Tom Hanks agreed with New York Times journalist David Marchese when he stated that the Oscar-winning film "Philadelphia" would not be created today if Hanks played a gay AIDS sufferer.
Tom Hanks, who won an Oscar for his performance as a homosexual man with AIDS in the film "Philadelphia," claimed that a straight actor would not be cast in the same part today, and "rightly so."
In an interview with David Marchese of the New York Times this week, the "Elvis" actor pondered the role. Hanks was questioned about two of his most well-known films, "Philadelphia" from 1993 and "Forrest Gump" from 1994, in which he plays a guy with definable intellectual limitations.
Both films were "timely movies, at the time, that you would not be able to create now," according to Hanks.
After Marchese claimed that neither picture would be done today with Hanks in the same parts, Hanks agreed that a straight actor should not be hired in the character he portrayed nearly 30 years ago in "Philadelphia."
"I was portraying a homosexual man, so that was one of the reasons people weren't terrified of that movie," Hanks explained. "I don't think people would tolerate the inauthenticity of a straight person playing a homosexual guy anymore."
"Philadelphia" was the first major Hollywood film to show the AIDS problem at the time of its release. According to the American Psychological Association, AIDS will become the top cause of mortality for Americans aged 25 to 44 a year after it debuted. Today, more than 1.2 million Americans are infected with HIV, a virus that, if left untreated, can lead to AIDS.
"It's not a crime, it's not a boohoo," he remarked, "that someone would say we're going to expect more of a film in the current arena of realism."
Hanks went on to defend "Forrest Gump," a film he claims was dismissed as a "sappy nostalgia-fest" when it won the Academy Award for Best Picture, citing a "moment of unmistakable tragic humanity" when Lieutenant Dan, a Vietnam War amputee, walks on prosthetic legs.
"I'm getting a little teary just thinking about it," Hanks admitted.
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