Tom Hanks Was Unleashed in One Classic Christmas Movie in Which He Played 6 Different Roles That Many Fans Didn’t Notice
Regarded as America’s cultural icon, actor Tom Hanks is known for both dramatic and comedic characters. He is considered one of the finest actors in the industry who is not only successful and known throughout Hollywood, but also across the world. Audiences have always admired and appreciated the actor for portraying iconic characters; with Forrest Gump obviously topping the list.
The actor has also been a part of a classic Christmas-themed movie; The Polar Express directed by Robert Zemeckis. The movie is based on Chris Van Allsburg’s 1985 children’s book of the same name. The movie, which is set on Christmas Eve, was listed in the 2006 Guinness World Records as the first all-digital capture movie. The movie ended up getting mixed reviews but what’s interesting is Tom Hanks played more than one character in the movie. Let’s find out more.
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Tom Hanks played a total number of six characters in The Polar Express
2004’s The Polar Express is enough to make individuals remind of people that the holiday season is here. The movie featuring Tom Hanks, Nona Gaye, Michael Jeter, Josh Hutcherson, etc., follows a boy who travels to the North Pole to meet Santa Claus.
But what makes the movie interesting is Tom Hanks playing not one or two but a total number of six characters in the movie. He is the voice of the conductor, the voices of Hero Boy, Father, Hobo, Scrooge, and Santa Claus. The Polar Express stands as one of the best Christmas movies of all time. In a conversation with IGN, Hanks shared,
“Bob Zemeckis at one point said, ‘I think you should play every role in this movie because then we could do it. You could play every role!’ But I said, ‘Well, wait a minute. There’s girl in this movie. I’m going to play every elf?’ He said ‘it’ll be great.’”
Hanks continued,
“There’s only so much that I can internally grasp as an actor and on the day of tests we did I played five or six or seven roles in the course of that day and I said, ‘Bob, I’m exhausted here’”.
Hanks added that something is stunning, about Chris Van Allsburg’s painting that drew him towards the story. He described them as an impressionistic version of the story. The movie might not be the most popular Christmas movie but the stunning visuals and tone of the movie do make it one of the likable ones. The unique animation style in the movie has made the audience go back to this classic once every year during the holiday season.
Costumes helped Tom Hanks differentiate between characters in The Polar Express
For an actor playing six characters in a movie is a challenging part but what is more challenging is how to let go of one character when you’re playing another. Tom Hanks noted in IGN interview,
“A lot of it came from the specifics of what costumes they were wearing. We did full-on wardrobe tests and wardrobes were assembled for each one of these characters. We all went through the standard process of costume fittings and choosing the props.”
Hanks continued,
“I had to remember that the Conductor had a hat and had a vest with pockets and the Hobo had all this stuff jammed up inside of him. I would change my shoes depending on which character I would play based on ‘Who am I this time, Bob?’”
The actor mentioned that his body language just kind of came about and his job was to manifest these other people and he just imagined what they are. He came up with a physiological understanding of who they are and he stuck by it.
