Everyone loves Tom Hanks. He’s the Hollywood everyman that is insatiably witty, attractive but not intimidating, and always seems to have a warm glow. But it turns out that even Tom Hanks has a dark side, which appeared when filming “Sleepless In Seattle.”
Tom Hanks was the one that made this stunning revelation, recently confessing that he was “extremely cranky” when he shot the 1992 comedy, especially because Ross Malinger, the actor playing his 8-year-old son Jonah Baldwin, apparently had all the best lines.
“I was an extremely cranky actor at that time. Coming and saying, ‘Why does the kid have so many good lines?’ I had made enough movies to get smoked on a couple of occasions as well as thinking that I was a big shot and ‘My voice must be heard’,” Hanks recalled for Erin Carlson’s book, “I’ll Have What She’s Having: How Nora Ephron’s Three Iconic Films Saved The Romantic Comedy,” via the NY Daily News.
There was another problem, while Ross Malinger would eventually go on to play Jonah in “Sleepless In Seattle,” Nathan Watt was originally cast in the film. However, after the first weekend of production it became clear that Hanks and Watt weren’t gelling.
Producer Gary Foster recalled, “Tom is being driven crazy and this boy keeps repeating dialog off-camera when Tom’s trying to film a scene and he’s not adding to the film right now.” Things didn’t improve, and Watt was fired.
Even though it was clearly an ugly episode, the fact that “Sleepless In Seattle” went on to gross $227.8 million at the box office and is still regarded as one of the greatest rom-coms of all time proves it was probably the right call.
