Tom Hanks argued "over and over" with the crew and director of ‘A Hologram for the King’ about whether he could wear a pair of sunglasses in a scene.
The Oscar-winning star revealed movie sets are far from glamorous places and often crew clash over the smallest things after he locked horns with director Tom Tykwer, about whether to don a pair of shades in the movie which is set in Saudi Arabia.
Hanks plays businessman Alan Clay, who is driven around in a taxi in the scorching heat of the desert and thought it was logical that the character would protect his eyes against the sun’s rays, but Tykwer was worried about not being able to see his eyes and the crew insisted the sun’s reflection on the lenses would ruin the shots.
Speaking on UK TV show ‘Lorraine’ on Monday (16.05.16), Hanks shared: "There’s instantaneous glamour about this because you’re making a movie, but the reality is we’re just gonna settle down and be in car for a really long time.
"I will tell you we had arguments over and over again about wearing sunglasses, particularly in the car, because I said ‘Guys, honestly, if I’m in a car for four hours in Saudi Arabia, I think I’m going to wear sunglasses, but Tom would say, ‘Oh, but then we can’t see your eyes so we won’t know what’s going on.’ And I said, ‘Believe me, I’ll communicate what’s going on, don’t worry,’ and then Frank, the cinematographer, said, ‘Oh the reflections, I don’t know what we’ll do!’ "
In the movie – which comes out later this month – Hanks’ Clay is driven around by a wise-cracking taxi driver called Yousef, played by Alexander Black, and the pair are joined by actress Sarita Choudhury, who depicts a beautiful doctor called Zahra.
Tom Skerritt, Michael Baral and Ben Whishaw and also part of the cast.
And Hanks, 59, was delighted with the outcome and revealed they finally came up with a "trick" which allowed him to wear the pesky glasses.
He added: "They spray painted (the lenses) with this mat black paint, that would take away the reflection but then you can’t see out of the sunglasses, so we ended up saying, ‘Guys, I’m wearing sunglasses because I’m hungover, I’m tired, and that’s what people do.’ "But if you notice in the movie, when I’m wearing sunglasses, I also have my head down like this, because as soon as you raise them up you can see the reflection of the light. Did I just give away a movie trick?"
Tom Hanks clashed with A Hologram for the King director over sunglasses
