Tom Hanks’ latest film Finch releases on Apple TV+ on Friday, November 5. While it’s a dark film that takes place on a post-apocalyptic Earth, there are also moments of comedy between Hanks’ titular character, his faithful dog, and the robot he’s built to take care of his canine companion after he passes away.
ComingSoon asked Hanks about bringing a buddy road trip element to the film and Hanks credits his versatility to his first acting job, which was a member of a rotating repertory theater.
“My first job as an actor was in rotating repertory theater, which I think is the greatest job an actor can have because there is such a variety that is demanded of you,” Hanks told ComingSoon. “You don’t really have to make any choices. Years ago, in 1977, in Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival, we did six plays a year and there was a comedy, and there was a history, and a tragedy, and something contemporary, and something made up. So the job of the actor was to live up to the texts, the expectations of what each individual play was.
“When you get into films and television, those are singular decisions that you make. The job is the job. The text is the text and it has never been a circumstance where I’ve thought, “Oh, it’s time to do a comedy,” “Oh, it’s time to get serious,” or “It’s time to do something historical.” It’s always about what does the story examined by way of the theme that it’s talking about? And then how do we get there? That’s just fun.”
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Hanks believes that all of his films blend comedy and serious moments due to that being how life really is.
“I would say if I was going to be bold, and more like for you to comment on it than it would be for me, but I think in every comedy I’ve done, there have been serious moments. And in every serious moment a movie I’ve done, there have been some comedic moments. That’s the way life is. The great pleasure of this is you start all over from square one as soon as you say yes to a movie and nothing you’ve done prior to that matters a bit outside of whatever sort of countenance that you’re carrying along into the movie in the first place.
“The movie is a movie and in [Finch], yeah, it’s bleak in the extreme. And yet, man, there are scenes with that dog and there are scenes with [the robot] Jeff that, what can you say? They’re, they’re kind of pleasant to watch and I think they’re pleasant because it’s like, they’re recognizably human and otherwise you’re just saying playing the same drag beat over and over and over and over and over again.”
