"RE-RELEASE: Tom Hanks"

Summary

SmartLess "RE-RELEASE: Tom Hanks" (June 11, 2026) — Detailed Episode Summary

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Episode Overview

In this re-released episode of SmartLess, hosts Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett welcome Tom Hanks—a beloved icon of American cinema, extensive storyteller, and an engaging conversationalist. This episode is a joyful, deeply human exploration of Hanks’ career, passions, and perspective on life, art, and the evolving world of entertainment. It’s packed with genuine laughs, insightful anecdotes, and the atmosphere of camaraderie typical of SmartLess, punctuated by Hanks’ wit and vulnerability.

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1. Opening Banter, Awards & Guest Introduction

(02:12–08:10)

• Awards News:
  The hosts riff on receiving podcast award nominations, with Sean (good-naturedly) teased for being up for “Best Host.”
  • “Which is the worst, which is the kiss of death.” — Sean Hayes [04:57]
  • “Let’s see what you got, Sean.” — Jason Bateman [05:11]
• Friendly, competitive ribbing sets the tone.
• Tom Hanks is introduced with a mock-grandiose, tongue-in-cheek rundown of his achievements before the conversational reveal:
  • “America’s own and Hollywood’s best, Mr. Tom Lamar Hanks.” — Jason Bateman [07:25]
• Tom enters, joking about Sean hosting:
  • “Had I known Sean was the host of this podcast, I would have bailed.” — Tom Hanks [07:37]

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2. Voice Acting, Books, and Historical Fiction

(08:10–12:29)

• Tom teases Will Arnett about his gruff “Batman voice,” and Arnett confesses his voice has changed with age, “just because of abuse.”
• The group discusses the Bernard Gunther novels by Philip Kerr (historical detective fiction) and their love of books that blend history and narrative:
  • “He plays a non-Nazi private investigator from 1928 Berlin through well after the war. It’s a fabulous series by Philip Kerr.” — Tom Hanks [11:07]
• A mutual appreciation for historical detail and the emotional realism in literature and film.

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3. Tom Hanks and the Allure of War Stories

(12:30–16:09)

• Sean asks Tom about his fascination with World War II and war history.
  • “Every single caregiver, every single adult in my life would make references to the six, two words, three letters each: ‘the war.’” — Tom Hanks [13:12]
  • “The bad guys lost… the world was on a quest to defeat people that were undeniably evil.” — Tom Hanks [14:39]
• Tom shares how WWII’s impact on his elders influenced his lifelong attraction to these narratives, reflecting on how such stories still hold mythic and moral power.

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4. On Filming 'Saving Private Ryan': Reality, Fear & the Anti-War Imperative

(16:09–21:05)

• Jason asks if filming 'Saving Private Ryan' came close to real wartime experience.
• Tom details the visceral experience of shooting the landing scenes with real army members and stunt actors on the Irish coastline; flags marking explosives are removed before filming:
  • “Then they removed all the flags, and we couldn’t see anything of where… so we were just stumbling, all wandering.” — Tom Hanks [17:29]
  • “Even though there’s harnesses… machine guns are going off all around you and explosions are happening like crazy... There was an odd, fake and yet at the same time, terror…” — Tom Hanks [18:09]
• Will and the group underscore the film’s power in honoring everyday people called to extraordinary bravery.
  • “You want to make an anti-war movie at the same time you’re making a war movie.” — Tom Hanks [21:05]

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5. Memories, Everyday Heroes, and Humility

(21:05–24:27)

• Tom recalls a poignant story of a dry cleaner who was a WWII paratrooper, emphasizing the quiet heroism among the people he’s met.
  • “He was an example of that adult, that caregiver… he didn’t know if he was gonna make it back.” — Tom Hanks [22:21]
• Will shares a family memory of wartime loss and stoicism, helping underline the lasting toll of war [24:07].
• The conversation shifts to life’s lighter side: sitcoms and early-career moments.

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6. Sitcoms, 'Bosom Buddies,' and Breaking In

(24:27–31:30)

• The hosts reminisce about sitcom routines, with Tom reflecting on the pleasures and camaraderie of television production:
  • “There’s food, there’s craft service, climate control, a lot of breaks. It is an awfully, awfully fun day.” — Tom Hanks [29:41]
• Tom shares about the grind (and goofiness) on 'Bosom Buddies,' his early TV role, and the leap from Shakespeare to sitcom TV and its financial relief.
  • “I made less than $10,000 in a year… I made that in two weeks on Bosom Buddies.” — Tom Hanks [31:09]

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7. Theater, Work Ethic, and the 'Dan Sullivan' Lesson

(31:30–37:27)

• Tom describes a live performance mishap where he kept the audience with Shakespearean improv during a medical emergency.
• He shares formative lessons from his Shakespeare festival days:
  • “The biggest lesson… show up on time, know your lines, and have an idea in your pocket.” — Tom Hanks [36:21]
• Tom attributes his career resilience to this ethic—showing up, prepared, and ready to contribute.

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8. Comedy → Drama: Navigating a Changing Career

(37:28–42:09)

• Discussion on the shift from comedic leading man to more complex, dramatic roles.
  • “They asked me to be in a movie, so I said, yeah… you have no idea.” — Tom Hanks [33:47]
• Tom describes how the nature of his work matured with age and audience expectations changed.
  • “I want to play grownups. I want to play people who have been through bitter compromise.” — Tom Hanks [41:58]
• Notable quote:
  • “After Philadelphia… I got older. You can’t keep making the movie you made at 27 forever.” — Tom Hanks [40:23]

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9. Wilson the Volleyball — Movie Anecdotes

(42:09–43:15)

• Sean’s “dumb question”: Was Castaway’s “Wilson” named for Hanks’ wife?
  • “He named it Wilson in honor of my beautiful bride. We’ve been married, it’ll be 34 years.” — Tom Hanks [43:07]
• A mix of heartfelt and classic SmartLess humor.

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10. Versatility, Directing, Producing & Creative Collaboration

(43:16–51:04)

• Tom discusses approaches to new roles and the everyman archetype:
  • “A geeky guy with a big butt, a big nose, and a squeaky voice—I took all the jobs away from Will.” — Tom Hanks [44:09]
• On transitioning to directing:
  • “Directing in that becomes sort of a bit of an ego thing because you become convinced that you know more than you actually do.” — Tom Hanks [46:35]
  • “Every actor should direct. Every director should have to act. We should all be writing and producing.” — Tom Hanks [46:49]
• Is he still driven to direct?
  “Directing requires a fidelity and a patience and an ability to communicate…” [48:33]
• Tom credits talented collaborators for his producing successes:
  • “We have a kind of clubhouse… it’s the alliances that I make with other people that really do all the work.” — Tom Hanks [49:19]

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11. The Streaming Era & Studio Changes

(52:57–57:25)

• Jason asks about the shift from theatrical releases to streaming.
• Tom draws on history—from VCRs to streaming—as a reminder that the industry always changes:
  • “The business is forever changing… the industry is going through something akin to [the VHS] change. Sitting at home and watching something on your TV is not, not that bad.” — Tom Hanks [54:07–56:15]
• Sean paraphrases Tom’s past advice:
  • “The business is always changing and you have to adapt and change with it…otherwise, if you fight it, you’re just dead.” — Sean Hayes [56:15]
• Hanks’ humor at Sean’s expense:
  • “Yeah, what happened there, Sean? Now you’re reduced to hosting ‘Heartless.’” — Tom Hanks [56:36]

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12. On Marvel, Blockbusters & Staying Relevant

(57:25–59:05)

• Will jokes about Marvel “not calling” Hanks.
• Tom: “They’ve never called me once. …One of these days they’ll say is there any way you would consider playing the Secretary of Defense.” [57:51]
• The group highlights that Hanks continues making character-driven films in a world of blockbusters.
  • “You are us…you have still stayed very grounded…” — Jason Bateman [59:05]

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13. Roots, Normalcy, and the Joy of Acting

(59:05–63:34)

• Hanks reflects on his parents’ support and the sense of amazement he still carries for the profession:
  • “I couldn’t believe that you could go and do plays in high school and get credit for it…this is screwing around, man.” — Tom Hanks [59:48]
• Discussion shifts to work ethic, the energy needed for theater (“fire in the belly”), and what inspires dedication and love for the craft, paralleling Sean and Lawrence Olivier.
  • “Work in the theater is more fun than fun… it’s a life.” — Tom Hanks [63:14]

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14. Career High Points & Collaboration

(63:34–65:29)

• Tom’s highlights:
  • “The experience of making ‘That Thing You Do!’… I could do that again and again.” — Tom Hanks [64:22]
  • He values the camaraderie and sustained joy of working with friends and trusted collaborators.

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15. Show Close & Takeaways

(65:30–70:00)

• Jason and Will reflect on Hanks’ unique appeal, humility, and “everyman” qualities.
  • “He’s just, like, he is us. He is completely personable and authentic.” — Jason Bateman [68:07]
• The hosts geek out over Hanks’ new project, Finch, and marvel at his persistent relevance and emotional connection with audiences of all ages:
  • “He keeps making movies… not a lot of other people are making.” — Will Arnett [68:45]
• A warm farewell and expressions of deep gratitude.

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• “You want to make an anti-war movie at the same time that you’re making a war movie.” — Tom Hanks [21:05]
• “Show up on time, know your lines and have an idea in your pocket.” — Tom Hanks, on lasting professionalism [36:21]
• “Work in the theater is more fun than fun… it’s a life.” — Tom Hanks [63:14]
• “They’ve never called me once.” — Tom Hanks, on Marvel [57:51]
• “He’s just got that. He is us. He is completely personable and authentic.” — Jason Bateman [68:07]

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Key Themes & Takeaways

• Hanks’ humility roots even his greatest stories in the importance of hard work and openness to others.
• There’s a reverence for storytelling—whether through literature, theater, sitcoms, or film—and the craft behind it.
• Creative resilience: Hanks (and all the hosts) stress the need to adapt as art, commerce, and technology shift over time.
• The Value of Camaraderie: Both in front of and behind the camera, relationships matter.
• Dignity in Everyday Heroism: Hanks’ war stories and film roles emphasize the humility and courage of “ordinary” people.

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This episode is a delightful, multi-layered journey through Tom Hanks’ life and mind, warmly punctuated by riotous SmartLess banter, vulnerability, and the enduring spirit of collaboration and curiosity.

Transcript

[Tom Hanks]

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[Jason Bateman]

So you're more aware of what's around you, more focused on the road ahead

[Tom Hanks]

and ready before problems ever start. Mazda. More of what matters most to you. Go to Mazda USA.com to learn more. Consumer Reports does not endorse or promote any product.

[Sean Hayes]

Ever invest in something that seemed incredible at first but didn't live up to the hype. Yeah, I wasted a lot of money buying a car when I was 21 years old. I spent way too much on it. It just, it never worked and I didn't know what I was doing. Marketers know that feeling. They optimize for the numbers that look great like impressions, but they don't see revenue. LinkedIn has a word for that. Bull spend. Instead, you can get the highest roas of major ad networks with LinkedIn ads. Cut the bull on LinkedIn, spend $250 and get a $250 credit. Go to LinkedIn.com smartless terms apply. This episode of Smartless is sponsored by Ashley, the brand that just helped us turn a live event stage into a fully styled living space. Ashley is all about helping you create a home that reflects who you are with styles that balance timeless design and modern trends and pieces built to handle everyday life with durable mater and easy to maintain fabrics. For our live show, we were sitting on their modular Mod Max sofa setup that you can configure to however works best for your space. Plus we had oversized accent chairs and coffee and accent tables that really tied everything together. Let me tell you about the Mod Max sofa. We used it for our live show. It was so comfortable, I felt like I was sitting on a cloud. The worst part about it, getting out of it. Ashley is all about style that's made for real life with white glove delivery right to your room of choice. Visit your local Ashley store or head to Ashley.com to find your style. I'm gonna do this.

[Jason Bateman]

So today is.

[Will Arnett]

Oh, sorry. Today. Yeah, go ahead.

[Jason Bateman]

Today we're going to have a nice.

[Will Arnett]

Sean.

[Sean Hayes]

No, it's just the last time you started the last one. I was going to start this one.

[Will Arnett]

Okay.

[Jason Bateman]

We're just doing an intro. It really doesn't matter who starts, so I'll just go.

[Will Arnett]

So today. Oh, I thought.

[Jason Bateman]

Oh, let me just do it. Let me just do it. Listener here is smart.

[Tom Hanks]

Okay.

[Will Arnett]

Smart, Smart, Smart.

[Jason Bateman]

Listen, I think it's been three weeks since we've, we've done this since I've seen you since I've talked to you, and I have to say, I've had some long drives in the last three weeks, so I've gone ahead and done some quality control. Listening to our podcast. I'm not great at it because I'm listening to them after they've already reached the public.

[Will Arnett]

So are you picking up some long hauler miles, some deliveries? What's going on? I am.

[Jason Bateman]

I've got some five hour energy cases I'm trying to get through.

[Will Arnett]

Okay, sure.

[Jason Bateman]

So it's really been nice listening to you fellas. You're both very talented and very funny on the podcast. I'd really like to be more of a. A part of it, but. So I was very excited to.

[Sean Hayes]

Part of it.

[Jason Bateman]

I was very excited to see you guys today. But then this morning.

[Will Arnett]

This morning.

[Jason Bateman]

This morning, a real dark cloud floated over our family here at Smart.

[Will Arnett]

Jason, can I just. Is it possible to say, like, is it possible for a dark cloud to then give you a gut punch? Is that possible?

[Jason Bateman]

Sure.

[Sean Hayes]

What happened?

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah, well, why don't you take it from here?

[Will Arnett]

Well, Jason read something that I read. We all read it.

[Sean Hayes]

Oh, God.

[Jason Bateman]

Well, I read it. I read it after you sent it to me. No, actually, you know what? Sean sent it. That's exactly.

[Sean Hayes]

I sent it before I read it.

[Jason Bateman]

I don't think so.

[Will Arnett]

Sean sent an article to Jason and me in the. In the thread that we're in with

[Jason Bateman]

some feigned exclamation points like, yeah, like, this is.

[Will Arnett]

This is great for us. And by the way, I'm going to put it out there. If anybody thinks they're worthy of being in the text thread, let us know. And maybe we're putting you on the. Yeah, we'll add you to the thread. And Sean says, congrats for us. Yay for us. And it's a click to Hollywood Reporter. Smart list. Nominated. Great. Nominated for a bunch of podcast awards

[Jason Bateman]

or whatever, which is kind of neat because this is, you know, this is

[Will Arnett]

an embarrassment mom and pop operation.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah, we apologize.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah.

[Jason Bateman]

The fact that we're getting any traction whatsoever, let alone nominations, just. Thank you. Unbelievable.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah, it's pretty great.

[Will Arnett]

Thank you. And also, it's embarrassing. Jason's read it. It is kind of embarrassing. So then, as you. If you read further down in the story, they're nominated best podcast, blah, blah, blah. And Sean Hayes nominated for best host,

[Sean Hayes]

which is the worst, which is the kiss of death. Because now everybody's like, well, he's not really that great.

[Jason Bateman]

Well, I don't think they're saying it out of the side of their mouth either. I think it comes straight out the center.

[Will Arnett]

And here's my thing today. I can't wait to see you host.

[Tom Hanks]

Yeah.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah. Let's see what you got, Sean.

[Sean Hayes]

This is going to be the worst experience for me.

[Jason Bateman]

Well, the voters are now listening, right? Because the nominations are out now. They really have to decide.

[Will Arnett]

Pay attention to his hosting.

[Sean Hayes]

My questions are still going to be like, hey, where are you from?

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah, no, don't worry. We know that.

[Will Arnett]

That obviously resonates with the. With the jury over there.

[Jason Bateman]

The iHeartMedia people have made a bunch of mist.

[Will Arnett]

Sean said. When Sean said, what's your favorite color? I mean, how do you come up with these?

[Jason Bateman]

Let's nominate that jackass.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah, here we go. Jeez, I'm not gonna be able to come up for air for a while.

[Jason Bateman]

We're thrilled for you, Sean.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah, we really are.

[Sean Hayes]

I'm thrilled for everybody.

[Will Arnett]

And look, I said to sh. I said to Sean, by the way, I did say, congrats, man. And he was like, oh, thank you. And I responded. I didn't mean it. What do you. What are you doing?

[Tom Hanks]

How dare you say.

[Sean Hayes]

I responded with. I didn't. I didn't read the. I truly didn't know. I didn't read the article. I just read the headline. Like most people.

[Jason Bateman]

Sure, it is true. I think Sean might be the kindest man I've ever. No, I. No one deserves it more.

[Sean Hayes]

Not around you, too.

[Jason Bateman]

All right, zip it up. We got. We've got. We've got. We've got an interesting guest today. He's. He's known primarily in New Zealand and South Africa due to his success in rugby.

[Sean Hayes]

Okay.

[Jason Bateman]

Florida. Then came to love him when he pivoted his talents towards highlight and dog racing. And then when he was in California, he was attempting to be the first to successfully mend the San Andreas fault. He tried his hand at acting. And while fame and fortune there has been scarce at best, some call it a wipeout. The critics have given him a few hugs. So he has received a couple of Academy Awards and seven Emmy Awards.

[Will Arnett]

What?

[Jason Bateman]

He's gotten himself a Tony nomination. Even AFI Life, he turned it around. He got a lifetime achievement award from afi. BAFTA gave him some things. The Golden Globes gave him the Cecil B. DeMille Award. The Kennedy center honored this. This highlight player, and Barack Obama gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

[Will Arnett]

Wait a second.

[Jason Bateman]

So I say chin up. I say chin up to this fella.

[Sean Hayes]

No idea.

[Will Arnett]

This is the most. The most highly decorated guest we've ever had?

[Jason Bateman]

I would say so. Yet he's famous and fortunate in our book. Okay. Please welcome the forever struggling but always diligent America's own and Hollywood's best, Mr. Tom Lamar Hanks.

[Tom Hanks]

No, man, had I known that Sean was the host of this podcast, I would have bailed. I said, guys, I'd like to, but, you know, I don't like to work from home.

[Will Arnett]

Apparently you're working with one of the brightest hosts in the business.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah.

[Tom Hanks]

Is there a name for this award? Is it. Is it named after somebody? Is it.

[Jason Bateman]

It's called the. The aorta because it's from iheartmedia. Oh, I. Oh, okay, that's not true. But that's my pitch.

[Sean Hayes]

One of my hard hitting nominee questions is, where are you right now? I don't recognize that room.

[Tom Hanks]

I'm in a tiny little cubby hole that is here in my vast compound somewhere in the tri state area.

[Jason Bateman]

I'm telling you, dog racing really pays. Guys, you got to look into it.

[Tom Hanks]

It's within a single day's drive from Lakewood, Ohio, home of the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival.

[Sean Hayes]

Wait, you didn't.

[Jason Bateman]

Is it true?

[Tom Hanks]

No, no.

[Will Arnett]

Are we already gonna plug. We already plugging a festival? I mean, no.

[Tom Hanks]

Well, it was a long time ago. A long time ago.

[Sean Hayes]

Wait, did you really do dog racing?

[Jason Bateman]

No, you dumbass. This is why you're not gonna win.

[Will Arnett]

You're the worst host.

[Tom Hanks]

Jason was demonstrating his, quote, comedy chops.

[Jason Bateman]

Guys, can I write or what?

[Sean Hayes]

Huh?

[Will Arnett]

Hang on. I think Tom's onto something. Let's get into Jason's comedy chop real quick.

[Tom Hanks]

You know, I told night that I was doing this podcast and first of all, I had to re. Explain your name. We were. Yeah, I said, sean. Who? Jason. What, Will?

[Jason Bateman]

Huh?

[Tom Hanks]

What is the name of it? I kept calling it Helpless based on the Neil Young song, so. But now I realize. No, no, no. It's Smartless. Smartless.

[Will Arnett]

We really are helpless.

[Tom Hanks]

And the question came up about you, Will, which was this question. Has he started using a different voice professionally? That in your early days you were kind of like squeaky. You sort of sounded like Jane north in those old Dennis the Menace reruns and you were hilarious, but then you went off and voiced Batman and it's though you're walking around with your own self imposed EQ on your voice now.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah. True or false, Will, here, listen, like any good politician, I can't just give you a straight true or false. I will say that I constantly have a monitor in my ear and I'm Adjusting my levels. My input levels.

[Tom Hanks]

Right.

[Will Arnett]

And so then I can mod. No, you know what? It's funny. Recently, you know, I often watch a lot of my old stuff because I like to be entertained.

[Jason Bateman]

And he has trouble sleeping.

[Tom Hanks]

Yeah.

[Will Arnett]

No, but my voice has gotten. It has. But if you listen to Howard, it's

[Tom Hanks]

just because of abuse, I guess. Are you. Do you still smoke?

[Will Arnett]

Who's listening? I'm just learning. I'm just learning.

[Jason Bateman]

We had Sean Penn on the podcast. He. He's. He went through a full pack of darts, didn't he?

[Will Arnett]

He did go through a pack of darts. Darts.

[Tom Hanks]

That's colloquial for cigarettes.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah, that's Canadian.

[Tom Hanks]

As opposed to, say, coffin nail or.

[Will Arnett]

Or a nail. A nail or bullet. Actually, Tom, this brings me to an actual question about the nail. I noticed recently I was reading the 10th book in the. In the Gunter, what's His Name Series by Philip Kerr, and I noticed your name on the back of it.

[Tom Hanks]

Oh, the.

[Will Arnett]

And you. You gave a little blurb for the back of. For the jacket of Prussian Blue, which I'm almost finished with.

[Tom Hanks]

Oh, that's a great one.

[Will Arnett]

It's a great one. Right?

[Tom Hanks]

Gunther. Help me.

[Will Arnett]

Bernard. Gunther. Bernard.

[Tom Hanks]

Bernard. Bernie Gunther series. He plays a non. Okay. Be merciful on me on this.

[Will Arnett]

Okay.

[Tom Hanks]

He plays a non. Nazi private investigator from 1928, Berlin, through well after the war.

[Will Arnett]

That's right.

[Tom Hanks]

It's a fabulous series by Philip Kerr.

[Will Arnett]

Philip Kerr.

[Tom Hanks]

The late Philip Kerr. He passed away.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah, I know. Too early. Yeah.

[Tom Hanks]

And I read them all. Am just. Well, I'm not a big. I'm not a big, like, detective genre fiction writer.

[Will Arnett]

Me neither.

[Tom Hanks]

But this had that added bonus of very accurate sort of historical detail to it that. That I really loved.

[Will Arnett]

It's a tremendous historical fiction. And you're. You're absolutely right. And I'm with you, Tom. And I read. I read mostly nonfiction, and somebody recommended. They said, you love all this European history. I think you'd like this. I'm fully. Like I said, I just started at the beginning of the summer, and I'm on book 10, Prussian Blue. But he always refers to cigarettes as nails. And he gets beaten up by these Nazis. And then they look down and he's spitting out blood and they say, what do you want? He looks up and he says, can I get a nail?

[Tom Hanks]

Yeah. And you know what? When he smokes one, he looks really cool.

[Will Arnett]

He looks really, really cool.

[Tom Hanks]

What I like about those books is it fills in the blanks of his war years because some of them take Place well before World War II. Some of them take place after World War II. And in the course of it, you see what he went through.

[Jason Bateman]

Thanks, guys, for firing us out of the gate here at the start of the inter. Our listeners love literature. Go, Sean. You're the host. Let's do it.

[Tom Hanks]

Yeah.

[Sean Hayes]

Thank you so much.

[Tom Hanks]

Come on. By the way, Sean, I have my hand on my buzzer. Hand is right on my buzzer. Buzz with the correct answer.

[Will Arnett]

Good.

[Sean Hayes]

I want to know what your fascination with the. With war is because your name is so synonymous. I've never asked you this in my entire life. Why are you so passionate about the history of.

[Jason Bateman]

He loves a good fight. It started with highlight, I think, right, that dog racing.

[Tom Hanks]

You know, first of all, we do a lot of them because none of the projects have to have cell phones or laptops. So that alone makes the writing of them so much easier. And there's much less special effects of having to put in those screens. But I get this question asked to me quite often, and the answer always comes down to when in those formative years of, say, seven through, you know, when you're a little kid, every single caregiver, every single adult in my life would make references to the six, two words, three letters each. The war. And they talked about it as this great dividing line in their lives. There was before the war, there was during the war, and there was just after the war. And they talked about it as though it's almost like, well, that was when the Black Plague was walking among us, you know, for. For a big chunk of their lives. They had no idea where they were going to be in another six months. They had no idea how long the war was going to last. That's one big aspect of it. The other part of it, too, is, is that the bad guys lost. At the end of the day, we were able to somehow, unfortunately, necessarily kick the stuffing out of them. And when bad guys lose something, it's that. What is that power of myth of. Is it Bill Moyers? You know, the world was on a quest to defeat people that were undeniably evil. The governments of those places and many of the. Many of the populace. So I keep getting drawn back to that. And again, I will say that from a storytelling perspective, our present day is just so there is no shame left anymore. Truth seems to be a malleable, viscous

[Will Arnett]

kind of like it's a distant memory. Truth. It seems like. And actually, you know what, Tom? Sean? Actually, within the last six months, I don't know if you remember we were talking about all the movies you've done, the war movies, and Tom said, do you think he'll ever make a movie about TikTok? And, you know, because something that he thinks, for Sean and Scotty, there's before TikTok and then after TikTok.

[Tom Hanks]

Well, you know, if I did, it would only be about 45 seconds long. How long is your average TikTok?

[Sean Hayes]

And then I won't be. And then I won't be able to wait for the sequel.

[Jason Bateman]

Tom, I know that. I know that you would. You'd never compare your experience shooting Save It, Private, Private Ryan to those who actually fought, you know, in all of that and during all that. But was there ever a moment. I'm sure. I bet there was a few moments while you were shooting that where you got close to the feeling maybe, of what it might have been like. I mean, certainly the product, the result of that film took me there, or as close as I think I could get. But I would imagine there were a few moments there where it just based on the quality of the production, they managed to create some environments for you there and your own process of trying to get into the character and the realism of it where you were kind of struck a bit by what these guys must have gone through.

[Tom Hanks]

Well, yeah, but at the same, it was all fake, you know.

[Jason Bateman]

Sure.

[Tom Hanks]

But I mean, you got to take that into account. But when we were on the beach there in County Wexford in Ireland, which is where we shot the Omaha beach

[Jason Bateman]

sequences, so it wasn't. Wasn't right there.

[Tom Hanks]

Well, it was actually. It was one of the places where they rehearsed some of it. So that's one aspect.

[Will Arnett]

How far was Bay's camp from the beach?

[Tom Hanks]

Oh, it was way. Well, I was gonna. I was gonna incorporate that into the. Into the anecdote. So shut. Just light up another nail, Will, and take that pause. We're there with 500 members of the Irish, actual members of the Irish Army. There is landing craft everywhere, and we're all storming, storming the beaches. And the special effects crew had laid out these tiny little flags on the beach where they had set up air mortars and squibs, little explosive devices, things to avoid. Yeah. And they actually said, you know, hey, be careful, eh? Right. Because, you know, this is going to become. This is like a projectile. It'll come out of the ground very fast. So if you can try to avoid where the flags are. I said, you know, I think I got that. Then they removed all the flags, and we couldn't See anything?

[Sean Hayes]

Oh, my God.

[Tom Hanks]

Of where. So we were just stumbling, all wandering. So there's all of that. And it's dressed the way it is. And when you. There were always four or five cameras going. And once the shot began and you're wet and you're cold and you're coming up, and at a corner of one eye you see a guy catch on fire. And at the corner of the other eye, you see a guy blown 40ft into the air and he loses a leg in the process. Literally. We had, you know, amputee stunt people.

[Jason Bateman]

Oh, my God.

[Tom Hanks]

Then you.

[Sean Hayes]

They were amputated before you shot.

[Tom Hanks]

They were amputated before, thank God.

[Sean Hayes]

Just to clarify.

[Tom Hanks]

But even though there's harnesses and there's wires and whatnot, machine guns are going off all around you and explosions are happening like crazy. And it goes on for the better part of, you know, two or three or four minutes. And there was a. There was a degree of sort of like odd, fake and yet at the same time, terror that was going on.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah.

[Tom Hanks]

So we. We were shooting down there all morning long. I'm going to say about. On the. Maybe the second day of shooting, because the first day of shooting was spent in the boats themselves. And I climbed up the steps to the bluff. They had put in these wooden steps so we could get up to the base camp. Will.

[Will Arnett]

Sure.

[Jason Bateman]

That's where catering and craft services.

[Tom Hanks]

Not far as the crow flies. But it was awfully high. It was probably about 6, 700ft up the bluffs. And I went back and I found the other guys in the unit who I would be meeting when we got up to the shale, which was the defilade that was at the top of the beach. That's where I would come across Barry Pepper and Eddie Burns and Vin Diesel and the other guys. And they were still hanging around, you know, outside the trailers, the way actors do.

[Will Arnett]

Sure.

[Tom Hanks]

And I was wet and I was sandy and I was near death from the amount of noise that had gone on. And I told the guys, I said, you guys better hold onto your hats. Cause it's really wild down there. You are not going. I mean, when you see a guy catch on fire out of the corner of your eyes, you're kind of. And no one said, you know.

[Will Arnett]

Right. No one's prepped you.

[Tom Hanks]

No one has said, there's going to be a guy caught on fire on this side. And that's it. All you. It was. It was an interesting kind of. Kind of panic.

[Will Arnett]

You know what's interesting? And this is kind of folding back to what you were saying earlier. One of the reasons that what I love about that movie, and I love that movie, I'm not embarrassed to say, I love it so much and I've seen it a lot of times. And one of the things I really love about it, you kind of touched on this whole idea of can't wait

[Sean Hayes]

for the musical version.

[Will Arnett]

No.

[Tom Hanks]

97, by the way, 1997.

[Will Arnett]

Which is insane.

[Sean Hayes]

That's when it came out. Wow. It seems like two years ago, but

[Will Arnett]

you had that moment where your character is a schoolteacher, I think. Is that right?

[Tom Hanks]

Yeah, yeah. We just.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah, he's a schoolteacher at some point. But the idea that it doesn't matter what he is, he's just a regular. This is what the thing of this, particularly this war. There was the Great War, which they referred to World War I as, but then there was the war, this war, World War II. And he was a guy who was called to do something extraordinary. He wasn't a guy who was born to be a military officer. He wasn't a guy who was born to be a killer. He was a guy who had to go because that's what he had to do. And people came in, in this moment when the entire world was at war and did extraordinary things. And I always loved that about it. And I think that for me, it really captured what it is that. That sort of makes me have such. It's weird to have, say, have reverence for the war, but you have reverence for the bravery and what people did that were extraordinary things.

[Tom Hanks]

Actually, you want to make an anti war movie at the same time that you're making a war movie, right? Let me tell you a story. I was 18 years old, I think, and I was a bellman at the Royal Hotel in Oakland, California. And we had a guy who ran his own dry cleaning service would come and collect the clothes and take them away and then deliver the clean clothes. And he was always coming with, you know, dozens and dozens of shirts and pants that had been dry cleaned. And I was working there one summer and he was gone for two weeks. I'm gonna say his name was Mike. I can't remember what his name was, But Mike was gone for two weeks and somebody else came in every day. And then after two weeks, it was in June. After two weeks, he came back from his vacation. I said, oh, hey, Mike, where were these last two? Oh, no, I take a vacation every June. I said, oh, oh, do you go camping? He said, no, no, no, I get together with. With some of my old buddies and said, oh, oh, where did you. Where did you go? Well, this. This year, we. We went back to this place that we had visited back when we were kids. I said, oh, oh, where. Where was that? He said, it's in the. It's in the north of France. He was a paratrooper. He was in the 82nd Airborne.

[Jason Bateman]

Wow.

[Tom Hanks]

This guy is now. I'm. This 1974. So go back 40 years. So he's. He's in his 50s. And what he's telling me is that when he was in his 20s, he jumped into. He jumped into Normandy on D Day, and he was a paratrooper. And now he's a guy delivering his dry cleaning, the dry cleaning for the hotel. I felt stupid and small, but also that was. He was an example of that adult, that caregiver that was part of daily life that, you know, that he didn't know if he was gonna make it back. And he went, oh. He said. And we go back. He said this. He said, we go back to visit the buddies that didn't make it home. So they're visiting the cemeteries that are in. So look, that's a generation. It was a time that was loaded with all sorts of problems that, of course, we're still dealing with right now. But you can't take away the fact that these were young guys who were asked to go off and liberate the world from really, really bad people. And they did it.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah, my grandfather, I just. I'll leave it at this. My. My grandfather who passed almost. Almost 12 years ago, who I was really close with and love dearly. He. I remember him telling me he worked with. He was in the Canadian army, but he was attached to the Royal Air Force, and he planned bombing sorties, and they were stationed at various air airfields as they would move across as they, you know, after June 44. And he said, one morning, we wake up, and there was constantly planes taking off and landing and stuff. And they were right. And he said one morning, his tent. The guy who he shared a tent with woke up, came out of the tent, and walked into a propeller of a plane in the dark.

[Sean Hayes]

Jeez.

[Will Arnett]

And I said. And he told me. He didn't tell me this until I was about 18, of course. And I said, well, what did you do? And he said. And he wasn't joking. He said, well, I got a new tent, mate. And I was like, wow. And he was just like, that's the way it went. We had to keep going. There was, what can you do?

[Tom Hanks]

I don't want to go in a place I was and that's too much of a bummer of a story. Sad story. True story.

[Will Arnett]

It's a very sad Anyway, I think

[Jason Bateman]

a perfect segue would be Happy Days, right?

[Will Arnett]

Sure. Let's go. Let's go talk about let's go to Happy Days.

[Jason Bateman]

Let's go to the next day in order to make Saving Private Ryan happen or any of the other incredible movies

[Tom Hanks]

that you have been your IMDb reading Sunset.

[Jason Bateman]

How dare you. This is pure Wikipedia.

[Tom Hanks]

Dare you come just Wikipedia.

[Jason Bateman]

So so had you not booked that episode on Happy Days. Hey would you have not met Ron Howard and things we would not have been gifted the highlight did not meet

[Tom Hanks]

Ron Howard on Happy Days. Ron had left the series by then. What I the guys I met were Lol Gans and Babalu Mandel, who were the staff writers on Happy Days, who wrote the the part who wrote Splash, the screenplay of Splash. And Braun was directing and they said hey, you may want to hey, take a look at that guy who got fired from Bosom Buddies. You know Bosom Buddies was canceled. Something that Sean is going to experience one of these days. Yeah, yeah, don't worry.

[Will Arnett]

Sean's canceled two programs I've been on.

[Jason Bateman]

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[Sean Hayes]

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[Jason Bateman]

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[Will Arnett]

And now back to the show.

[Jason Bateman]

Tom, would you agree that the, this, the, the routine of a sitcom actor is the best job in show business? Do you miss it still to this day?

[Tom Hanks]

Well, it is, it is kind of a skate. It's a hang. I'll tell you that. Because look, if you, you either shoot, you rehearse Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, camera block Thursday, shoot Friday.

[Jason Bateman]

Right.

[Tom Hanks]

Or you rehearse Thursday, Friday, Monday, camera block Tuesday, shoot Wednesday, isn't it? Is that kind of like the.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah, that, that, that second one shoots Tuesday? Yes, you start on Wednesday.

[Sean Hayes]

What you're saying is five days of the week.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Unless you're working with Jimmy Burroughs and then you can take the first day off of rehearsal and really becomes a four day work week. And it's only three weeks a month. So it's 12 working days a month.

[Tom Hanks]

Really top secret things, man. You should never let the civilians.

[Will Arnett]

What are you doing? Why are you blowing.

[Jason Bateman]

And it's six hours a day now.

[Will Arnett]

Everybody's gonna want to be in showbiz.

[Tom Hanks]

There's food, there's, there's, there's craft service, climate control, a lot of breaks. You know, it is, it is an awfully, awfully fun day. When we did Bosom Buddies, Peter Scoleri and I, my dear old pal, one

[Jason Bateman]

of the great shows, we actually shot

[Tom Hanks]

that show on video, not on the film cameras. Film cameras. In those days, that was pretty much a bunt camera. Camera blocking day was just kind of like your stand and did. We had four video cameras, and we had to do the entire camera blocking day ourselves on camera, because they did a line cut, you know, camera three and tighten up on four and four. Let's come back. Let's come back to two and two. You had to be there for that. So you did. You worked a long day, and you did every line of that week script over and over again. And he and I just started goofing around so much that that's. That's where we first got. We got yelled at a couple of times. You know, the. The. The director up in the booth, you know, he'd come in over that top.

[Jason Bateman]

Voice of God.

[Tom Hanks]

Hey, guys, listen, we're. We're working really hard up here. Can you guys just kind of stick to the lines? Otherwise we can't get the line cut in. We're trying. Check the tally lights on camera three. Tom, when that comes on that, you know, you speak and we didn't care. We were just goofing around so much.

[Will Arnett]

How excited were you when you got. When you got that show? What was that moment? So young Tom Hanks and you get Bosom Buddies. You booked it. It'. What was that?

[Tom Hanks]

Well, I couldn't believe it. Yeah, I was going to be on tv, you know.

[Sean Hayes]

Right.

[Tom Hanks]

And I was going to be able. Up to that point, as a Shakespearean actor, I'd made. I made less than $10,000 in a year, for an entire year. And I was married and I had a kid, and, geez, I made almost. I made that in two weeks on Bosom Buddy. So the financial reprieve was huge.

[Jason Bateman]

When was the last time you did Shakespeare?

[Tom Hanks]

I did Shakespeare two years ago here in Los Angeles. I played Falstaff. Yes, with the Shakespeare center in Los Angeles.

[Sean Hayes]

Tom, tell that story. It was. It was a video that I saw of you doing it. I can't remember. It was so funny. You pulled some guy out of the audience or something. What was it?

[Tom Hanks]

No, what happened was we had an. We had a medical emergency. A guy, a gentleman, had a heart thing happen to him, and all of a sudden, the paramedics had to be called. We were doing it at the VA center in the Japanese garden amongst the eucalyptus trees here in West Los Angeles. And, you know, a guy had some sort of seizure and we had to call the EMTs. And then we had to take a break. And the house. Not the house lights, the lights all came up and it was going into. It ended up being about a 30 minute hold while they took care of this gentleman. And we were all backstage saying, should we do something? And then when I saw that people were leaving, it's like, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. I mean, it was gonna. It was a long. It was about close to three hour show anyway. But when I saw people, I saw a lady pick up her purse and move toward the exit. And I came running out trying to scream and get back here, take thee thy seat or something.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah, it was so funny. But what was amazing was you were improvising in shakes. That was. That's what blew my mind. And it was super funny. God, it was so great.

[Tom Hanks]

It ended up. It ended up being worthwhile and it got enough people to stay, and I think I ridiculed enough people that made some lady cry, you know, but out of laughter, tears of joy.

[Sean Hayes]

What was the. You know, a splash. By the way, for your birthday, years and years ago, I sent you a poster and I superimposed my face over Daryl Hannah's and I said, the note said, you and I would have made a bigger splash.

[Will Arnett]

But Tom doesn't remember that.

[Tom Hanks]

Had we only been to Trailblazers.

[Sean Hayes]

But, you know, what was that like? What was that feeling? Because as a kid, I was like, oh, my God. Every actor wanted to be Tom Hanks. Every actor wanted to be you. Because still to this day, you were in all of this string of these massive comedy hits, right? And Big and Splash and just.

[Tom Hanks]

I don't know what I was doing. They asked me to be in a movie, so I said, yeah, but did

[Will Arnett]

you know when you started doing those other movies, you started. You did Big and you did all these things and they were just getting. Did you know where you were going or what?

[Jason Bateman]

No.

[Tom Hanks]

No. You have no idea.

[Will Arnett]

They just said no plan, but you

[Jason Bateman]

were playing the lead and you were incredibly charismatic and you were. You were. You were compelling on screen, like you were carrying things right out of the gate. Had you always had the confidence and the sort of the. The leadership qualities growing up or.

[Tom Hanks]

I was just trying to remember the words. I was trying to speak loud enough to be heard.

[Jason Bateman]

You are, you are.

[Will Arnett]

You are such a relief.

[Tom Hanks]

Listen, I'll tell you. I'll tell you the biggest. The biggest lesson that I learned and this was when I was at the Great Lake Shakespeare Festival, just a day's Drive from where I am right now in Lakewood, Ohio, in which Dan Sullivan, he's who directed the, the, the Fault, Henry V, excuse me, Henry IV that I did as Falstaff. He directed that in 1977. We were in rotating rep and I was carrying a spear and I was doing everything that I was told to do and we had done. We had just opened a production of Hamlet the night before it was in rotating rep. So you open the shows about every two weeks and then you ran a different show every night. That's what repertory means. And so we had opened up Hamlet and we all had a rehearsal the next day for Taming of the Shrew, which I played. I played Grumio in Taming of the Shrew. And all of the equity company, the professionals were hungover, exhausted because they had all been out partying the night before because they had just opened Hamlet. So everybody was like somnambulistic and showing up at 10 o' clock and no one really knew their lines yet. And everybody was kind of like shuffling around and Dan Sullivan yelled it, everybody yelled at everybody, said hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. We've got three weeks to get this show up on its feet and you people are not even trying, for crying out loud. I can't do my job if you guys don't do your jobs. You guys have got to show up on time, you got to know your lines and you've got to have an idea. I can't provide everything here. So let's take a break, mainline some coffee, chew it if you have to, right out of the jar. But come back here with some friggin energy.

[Will Arnett]

Fuck. I would cast you in the Dan Sullivan movie right now, by the way. Sorry, Just, just for what it's worth, that was incredible.

[Tom Hanks]

I remember. Okay, so you, you look, we're all, we're all like 19, 18, 20. I was 20 years old then. And that lesson really super stuck to me. If, if professional actors who have 20 years in the biz, as they often said, 20 years in the biz. I've never been yelled at like that. So all through all of these gigs that I had, the hits, thank you. The misses, let's forget those. That was always the thing that I thought the most important thing to do was show up on time, know your lines and have an idea in your pocket.

[Sean Hayes]

For sure.

[Tom Hanks]

That's all I did through all of those. I didn't know anything.

[Sean Hayes]

So Tom, when you went, when you were doing all those strings, the string of comedies back then, and do you remember what it felt like. Or do you remember that pivot moment when all of a sudden maybe you got offered a script or you had a kind of dialogue with your agent or what happened where you switched over to more, let's say important films or more dramatic films?

[Will Arnett]

What a question. It's so great.

[Sean Hayes]

Thank you.

[Tom Hanks]

That was the era of you can make a movie for about $15 million. And if you just said it was a comedy, it seemed to do some brand of business. Whether it was actually funny or not, it didn't matter. Yeah, that was the time. It was all, you know, anybody who had said actual and cut was trusted to direct a comedy movie whether they were funny or not. And I, I made a, I made a ton of those in which everybody came back. Oh, the dailies were fantastic. I think the audience is going to be standing on their feet at the end of this.

[Sean Hayes]

So Tracy, dailies are, are the thing you watch as you're filming the movie.

[Tom Hanks]

They get little Russians the day before stuff. And it doesn't matter if the movie was called Monkeys make the Sun Go Down. Everybody was saying, this is the funniest

[Will Arnett]

of all the movies.

[Tom Hanks]

The Cows of Tumble Town. This is going to be a magnificent comedy because the good comedies that were made, you know, at the time, they all had, they were all with former Second City people, you know, and Saturday Night Live people. But there was this, you could take a setting. This movie takes place on a ski slope. This movie takes place on a school bus. This movie takes place at a bachelor party. And it will be a comedy. And I made a billion of those like that because we're just kind of like doing imitations of other people's funny movies.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah, but here's the thing, and I've said this about, there are a few people out there who have this and you are one of them, which is, it doesn't matter what the movie was. You are always good. You're always even, even doing. I, I joked about doing the Dan Sullivan. No matter what it is, you're committed and, and that always kind of shines through. So I, I know that you talk about those, those Mrs. I mean, look, if it wasn't for bad movies, I wouldn't make any at all.

[Tom Hanks]

You wouldn't be sitting in your dad's library.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah, I wouldn't be in my dad's living back at my folks house in Toronto. But, but, but, you know, but it's true. And you always, you always deliver in that way because I always get the impression watching you that like, you don't Care what the thing is, you're just doing your. I mean, you're part of it and you're in the thing and who gives a. What's.

[Tom Hanks]

You know, I. I don't want to. I don't want to discount some of the great stuff. I met great people and we did. We made. We actually did some really funny stuff that, that, that really did work. And it was always.

[Sean Hayes]

Yes, absolutely.

[Tom Hanks]

It was always, always fun.

[Sean Hayes]

Also known as classics.

[Tom Hanks]

It was. Well, you know, it's funny, you know, they. I don't think we ever had a movie. Splash was well reviewed, and I don't think I had another decent review for about, I don't know, six or seven films. But now you read about them and they're cult classics. You know what? They're a cult classic. No. Jeez. Didn't happen back in the day, but

[Jason Bateman]

once Philadelphia happened, I would imagine some of the scripts that were coming to you started to confuse things for you and your team a bit.

[Tom Hanks]

Well, I got older, you know, that's the other thing, too. There's a type of movie you can make in your late 20s. I turned. Here's a story. I turned 27 the day of we wrapped the motion picture Splash. It was the last day of shooting. We were in the Bahamas. We had a cake that was actually for the rap. Hey, let's celebrate the last day of shooting with a cake. And someone I think with a tube of toothpaste added in icing on the cake. Happy birthday, Tom. Because they found out it was my birthday. So that was. You know, there's a movie that you make when you're 27 and in your early 30s and what have it. And, you know, I made. I made a number of them in which. But you have to get older. You know, you can't. And I was able to age into. Garry Marshall gave me a great role with Jackie Gleason in a movie called Nothing in Common. And then David Seltzer wrote and directed with Sally Field, Punchline. And then Big came along.

[Sean Hayes]

That's great.

[Tom Hanks]

But you get older and so. And you start singing. I will tell you, look, I'm not big on this kind of stuff, but there was one time I was sitting around with my crack showbiz expert who works for caa, and he said to me, what do you want to do? And I said, you know, sounds exactly like Richard.

[Jason Bateman]

That's a great impersonation.

[Tom Hanks]

Richard Lovett. There you go.

[Jason Bateman]

Beautiful impersonation.

[Tom Hanks]

What do you want to do? And I said, I want to play grownups. I want to play people who have been through bitter compromise because I was in my mid thirt.

[Will Arnett]

Compromise, Jason, is a thing that people do when you hear the other person's side and then you go, okay, I'm willing to shift my position a little bit and whatever. We'll talk about it later when Tom's gone. Sorry, Tom.

[Sean Hayes]

Wait. Tom. You know what I always wanted to ask you, and this is going to be the dumbest question in the world, but guaranteed, he is the host, ladies and gentlemen. That's right. In Castaway, right. The volleyball is named Wilson. Now, you're married to the wonderful Rita Wilson, who I love, I adore, we all do. Was that by design? Because it could have been called Spalding Jesus.

[Tom Hanks]

Could have been. It was written by Bill Broyles and that man. That movie took about six years to figure out. Bill Broyles and I started talking about it, and we weren't shooting it until six years later, and he came up with the idea of a volleyball, and he named it Wilson in honor of my beautiful bride. We've been married. It'll be 34 years.

[Jason Bateman]

Hold for applause.

[Tom Hanks]

Hold for applause.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah. Good for you.

[Tom Hanks]

So, no, it could have been. And I think we added. There you go. Thank you.

[Will Arnett]

Thank you.

[Jason Bateman]

Jesus Christ. That is a whole new level. I'm like.

[Will Arnett]

I'm like Fred on Stern.

[Jason Bateman]

This is now, you know. But that brings me to Finch. Finch seems like it's got some qualities. It's. I mean, if I was a hack studio executive, I'd say it's. It's Castaway meets Marshall.

[Tom Hanks]

All movies are like that now. All movies are like that now.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah.

[Tom Hanks]

Aren't they all centralized? You take a. It's. This is on the Waterfront meets Pal Joey by. By way of Paw Patrol. They're all. Movies are all kind of Paw Patrol.

[Jason Bateman]

But what you need is a. Is a relatable. Every man that is empathetic, sympathetic, can Alpha and beta inside a page. I mean, you. You are the man that could serve as all things.

[Tom Hanks]

I came up through that era of which every genre movie was about somebody who could not be killed or defeated. You know, the cop that could not be filled.

[Will Arnett]

I'm with you.

[Tom Hanks]

The fighter who could. Who never lost the. And so I would, you know, a geeky guy with a big butt, a big nose, and a squeaky voice. I took all the jobs away from

[Will Arnett]

Will because, by the way, I do have a big. I have what's called a pro dump.

[Tom Hanks]

Well, you can't drive a spike with a tack hammer as I've heard in this.

[Sean Hayes]

Wait, I just have a really quick castaway story that we might cut out of this. And Tom, I think I told you this, but I was working on Will and Grace with somebody who worked on the show, and we went after. To his house after a taping one night. And we got super, super, super stoned.

[Tom Hanks]

And Will knows this won't be cut.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah, we had super, super, super stoned. And he said, look, I got a copy of Castaway. I got the dvd. Let's fast forward it to the plane crash because. Cause the effects are so crazy. Let's get totally high and watch. Like, how do they do that? Right? And so we. So he just moved in this house. It was this brand new equipment and we're. And I'm sitting in the back of his screening room and he's up front. He just moved into this crazy house. It's gorgeous. And he had no idea how his own equipment worked. And so I'm sitting in the backseat and he can't get the DVD to play. And I said, oh, no, that's. Is that a Sony? Totally high. Out of my mind. I go, is that a Sony? He goes, yeah. I go, oh, they're voice activated. Those are the new ones. You don't even know what you have. You have to speak the name of the movie into the machine after you put it in. He goes, what are you talking about? I go, just listen to me. You have to say the name of the movie as you put it into the DVD player. He's like, Are you serious? I go, 100%. I just read about these. So he turns back to the machine with his back to me and he goes, cast away. And it didn't play. And he waited a beat and then he did it again. And he goes, cast away. And he turned behind me. I couldn't breathe. I was laughing.

[Tom Hanks]

So cruel. Bob Zemeckis on that. He never cuts to the outside of the plane. That's one of the reasons why that plane crashes is good. Just from the perspective of inside the plane. No eye God kind of stuff there. That's Bob.

[Jason Bateman]

Now, Tom, with all of your incredible set experience, was that what drew you? Was it part of what drew you to the director's chair? Just, just, just the, the effort to sort of streamline things. Because you knew probably more than a lot of the directors you may have been working with.

[Tom Hanks]

No, I think directing in that becomes sort of a bit of an ego thing because you, you become convinced that you know more than you actually do. But Jason, seriously.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah, but then you try it and you're like, oh, my God, this is hard.

[Tom Hanks]

I believe every actor should direct. I think every director should have to act. I think we should all be writing and producing. Cause you find out how hard it is to do that other job.

[Jason Bateman]

For sure.

[Tom Hanks]

From an actor's perspective, it's like you got somebody saying, that was pretty good. Try it again. And you want to say to him, do you realize I'm on a horse weeping because my dog died and I'm trying to remember six pages of dialogue at the same. Do you realize it's a little harder than it is, man? Let's try it again. That along with the same thing of an actor saying, hey, are we going to shoot this or what? Are we shooting or what? Right? You have to realize everybody has 9 million things going on inside their head. And also, look, we're all storytellers. At some point we can have a sense of what might fit into our mouths a little bit better and maybe some options. It goes back to that thing Dan Sullivan always said, which. Have an idea in your pocket. Pocket, you know, have something that you can come out and say, this isn't on the page, but let me, Let me show you something else here.

[Jason Bateman]

So since you have directed, when you do come to the set, as an actor with an idea in your pocket, are you sensitive to that there might actually be a plan in place that that director and that crew has been working on for weeks and that your idea might, might, might disassemble the House of Suck?

[Tom Hanks]

There might not be room for it. So then you try it once, and they say, don't do that. And so. And then you don't do, do it. You know, it's pretty, pretty relatively easy stuff.

[Jason Bateman]

Is, Is that desire to direct still, still, still burning in you or.

[Tom Hanks]

I can't say that I have the instinctive powers of being a director. As an actor, I think I know what I want to do.

[Jason Bateman]

Read it.

[Tom Hanks]

And I think, oh, I know what direction I'll go to. Directing is a. Directing requires a fidelity and a patience and an ability to communicate that after I've done it for the. I've directed two feature films. I' directed a number of episodes of the miniseries that we've done. And I like those because I. I wrote them more. I wrote on them at the same time. But I. I think. I think directors more so than, Than. Than myself as an actor.

[Sean Hayes]

They're.

[Tom Hanks]

They're born into it. You know, you have to think it's the greatest job in the world.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah.

[Tom Hanks]

And oftentimes it's not.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah. Do you enjoy the producing part of it all? With, with what, what you guys? I don't really produce well, but you guys churn out. It's really, you shouldn't slough over.

[Tom Hanks]

It's the alliances that I make with other people that really do all the work.

[Jason Bateman]

But the amount of you, incredibly prolific as a producer, you and Gary, Tonya, I mean, it's, it's, you've employed an incredible amount of people. You've put a lot of product out there. That's not easy and that's incredibly admirable.

[Tom Hanks]

Well, I'm very lucky because we have extremely good people and we, we do this, you know, we have a kind of like a clubhouse where we lean in each other's doorway and say, you know, is this really a feature film, guys? I'm not so sure it's a feature film. Shouldn't it be like a 12 part miniseries instead? So we can really examine the theme and then you make nothing but a ton of alliances. But here's. I'm not a producer because this is what producers do every day. They get on the phone and they try to convince somebody to do something they do not want to do, Right? Or they tell somebody on the phone that there's no way that they are going to do what that person on the phone really wants. That's pretty much it. It's that dichotomy. I always just say, sure, no matter what they're saying.

[Jason Bateman]

We'll be right back.

[Sean Hayes]

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[Jason Bateman]

Let me ask you how, how what, what's your feeling about this, this transition that we're all in into a bit more of a streaming element? Married with, you know, box office, you know, theatrical, you know, going to the theater, paying, paying some money for a ticket versus having it at home. Do you. What is your opinion on that? As somebody in the business and then also as somebody who is a, who is a viewer? Is it. Do you like the fact that there is less pressure now, maybe with open on the weekend because it's streaming? Do you think?

[Tom Hanks]

Well, that's, that's a pressure that doesn't come upon the actor. Because look, the movies are always binary. They're either double zero or zero one. They either work or they do not work. And if they don't work, there's no amount of marketing or interviews that you can do, right on podcasts in order to, in order to change the zeitgeist. The, the pressure remains absolute. The pressure is the speed of light in order to make a great story. The audience, I think if I can pontificate just a little bit here.

[Will Arnett]

Please do.

[Tom Hanks]

Doesn't care where they see it. The business does the marketing, the producers and the studios and the grand entertainment industrial complex, you know, they would like things to be exactly as they were. But we have a business that is forever changing. You know, back in 1980, when you guys were still in junior high school and the concept of home video was just beginning. Here's a story that goes back a long way. When we were the. The first year that Peter and I were in Bosom Buddies, a VHS tape machine, a player at home, cost about $4,000.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah.

[Tom Hanks]

Wow. And the only people that had the them were incredibly wealthy rich people.

[Jason Bateman]

You know, three quarter inch were two.

[Tom Hanks]

Well, by that time, VHS was just beginning. And in a neighborhood, maybe a guy named Doug would open up Doug's Video Rental Shop. S H O P P E. Old timey.

[Will Arnett]

Old Timey Video Shop.

[Tom Hanks]

And on one side of one side of the rental space would be VHS tapes, and on the other side would be a smaller collection of Beta, Sony, Betamax. And eventually Beta went away and it was all just vhs. And by the time, I think the next year, VHS machines were only like $1,800. And then everybody was renting. And the concept that you could. It was great, of course, to be able to record shows after you went through this arcane kind of like process of on, off, recording timing. But the bigger thing was, is that if you had kids and you had a VHS of Dumb, you know, they would get up in the morning on their own and put in. Put in Dumbo, and you didn't have to get up. This was huge. And here we are in 2021, and the industry is going through something akin to that change. Because guess what? As Gary Getzman, my partner at Playtone, said, you know, sitting at home and watching something on your TV is not, not that bad.

[Sean Hayes]

Right, Right, Right. Tom, you said to me years ago, you said, you know what, Sean? The business is always changing and you have to adapt and change with it. Not as an actor or the craft of. Of creating things. Just you have to keep an open mind and go with the flow of it. Otherwise, why. And if you fight it, you're just dead.

[Will Arnett]

Why didn't you take that advice? Why didn't you do it?

[Tom Hanks]

Yeah. What happened there, Sean? Because now you're reduced to hosting. What did you do? Decided Heartless podcast. Is it heartless?

[Sean Hayes]

It's Heartless.

[Will Arnett]

You're known as Dumbo, the host of.

[Tom Hanks]

We were very lucky. We were very lucky at Playtone because one of our first deals was at hbo, and this was old school hbo. You know, no commercials. You could say anything you wanted to. There was no language. There was no. There was no. And at that point, HBO doing so, doing a series or a movie or a miniseries on hbo, that was the golden standard. Seemed as though you had all the freedom in the world. And now you have even more of that. All the freedom in the world. But it still comes down to this very basic requirement. You've got to be putting out an awfully good product, otherwise it will disappear into the mist. Like many of my early films. Thanks, guys.

[Will Arnett]

No, no, no, no. But how have you not. I'm surprised because it seems like they've tried to gobble up everybody. How have you not? When did Marvel call you and say, tom, we need you to. To play, you know, Dr. Universe, and, you know, we need you to do 12 films and you have to play Dr. Universe. Did that ever happen?

[Tom Hanks]

Here's the problem. I. First of all, they've never called me once.

[Will Arnett]

I can't believe that.

[Tom Hanks]

No, no, never. And I think that if one of these days they will, and they'll say, is there any way you would consider playing the Secretary of Defense?

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah.

[Will Arnett]

A guy.

[Tom Hanks]

A guy who comes and says, please help us all. For men. We can't. We can't survive. I'd be one of those guys.

[Sean Hayes]

Right, right.

[Tom Hanks]

I don't get to play the punk on food, but God.

[Will Arnett]

God bless you. Because you still make the kinds of films you have continued in an era where. Where most features are. You know, the feature film market is dominated by these huge.

[Tom Hanks]

Some of those are great.

[Will Arnett]

No, I'm saying they're great. And I have a lot of friends who do them, and they do.

[Tom Hanks]

Well, they're not all great, but some of them are. Really.

[Will Arnett]

I said some. I said some of them are good. And we all have friends who we adore and who are super talented, who make those. I'm not saying that, but there is. It seems like a shrinking market for films that stand on their own because it's a great story and has a great cast, and you seem to be one of those people. You're in a very unique position that you are still making those films, which I think is awesome. We chastised J.J. abrams. We were like, go and make some comedies, J.J. you know, we were giving

[Jason Bateman]

him because he wants to. But, you know, it's because, Tom. Because. Because, Tom, you are us. And you have maintained being us. You as. For. As famous and as successful of you as you have become, for as long as you have been, you have still stayed very grounded, it seems, and normal. And I would imagine that that is just something you're stuck with from when you were a little kid. And you've probably got a couple of parents to thank for that, I would imagine. Imagine

[Tom Hanks]

my parents divorced when I was 5 years old.

[Will Arnett]

Guys way to go, Jason. Way to go.

[Jason Bateman]

This is why I'm not getting the nominations. This is where Sean really does his research. He. He would know that.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah, Tom, I don't know this. What are you. What did your. What did your folks think about you getting into the businessry, as I call it?

[Tom Hanks]

You know, I started doing it for fun in high school because I can't. Couldn't believe that you could go and do plays in high school and get credit for it. You know, this is school. That's. I remember specific, typically thinking that. And the first time I walked into a drama class and I did it because some friends of mine from junior high had been in the plays, and I just said, what? I can come to school and do this? Well, this is screwing around, man. This is goofing off.

[Sean Hayes]

In class, I felt the exact same way. I was like, oh, my God, everybody's just laughing. This is great.

[Tom Hanks]

Both my dad and eventually my mom. Cause we lived in different places. When my mom came and saw me and stuff, they just. They just thought, well, this is just wonderful. You know, this is. Look what Tommy found.

[Will Arnett]

Sean, you've talked about that. You did. You just said it. You had that same thing right where you were like, this is amazing. This is so much fun. And I can't believe I get to do this at 5, 6, 7, 8. And then.

[Tom Hanks]

Yeah, then hit it, Sean. Hey, now, Sean, when you did, you did Promises, Promises on.

[Sean Hayes]

Thank you, everybody.

[Tom Hanks]

Applause.

[Will Arnett]

He's never brought it up. That's weird.

[Tom Hanks]

He's never made it, mentioned it, and it was a big hit. And you said something to me because Sean and I see each other socially,

[Sean Hayes]

not just on this podcast.

[Tom Hanks]

So after you had done Promises, Promises, and it was huge. Cause you played the piano on stage and you did all this stuff. It was a big Broadway hit, right. A number of years ago. And I said, are you going to do it again? Do you have the desire to get up and do another Broadway show? And you said something that was. I swear to. I swear to God, the only person I heard make the same sort of reference. Are you ready for this? I read it as a quote from Lawrence Olivier.

[Sean Hayes]

Okay.

[Tom Hanks]

You said, I'm not sure I have the fire in the belly. Yes, that's in order to get up and do eight performances or something. And I remember when Lawrence Olivier was older, and he was always asked, well, will you ever get up at the national again, what have you? And he says, no, because it requires a stronger heart. And he wasn't talking about medically, he was talking about all the effort that goes in the fire in the belly.

[Will Arnett]

Well, Sean, you would do eight shows a week. I remember you talking. We've talked a lot about promises, promises. But you said something the same. You were like, I do it. You did it for nine months or a year. How long did you do it for?

[Jason Bateman]

A year.

[Will Arnett]

A year. A year. I remember you saying similar thing that you said to Tom. You said the same thing. I said, would you do it again? And you said, I don't know if I have it in me. 5, 6, 7, 8.

[Sean Hayes]

And then you just went, no, no, it's true, Tom. You know, and I relayed that to you about the constant work ethic. You have to jump from movie to movie to movie to movie over these decades, and they're all great. And your work, like Jason said, it's always, always fantastic. You always committed. You're always in it. And I switched that question back to you about filmmaking is, do you still have the fire in the belly to travel and get up at 5 and stay in this hotel and that hotel? And you said, yeah, because it's what I love to do.

[Tom Hanks]

Yeah, I do.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah.

[Tom Hanks]

There's no other way of putting it. There is. Look, it's more fun than fun. That was something that I learned a long time ago, before I got my job at the Great Lake Shakespeare Festival. Work in the theater is more fun than fun. And I thought, well, yeah, this is a great way to spend your day. It's not just a lifestyle or, you know, life's work. It's a life.

[Sean Hayes]

I love that. And now listen, out of all of the. Your entire repertoire, all of your credits, is there one movie?

[Jason Bateman]

Let me ask you, what is your favorite movie? Jesus Christ.

[Sean Hayes]

No, no, no. Is there one movie or experience that was extra special to you that will always stick in your.

[Tom Hanks]

You know, I will say, look. Yes, they all are in so many ways. Look, I've never had a rotten time making a movie. I've always come away from a movie saying, I can't believe they pay me to do this. That was. That was fantastic. Despite the discomforts in the Five in the Morning, A little harder at the age of 65, I guess, but the experience of making the movie, that thing you do, I cast it with a bunch of friends. We had a great time. It was the beginning of. Beginning of the company that. That I formed.

[Sean Hayes]

So great.

[Tom Hanks]

I love that movie with Gary Getzman and everybody else down at Playtown. I. I could do that again and again and again. That was.

[Jason Bateman]

Was that the first film you directed.

[Tom Hanks]

That was the first. Not the first directing gig I had, but it was the first feature film. Yeah. And it was, it had music in it. And it was very, it was very personal because it was set in 1964. So it was. But, you know, every, every gig is magnificent. The ones that don't. That may be disappoint a little bit are the ones where you don't get to spend enough time doing it. Like, I was just, I just did two weeks with Wes Anderson in Spain with the Wes Anderson Repertory Company, and that was fantastic. And I was bummed out. I said, oh, we gotta leave. We've shot out my role. I gotta go now. I'd like to linger for a little bit.

[Will Arnett]

I just got to do a couple days with our buddy Taika Waititi, and it was just the greatest experience in the. And then it was just. We did a show for hbo and then I just did his movie and I was like, these were the. It was like the greatest, most fun month. And then I'm like, oh, and it's over.

[Tom Hanks]

Yeah.

[Will Arnett]

And that was. I just want to go and play with that gang.

[Tom Hanks]

Don't we get to have that 90 day experience here off somewhere, you know, counting something out and getting up and

[Jason Bateman]

Levin, well, you've given us not 90 days, but a solid hour of your very, very valuable time.

[Sean Hayes]

Yes. Thank you so much.

[Jason Bateman]

Thank you on behalf of these two fellow spoiler smartless folks, as well as everyone in America and the world for providing us all these little worlds that you have created that we all get to live in. And they've all, is there a podcast

[Tom Hanks]

award for second bananas or third bananas that you, Jason and Will be up for?

[Jason Bateman]

Will and I are gonna battle for that one.

[Sean Hayes]

You have to ask questions like, what's your favorite movie?

[Will Arnett]

Yeah, you've got a monopoly on that.

[Jason Bateman]

You got it all.

[Tom Hanks]

I would say say that in Canada, this is known as Will Arnett's Smartless.

[Will Arnett]

That's true. It's true.

[Jason Bateman]

Wait, what?

[Tom Hanks]

Number one podcast in Canada.

[Will Arnett]

I think I just got voted Canada's favorite son. I'm not sure, but I'm putting it out there in case anybody wants to latch on to that and start making that a thing. I'm happy to.

[Tom Hanks]

Well, it's a delight talking to you guys.

[Jason Bateman]

You too, Tom.

[Will Arnett]

Thank you for saying yes, Tom. I just. Words don't express how I feel.

[Tom Hanks]

I'm such a very kind, very kind guys. And you listen, good luck on the. Is there a name for this award yet?

[Jason Bateman]

It's the Iheartradio Awards, or it might be called the Aorta.

[Tom Hanks]

Who are you up against? That would be a big question there.

[Will Arnett]

Oh, that's a great question.

[Tom Hanks]

Hardcore history, maybe. Up against hardcore history.

[Jason Bateman]

Fingers crossed.

[Sean Hayes]

It's so great to see you.

[Jason Bateman]

Thanks, Tom, very much.

[Tom Hanks]

Good to see you guys. Hope to. Well, we'll hang at all those places that people like us end up at.

[Sean Hayes]

We're sure.

[Tom Hanks]

All right. Take care, guys.

[Will Arnett]

Bye. Thank you.

[Jason Bateman]

All right, buddy.

[Sean Hayes]

Lots of love to you.

[Tom Hanks]

Bye. Bye.

[Jason Bateman]

Bye, Tom. I think he's gonna. I think he's gonna make it. That guy's got some charisma.

[Will Arnett]

Jason, let me just say this. You've been complaining for a couple. You've been saying, man, great guest, you guys, and then you just decide you pulled out at one of these. What I now. Now refer to is, because I don't use this word you, as the. The topper card. I'm gonna now call it the topper card.

[Jason Bateman]

He's. He's. He's. That. He's. He's a blue chip. That one right there.

[Will Arnett]

Oh, man, what a delight. I mean, he's.

[Jason Bateman]

He does have that thing. And I kept trying to figure out a way to ask him this without him deflecting, as he does so well, so humbly. I just kind of bailed on it because I knew he just wouldn't, like. He's just got that he is us. He is completely personable and authentic. He's every bit a leader that you'd want him to be, but he doesn't seem like he's too arrogant or cocky. I don't know. How does he.

[Sean Hayes]

You mean us as an audience? Audience, not us three?

[Jason Bateman]

Yes. Like, he's just, like. He's the guy you want to follow and are never annoyed, you know, watching him or. I don't know. It's. It's been so consistent.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah. I don't see myself as an everyman.

[Sean Hayes]

Oh, yeah?

[Will Arnett]

No, I see myself. I'm special.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah.

[Will Arnett]

Well, yeah, I'm like the boss of the everyman, you know? So when I'm there, when I see Tom come in, I like. It's great spending time with one of my employees.

[Jason Bateman]

I hope he keeps staying as prolific as he is. I mean, what he's doing, like, what, at least a film a year?

[Will Arnett]

Same. Same here. That's what I meant about the movies he makes. I love that he keeps making movies that are, like. It just seems like not a lot of other people are making. And his new movie, which we talked on, what is the. The Finch?

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah.

[Jason Bateman]

No, no, not the Finch.

[Will Arnett]

Just Finch.

[Sean Hayes]

Finch the bird.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah, Finch. It's on Apple and it's basically.

[Will Arnett]

When is it on Apple? When is it. It's not on now.

[Jason Bateman]

First week of November.

[Sean Hayes]

November 5th.

[Jason Bateman]

First week. November 5th.

[Will Arnett]

November 5th.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah.

[Will Arnett]

So, yeah. So he's doing this movie, Finch, the sequel is going to be the Finch I heard.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah, no, it's called Fincher. It's called Fincher.

[Will Arnett]

Oh, Fincher.

[Jason Bateman]

And David Fincher is directing it.

[Tom Hanks]

Yeah.

[Jason Bateman]

Shooting it right now.

[Will Arnett]

Are you kidding? Dude, this is showbiz. Is incredible.

[Jason Bateman]

I know. It's. It's. Everything is aligned, but it's about. It's him and a dog and a robot. This is not the start of a joke, but like, could anybody pull off a high wire act like that?

[Will Arnett]

But they do walk into a bar.

[Jason Bateman]

There is one bar.

[Will Arnett]

Walk into a bar. Be fair. In fairness, they walk. But I saw the trailer too, with my almost 13 year old and we watched it and looked at each other. We're like, yeah, absolutely.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah. And don't you feel like he's kind of like our ambassador, not just for the business and not just for Hollywood, not just for Los Angeles, but like America, too. Like, absolutely, like quintessentially American. And like he's one of the few

[Will Arnett]

people we can all.

[Sean Hayes]

Both sides. Sides, if you will, can agree on.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Will Arnett]

What do you mean?

[Jason Bateman]

Wait, what's the other side?

[Sean Hayes]

I just meant, like both, like. Never mind. Everybody in America can agree.

[Tom Hanks]

Oh, those.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah. Lashawn, we are not political.

[Sean Hayes]

Sorry.

[Jason Bateman]

Please.

[Will Arnett]

What are you trying to do? You trying to wade me into deep water and then you're gonna take me down like a crocodile and keep me under?

[Sean Hayes]

By God damn.

[Will Arnett]

You can't bail out like that. You can't bail yourself out. Yeah. You can't be saved by your own bell.

[Sean Hayes]

We've used every word that you could do with buy.

[Jason Bateman]

No, not at all.

[Tom Hanks]

No.

[Will Arnett]

But also, you were just trying to bail yourself out of a sinking ship.

[Sean Hayes]

And you can't.

[Will Arnett]

You can't use bi as. As a. As a. As some kind of, you know, instrument to bail out your sinking ship.

[Sean Hayes]

Why not? I just did it.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah, I guess you can. Sorry, there is no rule in that. You're right, you can.

[Jason Bateman]

But do you think that when he first moved.

[Will Arnett]

Let's hear it. Come on.

[Jason Bateman]

One of the questions I did get to here was, well, he was 1979, he made a move to New York City and he was trying to be an actor full time. So I wonder if he was just trying to take a bite ate out

[Tom Hanks]

of The Apple in 1979.

[Jason Bateman]

A B B A B I'm not confident. What's this?

[Tom Hanks]

A B

[Will Arnett]

We were happy Smart. Smart Glass Smartless is 100% organic and artisanally handcrafted by Bennett Barbico, Michael Grant, Terry and Rob Armjarf. Smart Less.

[Jason Bateman]

Can you imagine never buying gas again? Just imagine. Just close your eyes.

[Sean Hayes]

Eyes.

[Jason Bateman]

Imagine a car that's as easy to charge as your phone. Electric vehicles are perfect for real life and real savings. EVs have fewer parts, fewer repairs and are less expensive to drive. Plus you can ghost the gas station and save up to $2,000 a year not buying gas. Electric vehicles are perfect for real life with a daily range that allows you to drive with confidence wherever you want to go. And charging is easy. You just plug in overnight at home just like your ph, or use a fast charger and get back on the road in as little as 20 minutes. With 100 plus new and used EV models available today, there's an EV to fit every lifestyle and every budget. The way forward is electric. Learn [e-mail].

[Sean Hayes]

Support for SmartList comes from FX's Love Story, John F. Kennedy Jr. And Carolyn Bowman Starring Sarah Pidgeon and Paul Anthony Kelly. Variety calls the series a stunning portrait of love. The critically acclaimed series explores the undeniable chemistry, whirlwind courtship and high profile marriage of one of the most iconic couples of the 20th century. Featuring incredible performances from Naomi Watts, Constance Zimmer, Alessandra Nivola, Grace Gummer and many others, Love Story is Emmy eligible in all limited series categories. Now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney for bundle subscribers.