19 - Young Tom Hankses

February 11, 2021·47 min·3 clips

Connor Humphreys says the Forrest Gump accent and mannerisms are essentially eight-year-old him in a grown man's body because Hanks adopted his real voice.

Caught up entirely, almost. A listener turns up around episode seven, which gives the host room to hold back part of the bigger story while still sharing a new development. Seth Rogen comes in first. His audition for the Elijah Wood part in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind becomes another almost in a show built around them. Then the fake-out lands. The host brings up Forrest Gump and Big with enough ceremony that, for a second, Tom Hanks seems possible. He is not, exactly. The episode goes somewhere more sideways and more Dead Eyes, using actors tied to Hanks roles to get at career envy, childhood pressure, and old creative hurt. The mountain never ends. A father says it to the guest, and it makes comparison feel like something even successful people keep climbing. Tom Hanks wants something. Tom Cruise wants something else. The episode leaves that there, without sanding it into a lesson. Then Big comes back. A behind-the-scenes memory gives the host a picture of the kind set experience he wishes he had known. The guest remembers taking out the trash. It was a small movie moment, but that first day stretched through take after take until panic built. Penny was direct. Tom Hanks walks over and makes the day feel smaller, explaining that the director just liked having choices for the edit. That stayed with the guest. The host hears the reassurance he wanted during Band of Brothers. Actors are fragile. The childhood set story makes that fragility feel plain, human, and possible to survive.

As heard by us

A Hanks-adjacent interview that turns showbiz lore into something surprisingly tender.

Dead Eyes starts with a Tom Hanks fixation, but it mostly uses that as a way into something quieter: memory, luck, and the odd luck of being remembered at the right moment.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

For when you want a patient, conversational interview with a little ache and a little wit.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Dead Eyes