Father’s Day with Tom Hanks

**Sam Fragoso** (0:15)
This is Talk Easy, I'm Sam Fragoso.
Welcome to the show.
Today, we return to my conversation with actor Tom Hanks. Tom and I sat down last summer around the release of his debut novel, The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece. The book is a love letter both to movies and the people that make them, a deep dive into the complicated process of creating a film, from scripting to casting to production and beyond. It's a system Hanks is incredibly familiar with and wanted to celebrate after four decades in the industry, with over 80 films and two Oscars to his name. If you're curious to check out his book, it's now available on paperback wherever you do your reading. As you'll hear in our conversation, after all these years, Tom's curiosity has not faded away. In fact, if anything, Hanks, who just turned 68 years old, is more interested than ever in telling a range of stories that reflect how we move through this world. So today, we walk through the makings of Tom Hanks, which begins with his nomadic upbringing in California, his early love of Stanley Kubrick films, his defining work in Philadelphia and Forrest Gump, the transformative process of making the iconic movie Cast Away, and how the writing of the late Nora Ephron stays with him today. Tom Hanks has done a whole lot of interviews, as you can imagine. He's even been on a few different podcasts, but I have to say, if you've ever heard Tom Hanks on a show, I promise you, today's conversation is going to sound a lot different. To his credit, Tom sat down and from moment one, was open and vulnerable and gracious and frankly honest in his assessment of his life and his work. And so I want to thank Tom again for coming on the show and for being such a good sport about it all. And to you listening, whether it's your first time here or you're back for a re-listen, thank you. I hope the summer is treating you well. I hope you enjoy this very special conversation with the one and only Tom Hanks.
Tom Hanks, what a pleasure to have you here. How are you doing?

**Tom Hanks** (2:58)
I'm all right, Sam. It's nice to be chatting with you. We're just kicking off the week-long Let's Not Work until after the 4th of July.

**Sam Fragoso** (3:08)
Am I your last work obligation?

**Tom Hanks** (3:11)
This is not work.

**Sam Fragoso** (3:12)
Oh, okay, good.

**Tom Hanks** (3:13)
This is what we do all the time, you know, down at the office. All we do is lean in each other's doorway and say, hey, I read this goofy thing yesterday. I saw this crazy nutty thing. What do you think of that? Do you have any opinions of it? That's all we do. We don't do any real work at the office.
We just compare opinions and then try to decide if it's going to be pizza Thursday or not.

**Sam Fragoso** (3:35)
You know, it's funny you say that because I have read a funny goofy thing recently and it is your debut novel, The Making of Another Major Motion Picture.

**Tom Hanks** (3:46)
Masterpiece. You got it. Don't forget masterpiece in there.

**Sam Fragoso** (3:49)
Beautiful correction. It's called The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece.

**Tom Hanks** (3:54)
Yes. Key word there.

**Sam Fragoso** (3:56)
And that's what this conversation is going to be, by the way. Just a masterpiece in the making. And I want to start here because as I understand it, you are someone who wakes up every morning with quote, stories in my head and questions that I want to ask.
So as you woke up each day over these pretty turbulent past few years, what were the stories and the questions that you wanted to work through in the novel?

**Tom Hanks** (4:25)
There is nothing more interesting and there is no better way to turn a stranger into an acquaintance than asking them how they do, what they do for a living and why. Even if people hate their jobs, that's hours of conversation there, man.
When I took on this task, I woke up over the last five or six years trying to figure out what the verbiage, what the more common language is going to be that would somehow communicate this odd way of making a living. The stories that I wanted to tell when they were focused on writing the book are not that different from the ones I just wake up with in the generalist. How does anybody get by in this cuckoo world when it's just one damn thing after another? No matter what the theology is or whatever the formula is, they so rarely take into account the basic human condition of wanting to have significance and connection and sincerity and presence. And that's what I did. And I will say that's what I do in preparation to Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso.