Nearly 30 years after his screenwriting and directorial debut, Tom Hanks appreciates That Thing You Do! (1996) for its cult status.
But the 2x Oscar winner jokingly used some colorful language to describe critics of the film about a 1960s small-town boy band who makes it big with an uptempo pop song that draws the attention of music manager Mr. White (portrayed by Hanks).
“Then the critics weigh in,” said Hanks of his general experience making movies on the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast. “And that’s always up, down: ‘We hate it, we like it. This is the worst thing. … Oh hey, Tom, I saw you in a movie.’ ‘Oh did you?’ ‘It was cute. That’s when you ask the wife, ‘Hey, honey, could you take the revolver out of the glove box and hide it somewhere, because I think…’”
He continued, “But then, this other thing is how it does at the box office. Then, a ton of time goes by when none of that stuff matters anymore, and The movie just exists exactly as it is outside of loser, winner status, thumbs up, thumbs down. And that’s when this stuff comes around, where it’s like this thing that didn’t work back then kind of does work now, or just the opposite, a thing that was huge back then is a museum piece and doesn’t really speak to anything.”
After O’Brien used That Thing You Do! as an example, Hanks quipped, “Let me tell you something about these cocksuckers who write about movies. Can I say that?”
Director Tom Hanks on the set of That Thing You Do! (1996). (20th Century Fox Film Corp./Courtesy Everett Collection)
“Somebody who wrote about it [said], ‘Tom Hanks has to stop hanging around with veterans of TV, because this is just like it’s shot on TV and it’s not much of anything,’” recalled Hanks. “That same person then wrote about the ‘cult classic’ That Thing You Do!. Same exact person, they said, ‘All you need is 20 years between now and then, and it ends up speaking some words.’ But that’s the thing we all signed up for. That’s the carnival, that’s the contest. I got faith in that. That’s okay.”
That Thing You Do! also stars Tom Everett Scott, Liv Tyler, Johnathon Schaech, Steve Zahn, Ethan Embry, Charlize Theron and Giovanni Ribisi, with cameos from Hanks’ wife Rita Wilson and son Colin Hanks.
The film’s title song was nominated for Best Original Song at the Oscars and Golden Globes.