Tom Hanks' debut novel lifts lid on movie industry, and his on-set behaviour

By Rebecca JonesArts correspondent, BBC News

ReutersHanks says he has "pulled every single one" of the moments of bad behaviour he describes in his novel

Tom Hanks says he has written his first novel as a "release from the never-ending pressure" of making movies.

The two-time Oscar winner is publishing The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece, inspired by his own screen career.

The long grind of shooting a film, he tells the BBC, means you can "just run out of curiosity for the job".

"Sometimes you just have to have some other reason to spark your imagination," he explains.

Hanks, 66, says he has "always" written "in some form or another". His collection of short stories, Uncommon Type, was published in 2017 and has sold more than 234,000 copies in the UK.

He began writing the 448-page novel the following year. "I wrote in between films, I wrote wherever I was, I wrote on planes, I wrote at home, I wrote on vacation, I wrote in hotel rooms, I wrote on long weekends when I wasn't working," he says.

Critics' verdicts

"It's not fair," he concedes, that his debut novel has been published without going through the usual trial of rejections from publishers, while other first-time writers struggle.

But he is unapologetic and knows the book will ultimately "live and die based on its own ability to entertain and enlighten an audience".

Critics' verdicts of The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece have been lukewarm.

In The Sunday Times, David Sexton described the book as "Hanks mansplains movie-making", and said the "writing is clunky throughout".

The Observer's Tim Adams said it "captures the humdrum of Hollywood but lacks his on-screen ability to breathe life into characters".

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Hanks is unfazed by reviews. He says his "day job as a movie star" means he can "handle" any criticism.

The actor says he has become "stronger when it comes down to really being torn apart".

His novel is about the making of a multi-million dollar superhero action movie, and features a cast of characters including an eccentric director and a self-important and highly obstructive male actor who disrupts and delays filming.

So it's a surprising admission when the affable voice of Woody in Toy Story confesses: "I have pulled every single one of those moments of behaviour myself on a set.

"Not everybody is at their best every single day on a motion picture set," he continues.

"I've had tough days trying to be a professional when my life has been falling apart in more ways than one and the requirement for me that day is to be funny, charming and loving - and it's the last way I feel."

Hanks prides himself on always being on time, though. "What cannot occur on a motion picture is that someone cannot monkey around with the timing or the length of the shoot or the budget. That is a cardinal sin in the motion picture business.

"You will be amazed," he adds, "at how many people know that they can get away with it, and are told they can get away with it, because they are carrying the movie on their shoulders."

Indeed, in the book he refers to actors who are "cry-babies, psychological train wrecks, on-the-wagon alcoholics, off-the-wagon addicts... and more than a couple of feuds between the Talent."

There's mention of sexual harassment too.

Who could he have been inspired by? Needless to say, Hanks just laughs when asked to name names.

With such bad behaviour in his novel, the actor-writer also believes it is unnecessary to airbrush classic books for modern audiences.

Novels by Ian Fleming and Agatha Christie have been updated, and Hanks's own publisher Penguin Random House has altered the work of Roald Dahl and PG Wodehouse as part of an effort to remove potentially offensive language.

"I'm of the opinion that we're all grown-ups here. Let's have faith in our own sensibilities as opposed to having somebody decide what we may or may not be offended by," insists Hanks.

"Let me decide what I am offended by and what I'm not offended by. I would be against reading any book from any era that says 'abridged due to modern sensitivities'."

Fleming's secret agent James Bond gets a mention, and Hanks is unequivocal that Idris Elba should be the next 007.

"Understand this," he says. "James Bond has a licence to kill. I would issue that licence to Idris Elba just based on the work that I've seen him do."

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Aston Villa, the English Premier League football team Hanks supports, also appear in the novel. But he has no plans to buy the club, after the Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney purchased Wrexham in 2020.

"I think Wrexham is a little bit different in the economic scale than Aston Villa," he laughs. "That's a little above my pay grade."

He hasn't seen fellow Villa supporter the Prince of Wales at a game, although he has experienced "the Prince William treatment, which is - don't get stuck in traffic, no matter what the score is.

"When it was time to leave, there was no nonsense getting out."

So what next? Another novel would be "nice", but not for a few years due to a busy filming schedule.

But the desire to write is always there, he says.

"It's just the best way to spend ones time outside of being with those that you love and make you laugh."

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