Speak about taking a chance. Tom Hanks literally paid for an iconic scene in Forrest Gump out of his own pocket—after Paramount almost axed them for budget reasons. Yeah, that legendary run across America? Hanks funded it himself.
During a sit-down on In Depth with Graham Bensinger, Hanks spilled the tea on how he and director Robert Zemeckis needed to cough up the money to maintain the long-lasting scenes alive. “And [Zemeckis] said ‘Well, this run goes to cost X amount of dollars,’” Hanks said. “And I said ‘okay.’” As a substitute of letting the scene get cut, they worked out a deal: they’d front the associated fee and get a much bigger cut of the movie’s profits. Paramount agreed, and the duo hit the jackpot.
Forrest Gump grossed $678 million worldwide (per Box Office Mojo) and Hanks made around $65 million in profit off that move—WAY greater than the movie’s original $55 million budget. Oh, and did we mention he snagged an Oscar for Best Actor in the method?
But here’s the kicker—Hanks almost didn’t nail the role. He admitted that the primary days on set were tough as hell. “Look, I do know what you are attempting to do. I understand how nervous you might be and the way self-conscious this might be before we get into the groove,” Zemeckis told him. “But we’re not going to make use of any of those first three days because I don’t think you’ve got it.” Ouch, right? But Hanks took that feedback to heart, and the whole lot clicked after that.
And let’s be honest: the movie wouldn’t be the identical without that run. It became the scene cemented into popular culture, with “Run, Forrest, run!” being a line practically everyone’s said in some unspecified time in the future. Hanks didn’t just make a movie; he created a moment.
The Here star and his brother Jim did many of the filming for that cross-country run. Hanks would shoot for 27 days straight, tackling locations everywhere in the States. But before they began, a studio exec desired to cut the scene. “Some studio executive at all times comes up and says, ‘it’s not going to work; you may’t do it; why are we shooting that?’” Hanks recalled. “They usually said ‘you’re going to must cut that.’”
Tom Hanks Thought He’d Be Fired From Forrest Gump
Naturally, Hanks thought he was about to get the axe. “I believed, ‘I’m so fired now.’” But when Zemeckis showed up at his door, it wasn’t the bad news Hanks expected. “Tom, I cannot, I cannot, I cannot make a movie without the star of the movie as my soulmate. So that you and I even have to be joined on the hip throughout all of this.” That’s director-speak for “we’re on this together.”
Fast forward to today, and Tom Hanks is Hollywood royalty, with movies which have raked in almost $10 billion worldwide. Nevertheless it all began with a dangerous bet on a movie called Forrest Gump. Forrest Gump wasn’t just a large hit—it was an enormous win for Hanks and Zemeckis, who risked all of it for that one iconic moment. And now, 30 years later, it’s protected to say they’re laughing all of the option to the bank.
What Next For Tom Hanks?
Hanks recently appeared in Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme. He can also be set to reprise his role as Sheriff Woody in Toy Story 5, which is scheduled to be released in 2026.
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