Tom Hanks Once Shared the Attention He Received From Acting Got to His Head
Tom Hanks is known as one of Hollywood’s most prolific actors with a number of successful movies to his name. But much earlier in his career, Hanks confided that his newfound fame had an unwanted influence on his ego.
How Tom Hanks first got into acting
Hanks’ fascination with acting started when the actor was in high school. During his adolescent years, he stumbled onto his passion thanks to a class he took in high school. It was a passion that would follow Hanks all the way to his college years.
“I took a drama class that determined my career. In the course of ten weeks, I saw five completely different types of theater,” Hanks once said in an interview with Playboy. “I felt that the theater was as magical a place as existed, and I wanted to be involved in it. So I majored in theater arts. After I saw a Berkeley Repertory Theater production of The Iceman Cometh, I knew I’d do anything to be a part of it.”
Hanks continued to work in theater in some capacity. He operated behind the scenes building sets before scoring a couple of acting parts on stage. Eventually, he’d move to New York to try acting professionally. But it was a tough road ahead in the beginning.
“It was a war of survival, really. I was a kid who had never been in such a big city before. I was on unemployment and trying to act,” Hanks said. “My wife was an actress as well, and she was pursuing that as best she could. This went on for two years. Finally, I got a job in a low-budget movie, and after that, I got a development deal with ABC and we moved to California.”
Tom Hanks once shared that acting got to his head
Hanks’ career would eventually take off in a major way. His work in films like Splash and Bachelor Party would earn the actor much recognition. Both among the film industry and audiences. However, Hanks revealed the unforeseen side-effect to all of this newfound success when he was younger.
“When you have a hit, you get so much attention paid to you. Splash made eighty million dollars and Bachelor Party made forty million. You think, ‘Oh, I know how to do this.’ But you can’t even begin to know anything after two movies, though you can get arrogant and lazy,” Hanks said.
Hanks asserted that his goal in being an actor wasn’t for power or fortune. He simply enjoyed making a living off of something that he considered fun. But with all the attention that came with fame, Hanks quickly found himself at odds with his own ego. He felt he’d grown out of this mind-state as time went on.
“Oh, I guess you have a period when you think you deserve all the attention you’re getting. You have people surrounding you, telling you that you’re the greatest thing in the world. I honestly don’t think I have an inflated view of myself now. But it happens,” Hanks said.
Tom Hanks didn’t dream of becoming an actor
In his much younger years, an acting career couldn’t have been further from Hanks’ mind. The Oscar-winner admitted that he had little to no ambition back then, and is baffled by young people who do.
“I had no dreams at all growing up. The concept of having huge dreams when you’re young and always having one eye on the prize – that’s something I’ve honestly never understood,” Hanks once said according to Business-Standard.
For Hanks, acting was just a fun way of paying the bills.
“I did not have a single dream growing up, or even a five-year plan. I’m serious. I just wanted to make a little bit of money to get by. A little bit more than nothing,” he added.
