Tom Hanks recently shared an inside scoop on working with legendary director Steven Spielberg. The actor revealed the warning he gave actors stepping onto Spielberg’s sets. Hanks has collaborated with Spielberg on five films, including Saving Private Ryan, Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal, Bridge of Spies, and The Post, and co-produced major projects like Band of Brothers and The Pacific.
What Is Tom Hanks’ Warning About Steven Spielberg?
During an appearance on the Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend podcast, Hanks explained how he prepped fellow actors on The Post and Bridge of Spies about the unexpected flow of Spielberg’s work process. He said, “The last couple of gigs that I’ve had, I said, when everybody is in town— we did this on Bridge of Spies… oh we did The Post together, did the same thing with The Post— get everybody together, and we’ll read through some of the scenes. And I’ll just explain, say, ‘Listen, everybody, there are some days that we will come to work, and we will have all of this stuff memorized, we’ll be hot, we will have read through it, we’ll be prepared, and we will get to the stage and Steven will have done all that work for us.
We don’t have to do anything except inhabit the space. Because Steven is telling the story from the cinematic perspective, where the camera is and what he’s doing [with it], it’s not even going to matter,” Tom Hanks shared.
He continued, “But then there’ll be other times, my friends, when we will show up, and we’ll know it all, and we need to know it because we have to get there.’ When we shot the stuff on the Glienicke Bridge on Bridge of Spies— which was the real place where the spies were exchanged, crazy— we were freezing to death, it was very, very cold, and Steven came up to say, ‘Hey, I hope you guys know all your lines because I haven’t the slightest idea how we’re going to shoot this.’”
Tom Hanks Says Steven Spielberg Is A “Malleable Guy”
“And I just turned to all the guys and said, ‘What did I tell you!’ And then he’s the most malleable guy. ‘Well, what if we stand here, Steven? What if we come out here? What if he comes out there?’ ‘Great, great, great, great! Oh, that’s a great idea, because then I can…’ And then he’s very excited about all that kind of stuff,” Tom Hanks added.
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What Does Tom Hanks’ Warning Mean For Actors?
Tom Hanks’ insights reveal how an on-set experience with Spielberg is both dynamic and collaborative. The director often arrives with a specific vision, like in Jaws, where he impressively planned iconic shots such as the tension-building dolly zoom. However, Jaws also proved Spielberg’s adaptability when the mechanical shark malfunctioned. He shifted gears and relied on John Williams’ suspenseful score.
On other projects, Steven Spielberg also takes an almost improvisational approach, letting actors mold scenes to fit the story’s emotional depth.
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