Tom Hanks had to make it clear to his agents he was done with weak roles.
Hanks is widely-viewed as one of the most talented and successful actors in the history of film. He rarely makes a movie that isn’t awesome. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
Apparently, his massive success came after he sat his agents down and told them he was done playing “p*ssies.”
Hanks said the following on Bill Simmons’ podcast about pivoting his career to more serious starting in the 1990s, according to BroBible:
I sat down with my crack team of show business experts — and my kids hate it when I use this word, because I don’t mean it in a pejorative fashion, I mean it in a way of level of maturity, and a level of life experience and expectation — I told my agent ‘I don’t want to play p*ssies anymore.’ And by that, I mean guys who whine, guys who says ‘Boo hoo hoo, I need something more in my life. Who am I gonna be? What am I gonna do with my life?’ It’s now time to play adults who go through bitter conflict, and the first movie that came out of that was A League of Their Own.
You can listen to Simmons’ entire podcast below.
Sometimes in life, you have to be blunt if you want to get what you want. If you want to pivot and change, you have to make it crystal clear to those around you what you’re aiming for.
Telling your agents you’re no longer interested in playing “p*ssies anymore” is about as blunt as it gets.
Furthermore, the pivot worked. Looked at some of the movies that Hanks had made in the past 20+ years. He starred in “Saving Private Ryan,” “Catch Me If You Can,” “Bridge Of Spies,” “Captain Phillips,” “Sully” and “Charlie Wilson’s War” and all are incredible movies.
You know what all those films have in common? He’s not playing weak dudes! He’s playing heavy hitters.
In life, it’s often a good idea to bet on yourself. That’s what Hanks did and it paid off in a huge way!