Tom Hanks inPhiladelphia(1993).Photo: TriStar Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
Tom Hanksis weighing in on the debate over which actors should get the opportunity to portray LGBTQ characters in film and on television.
The 65-year-old won his firstOscarfor Best Actor for 1993’sPhiladelphia, in which he played a gay man battlingHIVwho is discriminated against and fired from his job. Speaking withThe New York Times Magazine, Hanks said today, he would not take the part.
“Let’s address ‘Could a straight man do what I did inPhiladelphianow?’ No, and rightly so,” he said. “The whole point ofPhiladelphiawas don’t be afraid. One of the reasons people weren’t afraid of that movie is that I was playing a gay man. We’re beyond that now, and I don’t think people would accept the inauthenticity of a straight guy playing a gay guy.”
“It’s not a crime, it’s not boohoo that someone would say we are going to demand more of a movie in the modern realm of authenticity,” added theElvisactor. “Do I sound like I’m preaching? I don’t mean to.”
When asked aboutPhiladelphiaand the other film he won an Oscar for, 1994’sForrest Gump, Hanks called them both"timely movies, at the time, that you might not be able to make now."
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Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington inPhiladelphia(1993).TriStar Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
Tom Hanks.Chris Hyde/Getty
Elsewhere in hisNYT Magazineinterview, Hanks explained why he’sno longer active on Twitter.
“I stopped posting because, No. 1, I thought it was an empty exercise. I have enough attention on me,” he said. “But also I’d post something goofy like, ‘Here’s a pair of shoes I saw in the middle of the street,’ and the third comment would be, ‘[Expletive] you, Hanks.’ "
“I don’t know if I want to give that guy the forum,” Hanks added. “If the third comment is ‘[Expletive] you, youObama-loving communist,’ it’s like, I don’t need to do that.”
source: people.com
