Tom Hanks Says He’s Sometimes Been a Jerk on Movie Sets

The famously nice and ultra-professional Oscar winner admits he cannot always live up to his reputation.

If somebody were to ask you: “Who’s the nicest actor in Hollywood?” There’s a pretty good chance Tom Hanks would come to mind. The two-time Oscar winner has a pretty flawless reputation for being kind, collaborative and professional across his five-decade career.

But in a new BBC interview, Hanks made the surprising admission that even he sometimes indulges in rude behavior.

Hanks was promoting his debut novel, The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece, which is inspired by his own career in Hollywood. The story follows the production of a big-budget superhero movie, and one of the characters is an egotistical actor who disrupts and delays filming.

I have pulled every single one of those moments of behavior myself on a set,” Hanks admits. “Not everybody is at their best every single day on a motion picture set. 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.”

The 66-year-old actor added he does make every effort to be on time, however, calling lateness the “cardinal sin” of working on a set, and at one point in the book refers to actors as “cry babies, psychological trainwrecks, on-the-wagon alcoholics, off-the-wagon addicts.”

It’s a confession that manages to be both unexpected yet also perfectly understandable (and also, perhaps, a relief to every other actor out there that the Cast Away star hasn’t set the bar too impossibly high).