At Israel's Tel Aviv airport, an American traveler was racking his brains to be interrogated by customs officers, beads of sweat rolling down his face. What did he come to Israel for? How long will you stay here? Does he have any links with Palestinian organizations? How much did he know about then-British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher?
Heavily armed airport police suspected that the passenger in front of them was a terrorist and decided that he could not be easily let go. They detained him for two hours until Mrs. Thatcher, who was on a state visit to Israel, left by plane.
As night fell, the terrified traveler was finally allowed to board a flight to the United States. It looks like Tom Hanks is acting in some blockbuster. Actually, it's not a show, everything happens in reality.
Hanks came to Israel to make the low-budget film Love fire, a romance film written and directed by Moshe Mizrahi. The reason why Hanks took over the film after "The Mermaid" was to change the previous comedy path.
He plays David, a Protestant in Montana, who falls in love with Sarah, a beautiful Jewish woman, in Tel Aviv. However, their relationship is opposed by Sarah's ultra-conservative family.
Filming in a foreign country gave Hanks a chance to breathe fresh air, and he remembers lying in the desert with other actors looking up at the night sky. "I saw the stars so close to me," he said, "it was the first time I could see the 12 signs with the naked eye, Cancer on this side and Leo on the other." You can see them clearly. So beautiful, so imaginative. ”
The film was shot at a number of historical places in Israel, but Hanks is no ordinary tourist. "A place like Jerusalem is not suitable for a sloppy view. It's a city that keeps you slowing down. "In Tel Aviv, I wanted to see how people laid out their houses and how they looked at politics." There weren't many camels there that I expected to see, so I gave up on the idea of replacing taxis with camels. You don't need much religious knowledge to understand Israel's importance in the world. This is where all Westerners seek their roots, and its history has turned into countless great stories. As an American, I envy that Jews have such a rich heritage. ”
Unfortunately, it wasn't a happy trip. While filming on location in Tel Aviv, the father and stepmother unexpectedly appeared on the scene as tourists, and they spent the whole day watching Hanks film. The next day, Hanks wanted to accompany them on a sightseeing trip, but was confronted by a thief. Frances's handbag, along with Hanks's jacket, was missing, and his traveler's cheque and credit card were in his pocket. It was the absence of these two things that took place when he was preparing to return to the United States after the film was turned off that the scene of being detained by customs at the airport occurred.
More unfortunately, although it was shot by a large company like Samsung in Colombia, "War and Love" suffered a box office failure after its release, forcing the distributor to temporarily cancel the plan to show in many theaters. Still, Hanks said the film "was probably the most beautiful film I've ever made, and I took the role almost without hesitation."
While his personal life was still bumpy, Hanks also encountered a crossroads in his career. With the unexpected success of "The Mermaid", he may not be a household name, but he is undoubtedly already a star with market potential.
Unable to refuse a lot of money, he acted in a series of films that were quickly forgotten. These films, apart from adding some length to his resume, did little to his newly established status as a rising star in Hollywood, but instead ran the risk of draining his talents.
Back in late 1983, when "The Mermaid" went into post-production and no one realized it was going to be a blockbuster, Hanks signed crazy tonight night. The comedy tells the story of a young school bus driver on the eve of his wedding, and its directors and screenwriters Neil Esre and Pat Proft are behind the blockbuster film "Police Academy." 20th Century Fox was already working on the film before Hanks entered the cast, but a few days later the director discovered that Paul Resey and Kelly McGillis were not suitable candidates for the lead actors and actresses, especially Paul Reiser, who later became stars with the TV series Mad About You. "He's very good at being funny," Esreal commented, "but he lacks the overall quality we want." ”
With the permission of the company, the crew decided to change the tide, first replacing McGillis with Toni Keitan, and then began to look for a new actor candidate. It so happened that Wendy Joe Speber, the film's casting director's assistant, was one of the cast members of The Red Makeup Kid, and she strongly recommended Hanks to replace Paul Resey as school bus driver Rick Gasco.
"It's a movie that's irrational but needs a sane person at its core, and that person is more cokeable than anyone around." Screenwriter Proft said, "That's exactly what Tom can bring us." Plus, he's the kind of guy you'll like as soon as you meet him. ”
Proft thought that replacing Hanks was a wise decision for the film. "He's well prepared and usually doesn't need to think about a night to decide how the character should do. We designed a stupid party and asked him to dance, so he jumped on a piano and imitated swimming and a pony. We noticed from the monitor that the camera lens was shaking, and it turned out that the photographer had been teased by him to lean forward and backward. ”
Crazy Tonight Night was released in June 1984, three months after The Mermaid. It became one of the highest-grossing films that summer, grossing $49 million worldwide. Hanks' performance in the film certainly didn't catch the attention of the Oscar judges, but it was applauded by critics. Variety believes that "the reason the audience chose to watch this movie was because of Hanks's performance... He's overworked and ready to make you laugh all the time." Janit Maslin, a film critic at The New York Times, said, "Mr. Hanks is as smart as Bill Murray, and even if he doesn't do anything, he's the center of attention on the screen." ”
Hanks told Rolling Stone magazine about his motivation for deciding to star in the film, saying, "Acting in Crazy Tonight Night is very different from playing Richard III or Henry V, but the joy of an actor is to be able to perform what others write as accurately as possible." In fact, sometimes the harder thing is to make something as simple as walking through a hall or talking to someone fun. That's what I learned from making blockbusters. Playing Shakespeare's play and acting in Crazy Tonight Night are certainly not the same thing, but the process is the same. Although it is a luxury to act in Shakespeare's plays, to act in classic stage plays, I am an actor and actors have to perform. I wonder what else I can do – do you want me to sit at home? ”
Compared to Shakespeare's plays, "Crazy Tonight Night" can only be regarded as a cheap comedy, but it has no lack of importance to Hanks's acting career, at least it proves that the box office appeal he showed in "The Mermaid" is no accident.
After "Crazy Tonight Night" was shut down, Hanks rushed to Washington to participate in the filming of "The Man in a Red Shoe.". The film is based on the European-winning French film "The Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe," in which Hanks plays a violinist who accidentally gets involved in a CIA covert operation. The heroine is played by Lori Singh, who also has a bed scene with Hanks. Unfortunately, the film could not even be screened on screens outside the United States, and was made directly into videotapes for distribution worldwide. In an interview with Premiere magazine, Hanks unabashedly called the film "garbage", the worst film he has ever made in his film career.
However, in preparing for the role, Hanks put a lot of effort into it. He spent months learning to play the violin, and although the actual performance was done in part by a professional violinist, he sought to make himself feel like a real musician on screen. He also put a lot of effort into the appearance of the characters, such as a messy hair, and most of the time wore night gowns.
On the contrary, when he toured the film, he paid little attention to his own image. "I'm used to not trimming," he says, "and I'm probably the worst person in the dressing room, and I hate changing outfits every day." ”
Another film Hanks starred in in 1985 was "Rare lovers" shot in Mexico. The 1962 comedy is his second collaboration with John Candy after The Mermaid. He plays Lawrence Bernie III, a gambling-hungry Yale graduate who volunteered to travel to Thailand as a peace organization volunteer in order to escape gambling debts. There, as a member of the U.S. government's goodwill ambassadors, he was surrounded by a group of idealists determined to try to make the locals live like Americans. In a small local village, Hanks plays a self-centered character who works with team member Beth Wexler to try to help farmers escape the exploitation and oppression of landlords. Eventually, his sense of human responsibility is awakened, and he also finds himself deeply in love with Beth.
For Hanks, the film gives him the opportunity to engage in a more complex role, both as a self-righteous, cynical aristocrat and as a hero with a heavy responsibility. Hanks admits that his role in "Rare Lovers" was "the first time I've changed my instincts." In order to play the playboy, he studied under the famous Hollywood line coach Bob Easton and asked the other party to record all the dialogue and listen to it over and over again while driving. In addition, he asked the film's costume designer to make a special oversized coat for him, so that his character could gain a sense of joy in addition to seriousness.
The film's director, Nicholas Meyer, said working with Hanks was like driving a Maserati sports car, "You move it and the whole powertrain roars." "He was always very professional. You can't perfunctory him, and he will accomplish anything you give him. ”
Released in August 1985, just a week after the premiere of "The Man in a Red Shoe," It did much better at the box office, recovering $20.2 million in the United States alone. Film critics were the first to equate Hanks with former star Gary Grant, and Newsweek's David Anson wrote in an article: "Hanks' performance gives the film a spirit of sarcasm. He has both Bill Murray's outward humor and Gary Grant's inner elegance. Most of the time, he's acting with his brain, which is a rarity for a comedian. ”
On the filming scene of "Rare Lover", Hanks is very enthusiastic about anyone, especially Rita Wilson, who plays the heroine Beth. In fact, this is his second collaboration with Rita, who as early as 1981 made a cameo appearance in "The Red Makeup Kid", playing Scolari's girlfriend, but there were not many opportunities to share the stage with Hanks. During the filming of "Rare Lovers" in Mexico, Hanks discovered that Rita was "surprisingly calm, without the bad habits of other actresses who love vanity", and the two got closer. However, their relationship was always platonic because Rita had a boyfriend in Los Angeles, and Hanks had not yet broken off his engagement with Susan at the time.
When the divorce lawsuit with Susan was in a state of stalemate, Hanks made filming his only way to arrange, and several blockbuster films, including "The Mermaid", also made the studios pay attention to him, so in 1986, Hanks performed 3 films in succession, in addition to "War and Love", his resume added "Money Pit" and "Opponent" two more films.
Starring in Money Pit further deepened his bond with Gary Grant, as it was remade from The 1948 comedy Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House, in which Grant co-starred with Milner Lowe. Hanks and actress Shelly Long, who became popular on the TV series Cheers, play a couple who move from New York to the countryside and soon discover that their spacious new house needs a lot of money and time to repair. Faced with all kinds of disasters caused by house repairs, their marriage almost broke down.
"Money Pit" is a long-cherished film by Steven Spielberg and his Amber Film Company. Spielberg was so fond of the hilarity that he persuaded Universal Toluck to fund a comedy blockbuster for the Christmas 1985 show, but for various reasons the film was not finally released until 1986. The film was directed by Richard Benjamin, who became famous for My Favorite Year, and producers Frank Marshall and Catherine Kennedy were Spielberg's original cast during the filming of the ET Aliens and Indiana Jones series.
This is Hanks' first collaboration with Spielberg. He also set the first milestone of his career when he was paid $1 million for the film. In just 6 years in the film industry, Hanks was able to join the ranks of million-dollar stars, which is somewhat a miracle, but Hollywood thinks it is worth the money, because they find that no matter what role Hanks plays, he has the ability to win the audience's heartfelt response, which is extremely rare among young actors.
Hanks, however, paid the price for his expensive film remuneration. The character in Money Pit requires him to perform many difficult moves, and one scene even requires him to be covered in plaster and fly over a construction site in a homemade flying machine. To make matters worse, such scenes need to be filmed repeatedly until the director is satisfied. Although often scared out of a cold sweat, Hanks felt that this kind of filming satisfied the adventurous complex he had since childhood. "I like this way," he said, "that in most professions, you don't find the opportunity to try dangers." I love being the only person on set to face danger. ”
"Money Pit" cost 10 million, belonged to the big production films of the time, and although it earned $37.5 million at the box office from the United States, Hanks's performance was so drowned in a continuous stream of visual jokes that it was difficult for people to remember that he had acted in such a movie.
Hanks once confessed to the Los Angeles Times, "I've acted in too many movies. When "The Mermaid" came out, I began to receive a steady stream of film offers. I really didn't know how to say no, so I didn't miss any chance. Looking back, I see that this was a mistake because I spent too much energy on some worthless movies. I don't regret making those choices, because I actually have no choice, as if all I've got is some stupid and mediocre role. ”