“I killed both of them”: Tom Hanks Hates His Work in $183M Movie Is Underappreciated Despite Working With Daniel Craig and Jude Law
Tom Hanks has had a long and successful career in the entertainment industry. With Oscar nominations for consecutively two years and winning them, Hanks is a highly bankable and critically acclaimed celebrity. His most notable works include Big, Toy Story, Saving Private Ryan, Catch Me If You Can, Forrest Gump, and Philadelphia. With his career spanning almost four decades, Hanks has achieved the status of a Hollywood legend.
His iconic works are often referenced in contemporary media, but the Academy Award feels that what he believes to be his best performance, a film which also starred Daniel Craig and Jude Law is slept on by the public.
Tom Hanks’ Most Underappreciated Performance
Tom Hanks is known for his versatility and attention to detail. The actor is known to give blockbusters, making it hard to believe that a performance of his can go largely unnoticed. But in an interview on the ReelBlend Podcast, the Cast Away actor shocked many when he revealed that what is probably his most underappreciated performance is what he considers his best.
The film, titled Road to Perdition, is a dynamic one. With the likes of Hanks, Daniel Craig, and Jude Law in the highly talented cast ensemble, the story follows an assassin who travels with his son to avenge the murders of their family. Set in the 1930s, the era of the Great Depression, it makes for a fascinating watch.
Hanks plays Michael Sullivan Sr., who is seeking revenge for his family’s death. The actor considers his portrayal of Sullivan as one of his finest performances. As he said in the ReelBlend Podcast, the lack of chatter around the film disappoints him:
“For one reason or another, no one references Road to Perdition, and that was an incredibly important movie for me to go through. “It was shot by Conrad Hall, and you have me in it, Don Moustache with a hat on it, but you also have two guys who turned out to be two of the biggest motion picture presences in the history of the industry with Jude Law and [Daniel] Craig. And I killed both of them.”
The film did well on both domestic and global box offices, earning $104.5 million and $181 million, respectively.
Tom Hanks Holds Out Hope for Road to Perdition
Even as the film has not achieved the kind of success with the masses that Hanks desires, he still has hope that the Road to Perdition will eventually be discovered by someone and become the cultural phenomenon he always expected it to be. As he said in the ReelBlend Podcast:
“As a guy who watches Turner Classic Movies a lot, the more obscure and unknown a movie from the 1940s or 1950s the better, because I have no preconceived notions about it; I don’t know anything about it. When you watch those movies and it’s crackerjack and it’s incredibly moving, all I can think of is, ‘I’m so glad this movie lasts forever, so I got a chance to revisit it now.’ That might be the case with Road to Perdition.”
Hanks’s words might be prophetic, as discovering how cool some of the old movies were has become a thing in recent times.
Road to Perdition is available for streaming on Paramount+.
Source: ReelBlend Podcast
