Tom Hanks on Toy Story, Sequels and The Scene He Regrets

Summary

The Rest Is Entertainment

Episode: Tom Hanks on Toy Story, Sequels and The Scene He Regrets

Date: June 17, 2026
Hosts: Richard Osman & Marina Hyde
Guest: Tom Hanks

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Overview

This episode is a deeply engaging listener Q&A with Tom Hanks, hosted by Richard Osman and Marina Hyde from the plush surroundings of Claridge’s. With characteristic warmth, insight, and humor, Hanks discusses his remarkable career, from the genesis of Toy Story to his philosophy on making mistakes, and reflects on the power and legacy of “Grand Unifying Moment Pictures.” The conversation offers rare behind-the-scenes glimpses and honest self-reflection, giving longtime fans and newcomers alike an intimate window into the life of one of cinema’s most beloved actors.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Origin of Toy Story and Early Doubts

• Hanks describes the uncertainty and novelty of the first Toy Story production:
  • Pixar pitched it as “a volatile mixture that could blow everybody’s fingers off if we didn’t do it right.” (03:40)
  • Early on, the team previewed Woody’s animation via a “Turner & Hooch” clip overlaid with new animation for Hanks.
• Pixar’s high standards:
  • The first version was almost fully completed: “We did about 80% of a movie that they threw out.” (05:18)
  • Hanks respects Pixar's courage to rebuild when the story wasn't working, attributing Toy Story’s success to this bold creative ethos.

“That’s a pretty bold throw in order to make on something that they just wanted to get right.”
— Tom Hanks (05:18)

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On Letting Go and Emotional Resonance of Toy Story

• Marie Kondo & ‘Swedish Death Cleaning’:
  • Hanks struggles to let go of sentimental items, such as sweatshirts from significant days with his children. (07:41)
• The franchise’s impact:
  • Hanks notes the unique emotional contract Toy Story has with generations, with viewers now spanning children to 56-year-olds, and the deep nostalgia it sparks.

“Now we are into 56 year old people that are talking about the first time they saw Woody and Buzz together and how much it meant to them… It produces these same feelings along with reflection of all the wisdom that they have since acquired.”
— Tom Hanks (09:03)

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The Power of ‘Grand Unifying Moment Pictures’ (GUMPs)

• Media fragmentation and unity:
  • Hanks laments the rarity of “grand unifying moments” in today’s fragmented pop culture landscape (“GUMP” as a tongue-in-cheek acronym from “Forrest Gump”).
  • He celebrates film’s ability to unite disparate people through shared emotional experiences.

“There is, I think, a greater power now to those fewer and fewer things that garner all of our attention more or less at the same time...It will always be a part of the consciousness.”
— Tom Hanks (11:41)

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The Golden Run of the 1990s and Avoidance of Sequels

• Career “hot streak”:
  • Hanks reflects on the string of iconic 1990s films (Philadelphia, Forrest Gump, Apollo 13, etc.), seeing himself as lucky, rather than strategic.
  • He muses on the unique economic and creative climate of the era, suggesting such alignment is rare today.

“All those movies that you mentioned, we were getting away with something that we thought, well, isn’t this what the art form can render to you if you so want to test yourself?”
— Tom Hanks (14:23)

• On sequels:
  • Hanks jokes about the perils of endless sequels, emphasizing the artistic value of standalone movies.
  • Wishes for Toy Story chapters to be named, not numbered, to focus on fresh storytelling each time.

“There’s also a version of my career in which I could be sitting here right now and saying, you know, I’m going to tell you right now that Forrest Gump 12 is a much better movie than Forrest Gump 10 or 11 were.”
— Tom Hanks (16:17)

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Process, Fear, and Authenticity

• First day jitters and ongoing terror:
  • Even now, Hanks reveals, he feels a “total terror of losing the battle against self-loathing” on day one of a shoot. (19:52)
  • The pressure to “capture that bit of lightning in a bottle” for authenticity is constant; he fears being “escorted off the set by the authenticity police.”

“So there remains forever a terrifying moment of, am I going to be escorted off the set and off the lot because the authenticity police have dubbed me a crook?”
— Tom Hanks (21:58)

• Anecdote from recent WWII film:
  • On set in Australia, a crewmember joked about always hearing Woody in Hanks’ voice. (22:47)

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On Woody, Self-Image, and Collaborations

• Would Hanks get along with Woody?
  • “Oh, no, he’d drive me nuts…We would be in a continual SP competition of who’s in charge.” (23:28)
• When recognized as Woody:
  • Hanks describes making magic for kids by asking them to close their eyes and hear his voice—one of many personal, heartwarming interactions. (10:19)

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Football Fandom: The Aston Villa Connection

• Origin of fandom:
  • Chose Aston Villa for its exotic-sounding name, before he knew it was in Birmingham.
  • Expresses the bittersweet hope of seeing Villa win big in his lifetime.

“You become a fan of a team for the rest of your life, thinking that once I die, they will finally win, you know, when I’m no longer with us. It will not happen in my lifetime.”
— Tom Hanks (24:05)

• World Cup loyalties:
  • Typically roots for Greece (he’s often there for the tournament), but would back Scotland in honor of player John McGinn. (26:26)

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Second World War Enthusiasm & Tanks

• Favorite tank?
  • Picks the American Sherman, lauding its “volume business” advantage in WWII despite being outclassed individually by others. (27:42)

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Fun Listener Qs:

• Table tennis: Forrest vs Marty Supreme?
  • “Forrest all day long…He was ambidextrous man.” (28:27)

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Characters That Changed Hanks

• Every role leaves a mark:
  • Preparing for each film changes him, especially roles requiring deep expertise (e.g., Richard Phillips in Captain Phillips).

“They all have over the course of it. Because if you’re lucky, you get involved about a year before you start playing it and you start carrying it around inside yourself.”
— Tom Hanks (29:04)

• On playing Fred Rogers:
  • Shares a profound prayer taught by Rogers: “Thank you, God,” now part of his own daily practice. (30:46)

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On Mistakes and Regret

• The scene he regrets:
  • In Castaway, after Chuck returns Kelly’s watch, he feels he gave a false gesture and avoids watching the scene whenever it’s on.

“There is a moment that it was painful for me in Castaway…if the movie is on, I will get up and leave the room before that scene comes out.”
— Tom Hanks (32:46)

• Learning from mistakes:
  • Movies are a mix of profound successes and failures, which he rarely revisits once released.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On the magic of cinema:
  “You don’t discount that that is the production of high art and a very, very personal moment between you and a 6 year old or a 56 year old.” (11:25)

• On career longevity:
  “Aren’t we lucky to have this cuckoo job of ours?” (34:58)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 03:40 – Hanks recounts the risky launch of Toy Story and the switch to digital animation.
• 05:18 – 80% of the initial film scrapped; praise for Pixar’s ethos.
• 07:41 – On letting go of sentimental items.
• 09:03 – Why Toy Story means so much to multiple generations.
• 11:41 – “Grand Unifying Moment Pictures” in a fractured culture.
• 13:11 – Hanks’ 1990s streak and thoughts on sequels.
• 16:17 – Avoidance of endless sequels; Toy Story naming.
• 19:52 – First day nerves, self-doubt, and ensemble collaboration.
• 22:47 – “Every time I walk by, all I hear is Woody.”
• 23:28 – Would you get along with Woody?
• 24:05 – The saga of picking Aston Villa.
• 27:42 – Favorite WWII tank: the Sherman.
• 28:27 – Table tennis showdown.
• 29:04 – Characters that changed Tom Hanks.
• 32:46 – The scene in Castaway he regrets.
• 34:58 – Final gratitude and reflections.

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Tone and Style

• Hanks is self-deprecating, candid, emotionally intelligent, and wry.
• Osman and Hyde mix gentle humor with a deep appreciation for their guest—creating a comfortable, engaging atmosphere for introspection and spontaneity.

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For Listeners: Why This Episode Matters

If you love film, storytelling, or simply want to understand the inner life of a megastar still moved by childlike wonder, honesty, and humility, this episode delivers. Tom Hanks’ stories—about artistic failure, the delicate magic of cinema, and the quirks of fame—offer not just nostalgia, but perspective and inspiration, making it essential listening for anyone passionate about entertainment or the lessons in an extraordinary career.

Transcript

[Marina Hyde]

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[Tom Hanks]

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[Marina Hyde]

Hello and welcome to this episode of the Wrestlers Entertainment Questions and Answers Edition. I'm Marina Hyde.

[Richard Osman]

And I'm Richard Osman. And are you nervous, Marina should we tell people where we are?

[Marina Hyde]

Yep. We are in Claridge's. And the person doing the answers to your questions is. Is Mr. Tom Hanks.

[Richard Osman]

He's due any moment. I keep looking through that door just in case you turned up. If we stop in the middle, it's cause Tom Hanks has just turned up. You will understand why.

[Marina Hyde]

We've got obviously lots of questions about Toy Story 5 and all toy stories that have gone before.

[Richard Osman]

1, 2, 3 and 4.

[Marina Hyde]

Yeah. But we're going to get deeper into those huge unifying roles he's played across absolute decades of one of the best all time careers in cinema.

[Richard Osman]

We've got stuff about Aston Villa.

[Marina Hyde]

We got his favorite tank.

[Richard Osman]

I'm incredibly excited to talk to him and thank you for arming us with such amazing questions as well. I hear a noise in the corridor. So Mr. Tom Hanks is on his way. Please let us compose ourselves and enjoy this episode.

[Marina Hyde]

Tom, welcome. You have been playing woody for over 30 years. And our first question comes from Steph Allen and she says, when you first joined the cast of Toy Story, did you have any inkling of how successful Pig, and specifically the Toy Story franchise would end up being?

[Tom Hanks]

They were explaining it to us as though it was a volatile mixture that could blow everybody's fingers off if we didn't do it right. It was this new technology of animation that wasn't hand drawn on cells by artists that it was going to be this. What we can show you is sort of what it looks like and it should all come together. They kept saying, should we hope may. But as the guy. Look, my job is to inhabit something that is not myself. The only thing that I saw was about 12 seconds of a line from a movie called Turner and Hooch in which I'm screaming at a dog. It was a thing where I was like, don't eat the car, don't eat the car. And they animated Woody. As, you know, Woody right now, it was just him against a blue background. And they say, see what we can do with the fig. And it was all this elbows and fists and outrage and what have you. And I said, wow, you want me? Sure. And then for the next two hours they kept explaining to me what the process was and what the story was going to be. And I said, guys, I'm good. I'm in. Tell me where to show up.

[Richard Osman]

I'm going to do some acting.

[Tom Hanks]

That's it. The thing that then was actually a great part of the process was and I got to give this up to the powers would be certainly John Lasseter at the time that he was the head of Pixar and all of the whole Pixar team, this phalanx of folks that never stopped testing material. We did about 80% of a movie that they threw out.

[Marina Hyde]

Wow.

[Tom Hanks]

They put it together and they said, there is something intrinsically wrong with the DNA that we started off with. And I guess they made a painful call to us all saying, everything you've done, we're going to start all over from scratch. Was. And I said, okay, all right, fine. And then in, out it came, a whole different relationship between Woody and Buzz and our original characters as well. And I had to say, I had to give that up to. That's a pretty bold throw in order to make on something that they just wanted to get right. And by the time you get to see the finished thing, I'm just saying I can't believe that I'm in something that is as fascinating as this.

[Richard Osman]

Is it quite a rare throw in Hollywood to throw things out like that in your experience?

[Tom Hanks]

80% of a movie.

[Richard Osman]

Yeah, that's right. That's rare.

[Tom Hanks]

Yeah. I can understand, you know, those first three days of shooting, we're going to reshoot that.

[Richard Osman]

Yeah.

[Tom Hanks]

And I know that there are some filmmakers that build in two weeks of reshoots into the. The actual. The actual budget, but, you know, the finances are so absolutely insane as well as, I guess in some ways the egos that would be involved that make Pixar different. There are other times, once you get the template down, you've got it and it's all gonna work and they're gonna put it all together. The fact that they all go back and I guess in some sort of like hot house, boiler room atmosphere, they just test it and test it and test it and test amongst themselves. Not a, you know, a screening thing. They just, are we doing this right? And they all draw and they all put up these animatics and their storyboards that are magnificent, but that they were willing to say, this isn't what we originally intended to be. That's a deep throw as far as I'm concerned, and God bless them. And I'm going to assume now that that testing process is now built into all of the other ones, which is why it takes so damn long to shoot these things and get them done. It's like it's two and a half years, you know, of my involvement in it, about every six months.

[Richard Osman]

I have a question from Charlotte, who says this will not be unfamiliar to you. When I watched Toy Story 3. In that now infamous scene with the enormous incinerator, I sobbed with my child and promised her that I'd never throw away her toys. Seventeen years later, I still have every single one. What do you struggle to let go of? Asks Charlotte.

[Tom Hanks]

Oh, my Lord.

[Richard Osman]

She got philosophical at the end there.

[Tom Hanks]

Yeah, just a little bit. I'm trying to get into this combination, you know, the book by Marie Kondo, you know, clearing out your closet. I try to give up anything that does produce joy that does not produce joy in my hands.

[Richard Osman]

You started with the stuff that produces joy. This isn't working.

[Tom Hanks]

I keep the joy thing as best I can. But then you combine that with the diabolical sounding Swedish death cleaning, which is not. Yeah, let's talk about that, shall we? At some combination between. There. I will literally force myself to give up the sweatshirt that I wore the day I moved my third son into college that I bought at the, you know, the bookstore that day. I must say, I still have those. So you can't get rid of some of that stuff. And it's not because it looks good or it doesn't have holes in it. It's because. No, you don't understand. I spent a very important day wearing this back in 19, whatever it was.

[Richard Osman]

Well, that's the interesting part of Charlotte's question, I think, because you have, through this character and through this incredible franchise, been part of so many childhoods and of course, parents is a huge part of those childhoods. You must get a sense of how much these films mean to people.

[Tom Hanks]

More so I think than anything else,

[Marina Hyde]

anything else you've done.

[Tom Hanks]

Well, it's because of the volume and it's because there are. Now I was talking with Tim. It's like, it's a shame that there's a number that is attached to any of these movies that you just call it, here's the next Toy Story movie. Or, you know, another Toy Story 5 follower. Three, two, one, whatever it goes. But there is a contract that you always have with the audience anyway, right? And they never forget the first time they saw the movie, whatever it comes down to. But they see it in a different way when they are 6 or 16. But now we are into 56 year old people that are talking about the first time they saw Woody and Buzz together and how much it meant them and how they go back to it again and again and again and again. And it produces these same feelings along with reflection of all the wisdom that they have since acquired because they now have kids that were their age when they saw it the first time. I don't discount the power of cinema because I have that my own reference in my head for individuals that I might meet because they were in a. And they were in a movie that I saw when I was 18 years old.

[Richard Osman]

Can you think of specific examples of people you've met in TV?

[Tom Hanks]

I have met Kier Delay who was in 2001 A Space Odyssey and I become a babbling fool.

[Richard Osman]

That's amazing.

[Tom Hanks]

And I tell him I've seen 2001 A Space Odyssey 119 times and I've always seen something different. Can I ask you please, a question about when you were running upside down? You know, that kind of stuff and it's very wonderful. And that when I am in an elevator with someone who has a six year old child in tow and they are trying to explain that this guy who got on, on the fourth floor is Woody and you can't. And this just simply does not compute until I get the kid to close their eyes and then I say imagine, think of Woody. Now can you see him? All right, well, oh my God. Here we are in the elevator at the same time and you see their face just kind of like explode in this recognition and joy. You don't discount that that is the production of high art and a very, very personal moment between you and a 6 year old or a 56 year old.

[Marina Hyde]

But it's part of maybe a shrinking mainstream culture. You've always been interested in those kind of big unifying roles that lots of Americans can buy into. Is it harder to find those roles in a much more fractured culture?

[Tom Hanks]

As you know, I always go back to. This has come up periodically as some brand of new technology becomes the habit of how we experience these one on one things. Without a doubt there is, I think, a greater power now to those fewer and fewer things that garner all of our attention more or less at the same time. Because I can entertain myself, anybody can entertain this if they want to, all day long in 3 minute increments on whatever they tend to swipe through. So the power of that union of a individual experience that you actually share with 200 or 1600 strangers at the same time in the same room, or maybe just talk about after you've all been able to see will always be here. It will always be a part of the consciousness. But I go back to periods of time when most of culture was aware of a great opera or a great Shakespearean play and it just becomes more diffused and eventually there's just less and less of those Grand Unifying Moments. Gums. Let's call them that. The grand unifying moments of no matter what your age, no matter what culture is even, no matter what language that you speak that binds us, binds everybody together in what. Let's just call it art for the. For the sake of what art can do.

[Richard Osman]

We'll call it Grand Unifying Moment Pictures. We can call it Gump for short, if that's helpful.

[Tom Hanks]

Oh, my Lord. Write that down quick. Staff, by the way, not a bad example of that, too. And. And when that happens, all you can do is bow your head in humble submission.

[Richard Osman]

You know, funnily enough, I got a question from Neil Anderson, which actually talks about your personal role in that sort of phenomenon. He says there's a graphic that's doing the rounds showing your 90s run, and it's frankly ridiculous. Philadelphia, Forrest Gump, Apollo 13, Toy Story, saving Private Ryan, the Green Mile, cast away. At the time, were you aware you were in the middle of this once in a generation golden run, or did you just feel like, I'm making the next film? Was there something magic?

[Tom Hanks]

No, no, I felt. I felt fortunate in that these things came along and I was fascinated by the subject that was it, and the alliances that went into all of those. Because, dare I say it, sometimes you think you're making the same movie and you are not. You are making some other film that somebody else is. Not the same thing. But also, too, I think you can kind of look back on that. I always, from my age, I think the 70s were this great golden age because you could have anti heroes and gritty stories that ended as tragedies, but everybody remembers them as great films. The 90s might have been the last great swing of that, even though the commerce of it certainly drove it. The money numbers drove everything. The beginning of sequels and franchises and what have you came about during those eras. But I just felt. I mean, the last movie I made in the 1900s going into 2000 was Castaway, you know, and that was about as daring a swing in every way, creatively, financially, cinematically, that anybody could take. And we all felt that, hey, we're getting away with this. And in some ways, all those movies that you mentioned, we were getting away with something that we thought, well, isn't this what the art form can render to you if you so want to test yourself? That and the economics of making movies, I think, were matching at that place. And that match, I don't think exists in the.

[Richard Osman]

But do you think you're part of that? Because one of the Things about making difficult cinema is if you've got a big mainstream presence in the middle of it who you trust, you can get away with an awful lot more.

[Tom Hanks]

I think that trust is part of it. Alas, I think mystery might be the bigger thing. Like, what's he going to do in this? And I don't know if I have a lot of mystery versus countenance and all that, but I will say this about all of those. They were one offs. And I had high powered executives say to me, no one wants to see a movie about Apollo 13 because we know how it ends. And I just thought, well, in that case, no one will ever see Star wars or Casablanca or Citizen Kane ever again because. And so it was kind of like a zeitgeist that was constantly being tested. But you know, outside of Toy Story, there were no, there are no sequels in there. Yeah, you know, each one of those were individual one off films that had no reason to go. I always made this joke is that people say, oh, you've always, your films are always like. You just keep making the same hopeful, non cynical films again and again. I said, yes, you are correct. I do try to take my button off, the cynical default mode button. I try to do that. But there's also a version of my career in which I could be sitting here right now and saying, you know, I'm going to tell you right now now that Forrest Gump 12 is a much better movie than Forrest Gump 10 or 11 were. And that didn't happen because it couldn't sustain anything beyond what we did. And oddly enough, it's a shame that these Toy Story movies have numbers attached to them because they just should call them the next Toy Story movie because it warrants the investment of the audience with the filmmaker.

[Richard Osman]

Yeah. So we're not going to get Apollo 14. That's what we're saying.

[Tom Hanks]

We would answer all the questions left unanswered by Apollo 13.

[Marina Hyde]

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[Marina Hyde]

Welcome back everybody. Now we are talking to Mr. Tom Hanks. This is from Patrick Farrell who says you've been the face of so many defining moments in cinematic history. As you've just been telling us.

[Tom Hanks]

Peaked in the 90s peaked in the 90s.

[Marina Hyde]

At this point in your career, when you walk onto a film set on day one, what's the one thing that still genuinely surprises or challenges you?

[Tom Hanks]

Just complete total terror of losing the battle against self loathing that has to start when you get up in the morning. The test really is of the grand ensemble of the crew, the people who are making the movie every day. It's hard work, you know, it can grind you down because if at the end of the 47th day of shooting, in the 14th hour of the day, you still have to Capture an emotional bit of lightning in a bottle that is going to last forever, whether you do it well or not, whether you land on that level of authenticity that makes Is it real? Or if you just try to. Where do you want me to look? You know, what laser point am I supposed to look at? If you don't traverse that barrier, you're a failure. You're no good at your job. And it's not just for me. It's also for everybody whose job is relying on the fact that, yes, my costume does reflect the theme of what we're doing. Yes, my hair. Yes, the guy on the other side of the camera line, he is delivering it. When we get his sign of that, he is going to have to get to. Or she are going to have to that same place. So there remains forever a terrifying moment of, am I going to be escorted off the set and off the lot because the authenticity police have dubbed me a crook? You know, because you don't do it anymore. So that's the great thing, that we all share that. But I just made this movie in Australia, and it's the second Greyhound movie. It's about World War II, and I'm a commander of a destroyer being attacked. And it's. You know, it's. It's what? It's one damn thing after another, and it's hell on the high sea, and it's as serious as World War II itself was. All right? And so we're there, and I'm doing this and I'm doing the barking these incredibly complex orders that I've had to study for weeks and understand what they actually mean and get the nomenclature down. And there was a fellow there playing a seaman. You know, he's in a sailor suit and he's grimy and he's burnt up because we've been under attack. And he's working on the movie for two weeks. And all those people have a very important job for those two weeks. They have to inhabit this very specific task again and again and again and again and again and again, whether I'm right or not, you know, whether I blow the. Blow the lines or not. And I'm. And I'm. And I'm doing. He's an Australian. Australian fellow. And we're doing it again and again and again. And he happened to be the guy that walked through every take, right? And we were finally done. We did this thing when. All right, we're moving on. We would ring a bell, ding. All right, we finally got that. We get to move on. And when I Went ding and rang the bell. He said to me, every time I walk by, all I hear is Woody, you know, all right, that's the agreement that we made in all of this. And hopefully the suspension of disbelief that actors and playwrights and directors and audiences have been utilizing since Aeschylus wrote plays, you know, at Epidavros. Hopefully that'll kick in and the magic will work.

[Richard Osman]

Question here from H. No other details about this person's name. You've played so many different roles in your career. Which of them do you think you would get on with best in real life? How do you think you would get on with Woody?

[Tom Hanks]

Oh, no, he drive me nuts.

[Richard Osman]

Yeah.

[Tom Hanks]

No, no. We would be in a continual SP competition of who's in charge. It would not be good.

[Richard Osman]

And the voices are so similar.

[Tom Hanks]

And the voice. Yeah, yeah. And he's taller than I am and that, you know, he stole your act. I wouldn't. Yeah, exactly. I would literally say he is saying the stuff that's going through my head. How come he gets credit for doing this? I would be sulking, you know, back in the toy box if I was, you know, a toy myself.

[Marina Hyde]

It will not surprise you that a huge number of Aston Villa fans have.

[Tom Hanks]

How about that?

[Marina Hyde]

Well, that's what they'd like. Brenda would like to know you now.

[Tom Hanks]

I'm gonna tell you something right now. I don't. It's a very odd route that brought me, you know, to Villa park, and I have been to Villa Park a number of times, and there is nothing greater for an American to have an English Premiership team locked into their soul. And I've had discussions with Leeds fans, and I just feel sorry for them because they're not Aston Village. But I will also say this. You become a fan of a team for the rest of your life, thinking that once I die, they will finally win, you know, when I'm no longer with us. It will not happen in my lifetime. But I will carry. I will carry the claret in the blue for as long as I can, and I will pass it on when the time comes. And then they will win the UEFA Cupper.

[Richard Osman]

What, now?

[Tom Hanks]

So. Yeah.

[Richard Osman]

Yeah. Cause you don't do sequels.

[Tom Hanks]

I feel bad that someone who just has adopted Aston Villa as their team now is like, well, where do you go now? You know, you gotta be disappointed. I have been living with this grand hope since I did my first press junket in England in 1985, in which I fell in love with this team that I saw on a BBC football scoreboard. You know, here we are, you know, clappin took, you know, Upton swells. Too little. You know, they have all these odd. Queen's Park. The rangers took on Crystal pal. I have no idea. And then one came up and it was called Aston Villa. I said, that sounds like an. That sounds like an island off of the Cote du Jour. It's like, is that what is. Is that. Is that near, you know, Portofino? Aston Villa. And then so I says, my favorite team is Aston Villa, because I know it's in Birmingham, but it sounds like it's in the middle of the Mediterranean. So that's how long I've been rooting for something. And all those years of just saying, I just hoping we're going to avoid.

[Richard Osman]

Because that was just after their last huge success was just at the right time.

[Tom Hanks]

We won Europe in 82. So here we are again. And here's the great thing. It happened in my lifetime. I'm so thrilled.

[Richard Osman]

Brenda's question, by the way, is saying, as you know, you've won in Europe, will John McGinn, Scotland, be your backup team for the World Cup?

[Tom Hanks]

Okay, yeah, sure. You bet. You bet. At last, the World cup for me is going to be Greece, because that's where we always are during the World Cup.

[Richard Osman]

Cup.

[Tom Hanks]

It's a summertime, more or less. But I will tell you, this odd thing happens in the World cup where suddenly we have to be at the D? Verna in time for the kickoff between Luxembourg and Croatia, because suddenly those. I don't want to. Some version of the ugly mutt team, you know, or the, you know, the dog with the cut off tail becomes the dog that you're rooting for in order to win.

[Richard Osman]

I am watching Suriname. Angola, please.

[Tom Hanks]

Suriname, please, please. And this is the thing that I think one of the reasons why Americans have taken to what you call football and we call soccer is because we figured out the great drama in a 2:1 soccer match. Going into extra time, we know that our hearts will either be broken or swell with pride based on something that might happen if the ball is just in the right place at the right time. Time.

[Richard Osman]

Another super quick one. James Regan says, like Tom, I'm a lifelong obsessive of the Second world War. A simple question. What is his favorite tank?

[Tom Hanks]

Oh. Oh, my Lord. You know, I was amazed. And I asked this question of experts because the American Sherman tank looks like a toy compared to the Cromwells or the Panzers and whatnot. And I said, what was the deal with them? This guy said, we just had a lot More of them volume. The Sherman tank was a volume business, you know, not a huge bore, you know. You know, gun on it, or we just had a lot of them said, oh, okay. All right, thank you very much. So I'm gonna say that rounded, kind of like odd volks typewriter looking kind of tank that a lot of people turned up in, you know, whatever.

[Marina Hyde]

Another one from delee's who would win a table tennis match between Forrest and Marty Supreme. She thinks Forrest all day long.

[Tom Hanks]

Oh, all day long. Without a doubt. Without a doubt. I mean, Forrest could play. Boyce could play ping pong with both hands. He was ambidextrous man. You know, I think it would be close.

[Marina Hyde]

It would be watchable.

[Tom Hanks]

Yeah, very watchable.

[Richard Osman]

It'd be pay per view.

[Tom Hanks]

Oh, we'd make a fortune. We'd make a bloody fortune. But I think, you know, I don't know how much affection, you know, Marty supreme would. He didn't play for a national team, did he? He was just out for himself.

[Richard Osman]

No, he was out for himself, wasn't he? Marty Supreme.

[Tom Hanks]

Come on, there's something altruistic there.

[Richard Osman]

Megan Pollock has a question. Do you think any of the characters you have played have fundamentally changed you as a person?

[Tom Hanks]

I think they all have over the course of it. Because if you're lucky, you get involved about a year before you start playing it and you start carrying it around inside yourself. And the specific expertise of a lot of these characters are quite amazing. Like Richard Phillips and Captain Phillips.

[Richard Osman]

I think the best film of the 21st century, in my opinion.

[Tom Hanks]

God bless. And that came about because Richard was willing to invest in me a dispassionate examination of his absolute being. Completely worn down to a granular puddle of a human being by this experience. And to realize that there was a guy out there who up to that point was essentially trying to keep track of all the union complaints on board his ship. That's one aspect. But I will. I will tell you this, that you don't have. You didn't have Mr. Rogers growing up. And it's a. It was a fascinating guy to get to know. And everybody I talked to had nothing. But every single person said both the same thing about Fred as well as a unique thing that was just between the two of us. And he. I didn't consider myself to be a particularly spiritual man. I have a religion of heritage and, you know, tradition and what. What have you. But he said something that I think was ridiculously profound that I have since adopted. And it only came about because I Played Fred Rogers in a movie. Someone asked him about, you know, he was an, he was an ordained minister and his, his, his flock was a bunch of 2 and 3 year olds who were watching his, watching his television show. And someone asked him, he, someone asked him about prayer and he said, he said, oh, no, no, no, I, I, he said, I pray every day. And they said, really, really? Well, what is your prayer? How do you pray? And he said, well, anybody can pray. And it only takes three words. Thank you, God. I heard that. And I said, this is what has been missing in my life. And that's the way I begin or end or take a comput of stock every day in order to say those three words. And it covers everything. As in thank God, thank you for this pain in the ass that I'm dealing with right now, or thank you for this moment of joy that I would not have had if I were not in the right place at the right time.

[Marina Hyde]

One from Ellie Jagger. I love this question. She says, I'm a piano teacher and sometimes my students can be so scared of making mistakes. I keep telling them we learn through our mistakes. But I wonder if there's any examples of mistakes you've made in your career that felt monumental at the time but in hindsight were actually a good thing.

[Tom Hanks]

You know, I will say yes, the thing that is oddly cruel is that people say, oh, what was, what was, what was your most, what was the best movie you've made? Or what. And it all comes down to what was the most amazing experience that can go over the course of those eight months or, you know, 16 weeks or whatever it is. And even though the film is not known to be, quote unquote, a commercial human hit or what have you, they are all such profound experiences of success and failure, you know what I mean? And I do not watch these movies after the first time, really, because they never change. There are movies that have moments in it that I cannot watch because I didn't get there. And sometimes these are the big moments. I simply did not get there and I know it. And I was confounded by any number of things.

[Richard Osman]

Would you have an example of one of those that's worth sharing?

[Tom Hanks]

There is a mo. Okay, yeah. I'll tell you, there is a moment that it was painful for me in Castaway, in which I am back and Chuck is back in Kelly's house and he gives her watch back. And there's a moment where I just think I'm not there. All it is is a turnaround on me. But I do this gesture that I just think is false and is me and is not Chuck. And it is. If the movie is on, I will get up and leave the room before that scene comes out.

[Marina Hyde]

Did you know when it was happening or did you know it?

[Tom Hanks]

No, I did not. No, it wasn't until I actually saw it when it went down. And I think that, oh, we were just moving on there and I wasn't there.

[Richard Osman]

Are you able, at least to be able to give yourself credit when you see something where you did hit it?

[Tom Hanks]

The only time that that happens is when I have no recollection of it whatsoever. The odd thing about movies, and this will go back to the TV series I was on. On television, they called Bosom Buddies. Me and a guy named Peter Scolari was in it when I happened to land on a couple of minutes of an old episode of Bosom Buddies. I remember all of Peter's lines. I have no idea what I say next, but because I was watching him do it, we were so close, and we were. We were so tight. So the only time it happens was. I don't remember doing that. But it's not a thing. Yeah, I can't linger on that. I don't sit there and say, oh, watch this movie. Watch this moment that comes up. We really nailed that. I look at and all I can say, I was cold. You know, it looks like I'm warm. I was really freezing that day. You know, something like that. Or that beard was sticky. You know, I can say things like that.

[Richard Osman]

Tom, it's been an absolute pleasure. I really enjoyed it.

[Marina Hyde]

Thank you so much.

[Richard Osman]

We had so many questions for you. And I just want to say from all of our listeners and from ourselves, the joy you brought people. And I know it's hard for you to watch yourself on screen and see what it is you're doing, but you have brought people together and the incredible body of work that you've done. You've been part of so many people's lives for so long. Toy Story, but also in the incredible movies you've done. And so it's always nice for us and our listeners just to be able to say thank you for everything you've done for us.

[Marina Hyde]

Thank you so much.

[Tom Hanks]

Aren't we lucky to have this cuckoo job of ours?

[Marina Hyde]

You know, we don't notice any of your mistakes.

[Tom Hanks]

You know, no matter what's going on, there is a moment in all these movies when everybody on the set, no matter what the. We all just kind of look at each other and say, say, I would do this for free sandwiches and haircuts, wouldn't you? And we all sort of would. Yeah. So. Well, thank you very much.

[Marina Hyde]

Thank you.

[Richard Osman]

So they taken Tom off. That was fun.

[Marina Hyde]

It was. It's funny. He mentions movies and you're like, oh, yeah. You know, you did that other iconic one he's done. It's extraordinary. He's like a actually last movie star.

[Richard Osman]

Well, when we did the question where. We're going through Neil's question, where we go through that list of movies, but then you think you can go before that and after it and still have, like, incredible lists of these. These movies, but the end of the

[Marina Hyde]

1900s, as he called it.

[Richard Osman]

Yeah, I love that. But I love doing this format where the listeners ask the questions because it's, you know, it's. It's such a lovely way of doing it because we're not. No one's trying to. To fool anybody. It's just. It's a really. You just get very interesting things out of people.

[Marina Hyde]

Yeah. And people, especially with someone like that, who is all about trying to bring people together.

[Richard Osman]

Yeah.

[Marina Hyde]

Asking just questions of the people who've watched the films is so much better than any form of a culture.

[Richard Osman]

And he was a dude as well, right? Yeah. I mean, right at the end, you could see that the publicist has opened the door just to make sure that he knew he's on his way out and he's wanted to keep talking. So lovely. But I know. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

[Marina Hyde]

Look at that on YouTube.

[Richard Osman]

But, yeah, I mean, what a. I mean, a genius as an actor. I said in the middle of that that I think Captain Phillips is the best movie of the 21st century, which I think it is. But I know that people at home will have a different opinion on that.

[Marina Hyde]

Well, if you don't think I'm going straight home to find the little bit in Castaway where supposedly he makes a great mistake. What an icon. Yeah, that was. That was fantastic.

[Richard Osman]

That was a real treat. But thank you very much, listeners, because Genuine sent so many questions. I'm sorry if we couldn't get to yours, but it makes such a difference and it makes people sort of realize how, you know, how loved they are as well. And we like talking to people who are loved and do things for the right reason. Right.

[Marina Hyde]

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much. And we will see you next Tuesday.

[Richard Osman]

See you next Tuesday.

[Marina Hyde]

Your next chapter in healthcare starts at Carrington College's School of Nursing in Portland. Join us for our open house on Tuesday, January 13th from 4 to 7pm you'll tour our campus, see live demos, meet instructors, and learn about our Associate Degree in Nursing program that prepares you to become a registered nurse. Take the first step toward your nursing career. Save your spot now at Carrington. Edu Events. For information on program outcomes, visit carrington.

[Tom Hanks]

Edu Sci.

[Marina Hyde]

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