, just. And they would come out, or a band would come out, and they were literally like blood capsules out of the mouth and fierce. And the song is just like, you know. And then you'd. I'd come out and I'd say, we'll take a break. Death, kill, murder, baby. We'll take a break. We'll be right back. And I would always be a little intimidated. Cause I'm in a suit. I'm the late night host. I'm the whatever. The game show host. And I'm just saying, okay, we'll take a break. And these are the guys that are from Manchester.

[Tom Hanks]

Oh, yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

Or whatever. We'll take a break. We'll be right back. And the person would always go, just, lovely meeting you. I really enjoy. There's just such a nice sensibility. And you're like, slip. I can't handle that. I can't handle the psychic break.

[Tom Hanks]

This is why so many of us go stark raving nuts.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Tom Hanks]

Because that surrealistic divide between why you are there and what are you creating begins. It's too malleable after a while.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes, yes.

[Tom Hanks]

And yet it starts and it finishes within the wink of an eye. You know, it's that type of thing where the massacre is over and cut. And all the dead guys start getting up and moving around, you know, and you move on and you get the other shot. I wish we could just keep it all secret, like the Coca Cola formula. I wish we didn't have to remember. But I. I don't watch movies that I'm in because they haven't changed since I saw them. So I know how they end. Right. But every now and again, like, you're blowing through the grid or something like that, and a minute comes on or a scene comes on. And what I remember is what happened just before we shot that scene. That's all I can recall. I look at it, I don't remember doing the scene per se, but I said, oh, it was cloudy that day and I dropped a script in a mud puddle. And then that's all.

[Conan O'Brien]

Then I had some flan.

[Tom Hanks]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

And then it was time to go.

[Tom Hanks]

Yeah, what do we have? Oh, you know what? Somebody made Reuben sandwiches that day. That was really great. Oh, I remember. Craft service made Reuben sandwiches that day. Yeah. And I think it was Annie in the accounting department's birthday. And so we all sang Happy Birthday in the catering tent tour.

[Conan O'Brien]

There you go.

[Tom Hanks]

There you go. That was that.

[Conan O'Brien]

I want to talk about here, which I've never seen a movie like this. I really loved it. I was riveted by one thing, which is the camera. It's hard to explain, but basically it.

[Tom Hanks]

Has a cinematic technique to it that is very unique. Is that what you could say?

[Conan O'Brien]

I love the graphic novel. And the graphic novel is it's one shot. So you open the book and it's one shot and then it's everything that's happened that's ever happened in that one shot.

[Tom Hanks]

You have done our job for us. Oh, and by the way. And you haven't even seen the movie.

[Conan O'Brien]

No, I love the graphic novel by way. Remember when you interject and it's a guest of this caliber, you have to submit a form first.

[Tom Hanks]

That's right.

[Eduardo Perez]

I'm so sorry.

[Conan O'Brien]

And you didn't submit before.

[Tom Hanks]

I apologize. Based on your question, I'd like to say. Will you shut the fuck up? That's true. That's true.

[Conan O'Brien]

Harrison Ford.

[Tom Hanks]

Hey, I'm in good company. I'm trying to talk to Conan.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah. What the hell? Bl.

[Tom Hanks]

Oh, you read. You read the comic book dude, you know, we had.

[Conan O'Brien]

Guess what?

[Tom Hanks]

I got a question. How did you drive? Did you come down Beverly? Did you come down Beverly and make a right on Larchmont? Because that's how I got here.

[Conan O'Brien]

Can I just say, we had Al Pacino here not long ago.

[Tom Hanks]

Oh, wow.

[Conan O'Brien]

And he fantastic interview. We're talking about everything he brings up. We're talking about the Godfather. And Blay leans in mid interview and says, I read the comic book. And it startled Pacino when he said, I gotta go. And he left.

[Tom Hanks]

Oh, wow.

[Conan O'Brien]

And they ended their interview early. Thanks, Blake.

[Tom Hanks]

There you go.

[Conan O'Brien]

Sorry about that.

[Tom Hanks]

But you talking something Because I was talking to Bob. Bob and I get together on Bob Zemeckis.

[Conan O'Brien]

Everyone's clear. Robert Zemeckis, he co wrote this and he directed it.

[Tom Hanks]

Right? Right. Yes. And I did Forrest Gump with Bob. I did the Polder Express with Bob. I did Cast Away with Bob. And I did Pinocchio with Bob. I played Geppetto. Thank you. And while we. While we were doing that, I would say we had seen this movie. He had talked about this movie a long time ago. We got time to talk about this stuff, right? We don't have to hurry through this. No, he had talked about this movie that he had seen. And he said. I said the most amazing thing last night. I couldn't figure out how they got this shot. How did they get this shot? I said, what was the shot? He said, well, it was in the back of a Jeep. And the Jeep's going down this bumpy road, and all you see is the window and the cage of the jeep and the driver in the back. And the camera's whipping around, and then the jeep stops. The guy gets out, and I go, where did they get this? How did they do this? Where's the camera? What was the rig? How did they mount this thing? And then they open the guy over the back, and suddenly you're in the grass and you're going through the thing. And I realized they put the camera on a dog. The name of the movie was the Truffle Hunters. It's a great documentary.

[Conan O'Brien]

I don't know it.

[Tom Hanks]

It's fascinating. It's about essentially the relationship between the people who hunt out truffles and the dogs that find the truffles for them. And then this examination of also the sociolog business of truffle and also the people that do it. And a lot of the movie was shot from a standard, what we call static pov. The camera never moves, and yet the scene will go on for eight, nine, 12 minutes. And I was talking about. Because I ended up seeing. I said, God, there was some stuff in there that was one of the most evocative moviemaking I've ever seen. And it was a documentary. There was no music, there was no score. It was just people behaving. And I was fascinated. I wondered, I wonder if you could do that in a feature film. And he looks at me and he says, buddy, you should ask that Tom. Then he has the screenplay that he wrote with Eric, Eric Roth. He did Gumpo with us as well. And I said, you need to read this. And then he also handed me the graphic novel by Richard. I can't remember what his name is.

[Conan O'Brien]

Blay, you're allowed to speak. I don't know his last name.

[Tom Hanks]

Idiot. Sorry. A cue.

[Conan O'Brien]

Great. I blanked out I, I, I'm having a stroke. What did I bloodstream?

[Tom Hanks]

What can I call those people who write about movies?

[Conan O'Brien]

What word did I use?

[Tom Hanks]

Don't make me say it again. So, but then he gave me that, and honestly, I had to read the graphic novel about three times in order to figure out what, how it was going to translate to this thing. And then when I got it, I literally said, ow, my God. This is a deep row, baby.

[Conan O'Brien]

You know what's nice? In the old days, if you wanted a cinematic experience, you had to go to the movie theater. Yeah, you had to get your ass to a movie theater. Not anymore. With Samsung oled, you get a full cinematic experience without leaving your couch. There's actually a brand new Samsung OLED here in Team Coco Studio, and it's tough to stay focused on podcasting when the picture quality is this good. I'm always losing track. Oh, I'm supposed to be interviewing one of the great people in history and I start drifting away from them. I've noticed because I'm looking at the amazing picture on the Samsung oled.

[Sona Movsesian]

Yeah, you dropped the ball a lot.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah, maybe.

[Sona Movsesian]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah. The AI powered processor upscales your favorite content in brilliant 4K resolution. You get to experience colors on a TV as they're meant to be seen. Because this is the only OLED TV validated by the industry leading color experts at Pantone Plus. On OLED S95D, you get OLED glare free technology so you can watch everything you love with nearly no glare. I can't stand glare. When there's glare, I can't even see the picture. Yeah, gamers, the picture. The picture. Gamers, you're covered too. Hey, gamers, don't worry. What's that? Gamers, you're covered too. Oh, really? Yes. Motion Accelerator, 144Hz delivers ultra smooth motion. And AI Auto Game Mode tailors your game settings to its genre. Speaking of gaming, you know we're going to be filming another Clueless Gamer blay. What game are we playing this time? I like to surprise you, so I don't want to tell you. We're also narrowing the games down. So if you out there have an idea of a game you want us to play, go to Team Cocoa podcast on Instagram and leave us a comment and we might pick that game. Can't wait to see how great this game looks on the Samsung OLED tv. And I'm just going to add its AI powered upscaling.

[Tom Hanks]

That's right.

[Conan O'Brien]

Stay tuned for the next Clueless Gamer. Releasing late November Experience TV the way it's meant to be seen with Samsung OLED. Visit samsung.com OLED to learn more. Upscaling utilizes AI based algorithms. Viewing experiences may vary according to types of content and format. When you give a gift from L.L. bean, you're giving favorites in the making, designed with thoughtfulness and care for years of joyful connection. That's really something because when I usually give a gift, it provides. I'm going to say 15 minutes of joyful appreciation. If that. I don't give great gifts, but L.L. bean years of joyful connection. Like the Cozy Sherpa Wearable Throw made from cozy Sherpa fleece with a hood and two hand pockets.

[Sona Movsesian]

What?

[Conan O'Brien]

I love two hand pockets.

[Sona Movsesian]

I do, too.

[Conan O'Brien]

Over 1,800 five star reviews and counting. That's a lot of five star reviews. A favorite gift for home, camp or backyard. It's the perfect gift for any anyone from teenagers. Listen to that.

[Tom Hanks]

Rock and roll. Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

To grandparents. Oh, it hurts. To book club friends. I read that. Shop the Cozy Sherpa Wearable Throw and more holiday [e-mail] gifts God, I love football season. I love the rituals of football.

[Sona Movsesian]

Like what?

[Conan O'Brien]

Don't do that. What are you talking about? From defending your favorite team after a bad loss to obsessively checking your fantasy lineups. You know what I'm talking about. Football fandom is bigger than just Sundays. And you know who knows that? Miller Lite. Miller Lite knows the passion that comes with rooting for your team. That's why Miller Light keeps it simple, undebatable quality. You can try and debate it. That debate won't last long. You'll lose Miller Lite. You'll lose great taste. Only 96 calories. It's the beer that strips away everything you don't need and holds on to what matters most. Who says, hey, get me a beer with everything I don't need in it? Nope, buddy. It's the original light beer since 1975. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Red Sox won the pennant that year.

[Tom Hanks]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

Make your game time taste like Miller time. Tastes great. Less filling. Let it be both. Why fight? You know there's enough fighting in America.

[Sona Movsesian]

You can have both. There's space for both.

[Conan O'Brien]

Thanks, Sona. To get Miller Lite delivered right to your door, visit millerlight.com conan or you can find it pretty much anywhere that sells beer. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Co. Milwaukee, Wisconsin 96 calories per 12 ounces. Fewer cals and carbs than premium regular beer. Just to inform our listeners. Or if you're on YouTube viewers. That's right, I know how to play the game. Or if you're an alien and you're in space, the camera is locked. You are looking at one point of view. Time jumps. You're going to see Tom and Robin and their characters. You're going to see them at 17.

[Tom Hanks]

17, yeah, yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

19, 20, 30, 40.

[Tom Hanks]

Into our 80s.

[Conan O'Brien]

It is absolutely mind blowing because it's you. It's you when I. Before I first met you. But it's you when I first met you in 1980. I see no trickery. I see no sleight of hand. It's you.

[Tom Hanks]

Yeah. The tool that we use. Everybody, you know, everybody say, what's this mean? You used AI in order to make movies. AI is evil.

[Conan O'Brien]

What did you do?

[Tom Hanks]

What's it going to make the movies?

[Conan O'Brien]

You sang around a lot of hysterical people. It's all over. When Tom Hanks goes to a donut shop, you want a donut. You have this effect on people. It's you.

[Tom Hanks]

It's my countenance that I bring into. There is a. It's called deep fake. All it is is a movie making tool. In the old days, and by old days, I mean 20, 19, before it all changed. We still had hours in the makeup trailer because they had. We have to have wigs and hair and they like do things like Jennifer. Jennifer was. I sit down in the chair. She says hello. She's a very lovely lady.

[Conan O'Brien]

Hello.

[Tom Hanks]

Hello, Tom. Hello. How was your evening last night, Tom? And as she's asking me these questions, she's grabbing both of my ears, squeezing them, lifting them up on the side of my head and gluing them up higher on the top of my head as I'm going. And I said, is that going to hold? Oh, it has to, Tom, because as you age, your ears grow larger and they fall down the side of your head. And today is the scene where you're only 22. So we have to raise your ears and glue, glue them, glue them to the side of my head. And by the way, it works, it stays glued. It's like out. I said you might need a staple gun there. No, no, it all works. You go and you do a data scan and then they match it with every photograph that exists of me. And they go back and find, find as many photographs of me at the age of 17, 19, 20, 20 for my entire life. Then they jam those in using. Are you ready for the scary word? When I say it can you guys like recall like the word and they use AI, Right. In order to do all the work and make it happen faster, you used to have to put a dot on your face, glue it so the computer would read it and then match it later on. Now it uses the pores of your face just to match it like that. So we would, we would have two monitors as we were shooting. One monitor was the way we really looked and the other monitor with just about a nanoseconds lag time was us in the deep fake technology. So on, on one monitor I'm a 67 year old man, you know, pretending he's in high school.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Tom Hanks]

And on the other monitor I'm 17 years old.

[Conan O'Brien]

Unbelievable. So the, the big question would be, you talked earlier about how you're hesitant to watch your own work. This sitting and watching this movie for you is watching you at 17, 67 and everything in between. How's have you had that experience yet? Are you prepared for that experience?

[Tom Hanks]

I've seen just enough of it and seeing me at that age, it has finally answered question for me is, which is no wonder I never got laid.

[Conan O'Brien]

The original title of the film.

[Tom Hanks]

Well, I mean I had a lot of energy and I was, and I was loud and you know, I could, I could, I could make you laugh.

[Conan O'Brien]

Well, you just describe anything. I've occasionally been forced to look at myself in 19 from 1990. Every day of my life was televised from 1993 until about. And I'm not happy with any of it. And I always watch it and I look at my wife and I go, why?

[Tom Hanks]

Well, so what we did actually have to examine this probably more than you ever do on a movie because we had to literally go right and we had technicians that were looking at our skin and stuff like that, but we also had to look at the timing and the cadence of what it is. Because there is, I don't know what the actual name of it, but there is, there is a factor. I can't remember what it's called. We thought that we were speaking at a very realistic cadence and then we would go watch a playback and it was as slow as molasses. It just took for. But I would say it's like the cinematic time slip. It seems like it's fast, but it plays in real time. So that's one of the things we discovered about it that didn't make it any more fun to sit there and look at ourselves in, you know, dressed up as we were.

[Conan O'Brien]

It just occurred to me, I know that I'VE talked to you and you've several times where you've slipped into a Ron Howard impression. You've just. You've destroyed Robert Zemeckis career and yet.

[Tom Hanks]

He comes back for more.

[Conan O'Brien]

Is anyone who directs you is liable to be impersonated by you?

[Tom Hanks]

Some are a little. Some, I guess, are.

[Conan O'Brien]

I don't even know what a Spielberg impression would be. I don't even. I don't get a sense.

[Tom Hanks]

This would be. Oh, I don't care what you say. On every movie I've done, I think I've worked with Steven five times. Let's see Ryan and the Terminal and Catch Me if youf Can. Bridge of Spies. Bridge of Spies. Is there another one in there? I can't recall. Is there another one in there? That's my IMDb and he always does this thing. I wake up and I see, you know, Stephen uses. The screenplays of Steven's movies are the most basic blueprints. They are not. They are not the Rosetta stones. They are not like set down. So he'll come and there'll be a lot of dialogue. And, you know, you do this and explain this, and you get there and I'll go. They said, man, there's an awful lot of stuff in there. I think I'd like to cut that. And I'd like to cut that, and I'd like to cut that. And then I get to work. And Stephen will say, okay, here's the shot. We're going to start here, and the camera's going to be right here. We're going to be following you, and you guys will be saying all your stuff right there. I said, well, I was thinking that maybe we don't need all this. Oh, I don't care what you say. I. Right now, the last couple of gigs, the last couple of gigs that I've had, I said, when everybody is in town, we did this on Bridge of Spies. And also mostly just on Bridge of Spies. I said, look, we'll get together with all the guys. Oh, we did on the Post. We did the post together. Did the same thing with the Post. Get everybody together and we'll read through some of the scenes and I'll just explain. Said, listen, everybody, there are some days that we will come to work and we will have all of this stuff memorized and we'll be hot. We will have read through it. We'll be prepared and we will get to the stage and Stephen will have done all that work for us. We don't have to do anything except inhabit the space. Because Stephen is telling the story from the cinematic perspective. Where the camera is and what he's doing. It's not gonna matter. Not even gonna matter. But then there'll be other times, my friends, when we will show up and we'll know it all. And we need to know it. Cause we have to get there. When we. When we shot this stuff on the gleinike bridge. On Bridge Spies, which was the real place where the spies were exchanged. Crazy. We were freezing to death. It was very, very cold. And Steven came up to us and said, hey, I hope you guys know all your lines, because I haven't the slightest idea how we're going to shoot this. And I just turned to all the guys and said, what did I tell you? And then. He's the most malleable guy. Well, what if we stand here, Stephen? What if we come out here? What if he comes out? Great, great, great. Oh, that's a great idea. Because they're not going to come. And then he's very excited about all that.

[Conan O'Brien]

I do have to let you go, because that's too bad.

[Tom Hanks]

We had a good time.

[Conan O'Brien]

I know. I swear to your people that I.

[Tom Hanks]

This is your job.

[Conan O'Brien]

No, you know what? No one. I stepped in when this thing came along. I'm the lucky guy in the world.

[Tom Hanks]

Can you believe that?

[Conan O'Brien]

No, I. Trust me.

[Tom Hanks]

Okay, let me ask you a question. What now, outside of, like, celebrities, what is the. What is the hardest amount of research you had to do before someone came in and. And talked for it? Where, Where. Where did you guys all have to get educated on what they're gonna be talking about?

[Conan O'Brien]

I will tell you this.

[Tom Hanks]

I'm just gonna guess Pacino was a bunt. I'm gonna say. Cause, you know.

[Conan O'Brien]

Well, I read his book.

[Tom Hanks]

I love the Pachano. Right?

[Conan O'Brien]

Read his book. But I would say the funniest part of my day today was coming in and David hopping, handing me my research on Tom Hanks. And I was like, first of all, no one needs research on Tom Hanks. The whole country. And also, you don't need, like.

[Tom Hanks]

Yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

More about this Hanks. Tell me about. Ah, yes. You know, it was a funny moment to me that I would. That I would need that. But no, there are people who. I'm not ashamed.

[Tom Hanks]

Like somebody, like, coming to, like an astrophysicist or something like that.

[Conan O'Brien]

Oh, no, I am an astrophysicist.

[Tom Hanks]

You're not going to work that hard. Is that what you're saying?

[Matt Gourley]

Well, you had Robert Caro, but you were so versed. On him anyway.

[Conan O'Brien]

I didn't really need to. I mean, you know, the thing is, I have people on that I love to talk to.

[Tom Hanks]

It's the author, Robert Caro, who wrote, you know, the porn star, Robert Carroll.

[Sona Movsesian]

Oh, my God.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Matt Gourley]

And you had to do no research on the camera.

[Conan O'Brien]

I had seen it all for Robert Caro, the Lyndon Johnson historian. I needed to bone up. And I do mean bone up, bone up.

[Tom Hanks]

All he had to do was go to that web browser history, and it was all right there.

[Sona Movsesian]

His favorites tabs.

[Conan O'Brien]

I mean, that tab's just always open. No, I. That's what I love about this, is that I'm talking almost exclusively to people that I really enjoy that I want to talk to. And so there are occasionally youngsters up and comers, and I feel like I need to educate myself on what's happening with the new rock and roll. But other than that, this is slipknot. Yeah, but for the most part, it's just a joy. I mean, this has been a joy. I have to say. You're not just one of my favorite actors of all time, and I think that that's true for many people. But as a person, you've been unfailingly nice to me over the years. You have been just a mensch to me. And so has Rita, your lovely and talented wife, who's, by the way, an amazing. I mean, I enjoy watching her perform. She's fantastic.

[Tom Hanks]

She just had a. She had dropped a new. Dropped a new record, as the kids said. But she records all the time.

[Conan O'Brien]

I mean, you know, I. I've actually seen her live, but she's recording with these incredible people.

[Tom Hanks]

She did a. She did a bunch of duets from the 70s with Eric. Excuse me. With Elvis Costello and Tim McGraw and Jackson Brown and, oh, Smokey Robinson. No, no. She blows me away. What I love is that I love going on stuff with her jobs, you know, because I don't work, man. Yeah, the most. The most that is expected of me is to carry her lip gloss. You know, I'm not working. Just. Honey, do you need your lip gloss? You know, that's about. That's about all I. That's all about all I have to do. Then I get free tickets to the show. It's pretty great.

[Conan O'Brien]

Well, when I heard you were coming in today, I was over the moon, and I really did enjoy here, and I think you guys would love it, and you'll watch it on a real screen.

[Sona Movsesian]

Yeah.

[Tom Hanks]

Yeah. Okay, so this is a problem. This is, like, striking terror into the hearts of Anybody connected with marketing, with the studio, or even my crack publicity teams. Essentially the ladies who work for me part time that are outside right now. The idea that this is playing only in theaters and you really do need. It's best to watch it on the biggest screen possible because there is so much stuff going on screen. It's like, oh, oh my God, this is the worst thing. How are we going to do that? I said, I believe people understand how movies work. No, but you don't understand the whole zeitgeist has changed. We don't have what social significance of motion pictures have anymore. Do they go to. I hope they go to Alamo Drafthouse. I hope this place is Alamo Drafthouse. You know, it's like all you have to do is put out there that playing only in theaters and let's see what happens. We'll go on from there. But this is what we do down at the office anyway. Literally, we should do. This is all we do. I mean, every show business atmosphere I'm in, we sit around like we're on a podcast and say this story, that story, what's the man? How that happened? Do that. That's essentially how we work in show business. And it's been that way since I was in high school, you know, so.

[Conan O'Brien]

You, I, I can attest to this, having met you all those years ago and watched you work up close. You bring an energy and a, hey, we're all in this. We all have to make this work. That is not common. Not everybody does that. And some people have walls and insecurities and you have always been someone that. I saw it in 1988. I've seen it when all the times that you would come on my show over the years, all the times I've interacted with you, hey, we all have to do this thing. Let's all pitch in and make it work. And that's a beautiful quality to have. It really is. And it's rare.

[Tom Hanks]

Oh, well, listen, it was best said to me by Darlene Love. Darlene Love. We all don't. Darlene Love from all other records. I was on the Letterman show for the Christmas. The Christmas show. Every year she would come on and sing It's Christmas, that fabulous, fabulous, fabulous song. And I was there and it's like, oh, you can go into hair and makeup. As soon as Darlene Love is like, Darlene Love is here. It's like, oh my God, what am I going to say? Got to go meet darling love. And so I went in and she was sitting there and said, oh, Hi. Hi. Hi, Ms. Love. Well, hello, Tom Said. So nice to meet you. My goodness, it's just so fantastic. And thank you for your records from the get go, all the stuff that you have done. And I reeled off some of her stuff that she appreciated. And just the fact that you are still here sharing your voice and your gift with this, your spot on this show, singing this song is one of the highlights of my ear. So I'm just so glad that you're here. And she said, oh, honey, I'm just here for the hang. Hang. And ain't that a thing.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah, you know, I get that.

[Tom Hanks]

Yeah, yeah, it's here for the hang. So thanks for hanging, guys. That was great.

[Conan O'Brien]

You know what? You're welcome, Tom. You really owe us one.

[Tom Hanks]

So here, I'll say. Okay. So, hi, my name is Tom Hanks, and I feel cuckoo about being Conan. No, no, my. My name is Tom Hanks, and I feel. I feel joyful about being Conan O'Brien's friend. Is that good?

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Tom Hanks]

Okay, one more time.

[Sona Movsesian]

Hi, my name.

[Tom Hanks]

Hi, my name is Tom Hanks, and I feel competitive about being Conan O'Brien's friend.

[Conan O'Brien]

You're not competing against many people, trust me. God bless you, sir.

[Tom Hanks]

Great. Thanks, guys. Great fun.

[Matt Gourley]

Conan O'Brien needs a friend with Conan O'Brien Sonam of Session and Matt Gourley produced by me, Matt Gourley executive produced by Adam Sacks, Jeff Ross and Nick Liao. Theme song by the White Stripes incidental music by Jimmy Vivino. Take it away, Jimmy. Our supervising producer is Aaron Blair and our associate talent producer is Jennifer. Samples, engineering and mixing by Eduardo Perez and Brendan Burns. Additional production support by Mars Melnick. Talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Bautista and Brit Kahn. You can rate and review this show on Apple Podcasts and you might find your review read on a future episode. Got a question for Conan? Call the Team Coco hotline at 669-587-2847 and leave a message. It too could be featured on a future episode. You can also get three free months of SiriusXM when you sign [e-mail] Conan and if you haven't already, please subscribe to Conan O'Brien needs a friend. Wherever fine podcasts are, downloaded.

[Tom Hanks]

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[Sona Movsesian]

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[Tom Hanks]

Explore experiences today at priceless.com exclusively for MasterCard cardholders.

[Sona Movsesian]

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[Conan O'Brien]

The new Sonic Queso Smasher is now available. You're going to want to try this. They made the Sonic Smasher you love because you do love your Sonic Smasher, don't you? Sonic?

[Sona Movsesian]

I love Sonic smashes and I love queso.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah, well guess what? They took the Sonic Smasher you love and they added the new Creamy Queso in hand Smash patties made to order.

[Sona Movsesian]

Just makes my brain explode.

[Conan O'Brien]

I just saw your brain explode and queso came out. The Sonic Queso smash is the perfect combination of Angus Patties Creamy Queso jalapenos in a southwest aoli. Sounds like juicy goodness to me. All that's left to do is choose a double or a triple. Make mine two triples. That's a sex tuplet. The new Sonic Queso Smasher Live free. Eat Sonic.