Michael Weatherly Was Once Mistaken for a Waiter When Partying With Tom Hanks
NCIS garnered Michael Weatherly a lot of fans. But there were some corners of the world where the actor was able to enjoy some level of anonymity. When hanging out with movie star Tom Hanks, he was briefly reminded what it was like to not be famous.
Michael Weatherly once shared what it was like hanging out with Tom Hanks
Hanks already played a huge role in Weatherly’s life before the two met each other. The Toy Story star was partially responsible for Weatherly becoming an actor. In a 2008 interview with TV Guide, Weatherly rattled off a few names that inspired him in his adolescent years.
“When I was 14, Ray Daviesof the Kinks was my No. 1 inspiration because I loved his wry look at everything. Then when I was about 19, I went through an Woody Allen Elvis Costello thing, which was really just neurotic men with glasses because I wore thick black glasses,” he said.
He also cited Cary Grant as another close inspiration of his. But perhaps no other performer had an impact on him like Hanks did.
“I saw every Tom Hanks movie on opening day — which is how I came to Joe Versus the Volcano. That was the catalyst [to become an actor]. My girlfriend Betsy thought I was a lunatic to move to New York. And clearly Betsy was on the money,” Weatherly said.
Decades later, after Weatherly established his own acting career, the NCIS star got a chance to hang out with Hanks through a mutual acquaintance.
“I’ve met Fergie,” Weatherly said to Virgin Media. “I was dating someone who was friends with her. We ended up going to Tom Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson’s, hotel room for a party, but no one knew who I was. Everyone was well known except me. I ended up getting the drinks – they thought I was a waiter.”
Michael Weatherly once named the most famous person on his phone
Being a star himself, Weatherly has interacted with some big names over the course of his career. He’s worked closely with well-known stars such as Mark Harmon and Jessica Alba. But he’s even collaborated with some of cinema’s most popular filmmakers. James Cameron was the one who initially hired Weatherly for the sci-fi series Dark Angel.
He was also acquainted with Steven Spielberg, who served as a producer on the show Bull during the show’s three seasons. Spielberg was also a major reason why Weatherly starred in the CBS series in the first place.
“I was planning to take some time off after NCIS, I was planning to travel with my wife and family but the phone-call came that there was this show and it has this great creative team behind it… And then you have Steven Spielberg who is one of the great storytellers of our time so for him to put his name on our show meant we had better live up to that,” Spielberg once told Hey U Guys.
Still, Weatherly quipped there was one name he had in his phone book that might’ve been more famous than all of them.
“If you went to all the corners of the world, Robert Wagner might be the most famous person as Hart To Hart has a wide reach. Not everyone knows James Cameron or Steven Spielberg. I don’t have Jessica Alba’s phone number any more,” Weatherly said.
How Michael Weatherly felt being noticed all the way in Serbia
Weatherly may not have been noticed while hanging out with Hanks, but there were other parts of the world where he was recognized. The actor once described a strange fan encounter he had in another country, where a fan gave him a backhanded compliment.
“Belgrade, in Serbia. I was recognized by a boy who was about 15,” Weatherly remembered. “He came up behind me and said: ‘You are Michael Weatherly.’ It sounded like he was with the secret service. He then told me: ‘My sister thought it was you, but I thought – no, it can’t be. You are too old and fat.’ Season 1 of NCIS had just come on in Serbia. It was 13 years old.”
