Tom Hanks thinks Clint Eastwood "treats his actors like horses".
The award-winning actor stars in the director’s biographical drama film ‘Sully’, and has opened up about the experience of working with the Hollywood icon, likening his directorial style to wrangling animals.
Tom said: "You certainly don’t want one of those Eastwood looks.
"He treats his actors like horses because when he did the 60s series Rawhide, the director would shout ‘Action!’ and all the horses bolted. So when he’s in charge, he says in a really quiet soft voice, ‘All right, go ahead,’ and instead of shouting ‘Cut!’ he says ‘That’s enough of that.’ It’s intimidating as hell!"
Tom’s on-screen character, Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger, landed an endangered plane in New York City’s Hudson River in 2009, and the actor admitted his presence was strongly felt on set.
He told the ‘Graham Norton Show’: "Sully was very particular about how we portrayed the procedure and the emotions.
"He pulled out this dog-eared, stapled and notated script that he had read. Postits, stapled index cards all over it – I’m sure his wife had even written ‘No’ across it in lipstick! We went through every page and every moment, every beat had been commented on. He had opinions."
Tom previously admitted he felt honoured to star in the film.
The actor got to meet Sully – who suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disordor in the wake of the incident and had to battle to prove the incident was not cause by "pilot error" – prior to filming and heaped praise on the pilot.
He said: "I think heroes are people who voluntarily put themselves in harm’s way. And by that criteria you could say that anybody that puts themselves in an aeroplane for a living and cheats death somehow.
"They stand up in front of 140-odd people who are jammed into those seats and says, ‘I know we will be in the air for three-and-a-half hours but don’t worry we will get you there,’ that is somebody who takes on a responsibility that’s bigger than the average job requirements."
Clint Eastwood ‘treats his actors like horses’
