Tom Hanks Returns

24:51I don't walk away from that gig. But I guess after a while it devours you and you got to go along. Or did you get fired, Conan?

25:02Leno came and took my writing job at SNL. Did you get this? Oh, here's a note from Lauren. Let me open it up. Conan, thank you for all your service. We're not going to...

25:25No, I burnt out. I burnt out. And Lauren could not have been nicer. I said, I've got to go. And that's when I went to the Simpsons. I just have to, I wish I could go back in time. People always say no regrets. I regret. Nothing but. Nothing but. I regret being so intense about that job. Yeah, you guys were. I was way too intense. and I think I robbed myself of some fun that I could have had. I did have a lot of fun, but I think I could have had more fun. And I think I could have maybe written there a little longer if I didn't make it such a grind for myself. Well, people have asked me, what is it about?

26:03And I think the creative atmosphere of that is the writer is on the floor producing the piece. And that's not standard stuff. No, no. A guy who wrote it with great passion is over there in between sweating bullets and vomiting out of anxiety. He's telling Sting how to do a comedy bit, you know, or, you know, say, could you make, you know, but that's, I think that's a great power of it. You get to produce the thing that you wrote then and there. The thing that Lauren does that's brilliant, that I didn't exist anywhere else. I had only worked about three years in television before that, but no one had let me near anything.

26:40You get to SNL, you write a sketch and Steve Martin's going to be in it. And Lauren says, well, go in and tell Steve how it should be done and what you're thinking. And then go and talk to the props people about how the restaurant should look. And I thought, I'm 26. I've never been to a restaurant.

27:02I don't know. And I remember Lauren once saying to me, like, what restaurant are we in here? You bought fast food that is sort of actually sitting down. You did a sketch that a couple of us did called Mr. Short Term Memory. Oh, God. Yeah. And so we wrote the sketch, Mr. Short Term Memory, and Lauren called me in and he said, what restaurant are we in? And I said, what do you mean? And he said, are we in Orso? Are we at Elaine's? And I didn't, those are just, I don't know what those are. And I said, the worst thing you could say to Lauren, I said, it's a restaurant like in a Carol Burnett sketch.

27:36Immediately nine assistants took me out of the room. Wow. Lauren was immediately anesthetized. Not that she isn't a legend. I just thought like, oh, restaurant, like big menu, snooty waiter. By the way, you do have to learn how to survive physically when you do the show. And the last time I did it, I told everybody who was in charge of me, particularly our wardrobe and stage manager people, I said, I want you to understand that my goal on this week's hosting duties is to take as few steps as possible. so I am going to, I am going to come here and you will, I will get dressed. And where can we get dressed next time?

28:23Cause I don't have to walk all the way back here. I'm going to take as few. I've noticed that you were, you were sitting in most of your sketches. I've got to do that as much as possible because look, you know, it's a young man's game and there was a time, there was a time that you just, you know, It's just balls to the walls and you just fill up every minute with activity. No, no, no. Take it easy, Tom. Just before we started the podcast, we were chatting and you were talking about how both of us having highs and lows in our career. And I was thinking, I know what you're talking about, Tom, but no one thinks that about you.

29:01I think you have the career. Let me just, I printed up my IMDb. Okay. Now you notice I'm almost to a hundred films here. Right. Yeah. I'm getting I'm getting up there, but I'm going to really crinkly paper. I'm going to say, well, you know, come out of the printer. I'm going to say, see it out. All these. I'm going to say six of these are pretty damn good. The rest of them are checkered. It's all a checkered career. Well, that's no one here is buying it. Nobody's thinking about the time when you were down and out because I don't think it exists. I don't think that's ever existed. OK. First of all, everybody wakes up at three o 'clock in the morning.

29:40sometimes splashes cold water on their face and asks this question of the zeitgeist, what is happening to me? Why can't I rest? Why am I tormented and haunted? Yet again. That's your mattress, I think. Okay, look, without a doubt, I really dig my job, and I go into everything with an insane amount of enthusiasm and faith in the collaborative process. And it is the, I don't want to go overuse sports analogy, but it really is the baseball analogy. Ted Williams hit 400 for one season of his baseball career. And that's about the best you can do. If you're somewhere between 282 and, you know, three something that they will, they will put you in the hall of fame.

30:35And the thing that there is nobody, nobody starts a movie and says one of these two things. This ain't gonna work. No one says that on the third day of shooting. We have made a terrible mistake. None of this is actually things. All these peoples that are getting paid are liars. They are in... No one says this. Nor does anybody say on the third day of shooting, we're in Clover, boys. Well, that's because it's not 19. 40. This thing's aces, fellas. Hold on. Hold on to your quarters, Jasper.

31:20No, no one says this. I was OK. Roger Spottiswood, who is about as as facile a filmmaker as I was. We were shooting Turner and Hooch. And this was back when I really put, you know, an import on the reports. You know, you wanted like, how's it going? Great. Oh, we saw this and it was great and that was great and everything's great. How about that scene and how that was it? And Roger Spotswood came back from looking at dailies one day at lunch. And I said, Roger is English. And I said, hey, how were the dailies? And he said, they were not half bad.

32:01and that's all you can shoot for. How was it? Well, I don't know. You know, maybe I hope it'll cut. That's all you can hope for. And so at the end of the day, the thing that is now an advantage of is, I talk about this sometimes with people who are as old as I am. We got into this. Let me tell you a story about technology. Speaking of one-inch VH cassettes, In between the two years of the bosom buds, the VHS machine was invented. The first season was in 1980. And in 1981, you could go to Mad Bad Munces or something and for$4 ,000 buy a video cassette machine. Right. And that altered absolutely everything.

32:53So as of episode, you know, 22 of Kip and Henry's adventures in Bosom Buddies, everything has since been rentable and it sits there forever. So I have had count. And now, of course, you can watch them any damn time you want to. I can't tell you how often I've been somewhere and someone will come up to me and say, excuse me, Mr. Hanks. Yeah. Oh, hi. How are you? I just want to say your films have always been a great salvage for me. I've really enjoyed many, many times I've turned to you and I was home at one point and came across and saw a film that you made in 1993 that really, really spoke to me.

33:40You played a Air Force pilot in World War Two in Israel. And I had never heard of the film before. I didn't know existed, but I really, really, really enjoyed it. And I said, oh, that movie was called Every Time We Say Goodbye. It was directed by Moshe Mizrazi, and I made it for about eight weeks in Jerusalem, long before the Intifada began. Very good, sir. And I also enjoyed Toy Story very, very much. So all of, you know, all of this stuff lives. All of this stuff lives. And now what happened is that time has become one of the metrics for how these things matter, right? In the day, I mean, it was just a fist fight.

34:22It was every movie that came out, are you going to make the playoffs or not? And guess what? No, kid, you're 2 and 12 and you ain't going nowhere. Or you got a shot. It used to be you had these Rubicons that you crossed when you came down. First of all, do you love it or not? That's the first thing. Hey, I read this thing. I love it. I can't get it in my head. Yes. Okay. You have crossed the Rubicon, right? The next Rubicon you cross is when the movie is completely done a year and a half later and you see it for the first time. And you might like it or it might, it doesn't matter if it works or not.

34:57You look at it and say, hey, I think we acquitted ourselves pretty good. That's Rubicon number two. Then the critics weigh in, Rubicon number three, and that's always up, down. We hate it. We like it. This is the worst thing. Oh, hey. Oh, hi, Tom. I saw you in a movie. Oh, did you? Yeah. It was it was cute. Yeah. That's when you ask the wife, hey, honey, could you take the revolver out of the glove box and hide it somewhere? Because I think this is saving private. And so then but then this other thing is how it does at the B.O., how it does at the box office. with a bonafide. Then a ton of time goes by when none of that stuff matters anymore.

35:42And the movie just exists exactly as it is outside of loser winner status. Thumbs up, thumbs up, thumbs down. And that's when this stuff comes around. It's like that this thing that didn't work back then kind of does work now or just the opposite. The thing that was huge back then is a museum piece and doesn't really speak to anything. That thing you do. Oh, yeah. You were disappointed when it came out and it has this whole other life now. It is. It is this cult classic. But that's an example of. Let me tell you something about these cocksuckers who write about movies. Can I say that? Yeah. Okay, it's a podcast.

36:20My father writes about movies. And his name is cocksucker.

36:28Somebody, somebody, somebody who, somebody who wrote about it is, is that this is just, Tom Hanks has to stop hanging around with veterans of TV because this is just like a shot on TV and it's not much of anything. That same person then wrote about the cult classic, that thing you do. Same exact person. It's all you need is 20 years between now and then, and it ends up speaking some words. But that's the thing we all signed up for. That's the carnival. That's the contest. I got faith in that. You had a moment on Forrest Gump. And of course, you're working with Robert Zemeckis. You're working with him on Forrest Gump.

37:09You're sitting there on the bench and you just thought, is anyone going to watch? That's exactly right. What did you say? Is anyone going to watch this? Is anyone going to care about this guy? We had worked so hard, so much, and we were only about 40 % through with the movie. We still had a ton of stuff that we had to do. We had shot 27 straight days in a row, which included helicopter rides to, like, places in America where Forrest runs across the country, you know, with a beard, without a beard. You know, we've been all over the place. And I'm exhausted. I'm fried. And we've got, like, 36 hours to shoot this stuff in Cherokee Square in Savannah.

37:48You know, I'm there dressed. We have a ton of kind of actors that are coming because they're going to sit next to me on on the bus bench. And we are trying to shoot so much that I said, Bob, there is no way my sad little brain can learn this much dialogue because I've got a page and a page and a page and a page and a page. And that's just up to lunch. I, you know, if you think I'm going to be word perfect on this, you're out of your mind. And don't worry about it, Tom. We'll just put it on cards like it's I Love Lucy. and you know we'll slide the cameras around so it's that you don't want to have to get

38:27Robert Zemeckis is a ventriloquist dummy we've worked together a lot so I actually know I know what that means now I know what it means and so we were doing it in all honesty you know you do it twice and then you get it down so it goes pretty fast and we were we were midway through like a day we shot all that stuff in a day all the stuff on the thing where we're a little you on the park bench iconic yeah we shot we shot it in a day and at one point you know i'm just you know i'm trying to read it i said guys can you make the print a little bit better just for these first couple of takes but then i'll get it down don't worry about it the other actors are coming in you want to run this go like that and at one point you know bob is sitting there next to me and i said i don't know bob and you know anybody gonna care about this guy dressed up in like a this kooky ice cream suit sitting on this bench.

39:16Saying stuff, you know. Is it going to cut together? Is it going to matter? Is it going to make any sense? And Bob goes, well, that's the thing about making movies, Tom. It's a minefield. It's just a fucking minefield. We don't know if we're sowing the seeds of our own destruction or not. Oh, my God.

39:41And that, you know, that is the truth of every single moment that you're standing in front of. Look, I made this movie that was altered, you know, and I always say in years to come, we'll be talking about a movie called Cloud Atlas. I made it with the Wachowskis. And that was one of the most vibrant, loving, hardworking, magnificent thing. And when it came out, it was just like, oh, oh, hey, nice movie. Meanwhile, the Incredibles are, you know, you're all, we got lost in the horse race. So all you can do is show up and go there. Everybody says, how'd you do that scene? Oh, I'll show you. I showed up that day and we all went there.

40:21Is there any trick to it? Yeah, here's the trick. Go there. And if that means you got to put yourself through some sort of psychological hell in order to get there, go there. Now, you might know this. You show up to work and you're going to do a convivial, happy, hilarious scene, right? Everything works great. And you know what happened the day before that? Your dog got hit by it. You know, every tragedy has happened to you eight hours prior to show up and just be, is it fun to be in love and shoot a montage where we're licking ice cream and we're holding hands and we're skipping stones and playing a beach ball.

41:05And then we're dancing in a gazebo. Oh, and it's on one of the worst days of your frigging life. Yeah, yeah. Right? And then other days where you've got to go and you have to, like, go to a place that's incredibly dark and stormy and crazy. And all you did last night was laugh like crazy at the karaoke bar with the rest of the guys in the crew. I said, guys, it's 2 o 'clock in the morning. I'd love to sing another Elvis song, but I have to weep and cry at 8 o 'clock in the morning. So I think I'm going to go return. All you can do is go there no matter what. Because guess what? You don't know where you're stepping.

41:40It's a minefield, Conan. It's a fucking minefield. Just think about it. You worked with all these directors, Spielberg. More than once. More than once. Yeah. But you've worked with all these iconic directors and Ron Howard and Zemeckis. And I mean, the list goes on and on and on. And Nora Ephron. Nora, yeah. Worked with her three times. You've gotten to a point where, is it possible for you, Tom Hanks, to be intimidated by a director on the setter but is that going to happen now the the first three days are three days of terror because it's a combination of everybody else who was there um uh and also just on the third day you realize no matter what the movie is you realize i should have said no there just should have been something wrong with a d i don't know because here we are here we are uh the intimidate i will look i've done this long enough so i i now am aware that i intimidate other people you know because you know because you show up and then somebody said okay okay i'm ready i'll tell you this story okay here's a show business story we are shooting perhaps the most scary intense truly scary intense real life scene in captain Phillips.

42:56We are, honestly, we're overweight, old, middle-aged guys who are going to be taken over by these pirates. And we have never met the guys who play the pirates. We don't know who they are. All we know is that they are coming because the way Paul Greengrass shot that, he had cameras on us and cameras on the four guys, Barkov and Abdul and Big B, Little B, all the guys. and we have never met them. And they are firing automatic blanks, you know, machine guns. We hear all this stuff that's going on. And we don't see anything until the camera outside the bridge of the Maersk, Alabama. We see the camera backing up with the guys pulling the cable.

43:38And then four of the scariest human beings I have ever met come in and they are screaming at us. They are slapping us. They are hitting us. They are pushing it down. And they were holding the real guns. You know, they're holding them in our faces, screaming at us. And it was honestly, we are all bug eyed with some form of terror, even though we know it's a movie that is removed. Because guess what? We all went there. All right. So we're all there. This initial scene went on for about 20 minutes because Paul does this thing where he has a secondary and third cameras that don't start shooting until later on.

44:18So film is always rolling and then one camera will go quickly reload and then join back in the scene. So this is this is going to stay in that space. We are right there because the camera's on us and it's working. So four of the skinniest, scariest looking guys, their eyes were all bloodshot. They all had this teeth. They were all built like wires. They've had muscles like rope. They're dressed in rags and they're holding AK-47s on us and they're screaming at us. And it went on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on. Relatively unrehearsed. When it was finally done, Paul says, all right, all right, okay, all right, all right, that went well, that went well.

44:54Why don't we, and while they're like this, and we said, why don't, if we can, what I'd like to do is just take it back and come back in. and said, okay, yeah, all right. Okay, good. And then one of the actors, Mahat was his name. Mahat says, I can't believe I'm working with Forrest Gump.

45:23He just tried to kill you.

45:30So a countenance, right, comes along with the whole bit. And, you know, once we got that done, we were just guys making a movie. It was fantastic. But that's an example of, you know, there was a moment where you have to do all this suspension of the reality of, you know, what it is. And all you can do is go there. The only thing I have that's a little similar is for years, occasionally we would have a band on, like Slipknot for the first time. guys with skulls, you know, just, and they would come out or a band would come out and they were literally like blood capsules out of the mouth and fierce.

46:09And the song is just like, you know,

46:15and then you'd, I'd come out and I'd say, we'll take a break, death, kill, murder, baby. We'll take a break. We'll be right back. And I would always be a little intimidated because I'm in a suit. I'm the late night host. I'm the, whatever, the game show host. And I'm just saying, okay, we'll take a break. And these are the guys that are from Manchester or whatever. We'll take a break right back. And the person would always go, just lovely meeting you. I really enjoy. And it's just such a nice sensibility. You're like, I can't handle that. I can't handle the psychic break. This is why so many of us go stark raving nuts.

46:55Yeah. Because that surrealistic divide. Yes. Between why you are there and what are you creating? Yes. Begins. It's too malleable after a while. Yes. Yes. And yet it starts and it finishes within within the wink of an eye. You know, it's that it's that type of thing where the massacre is over and cut. And all the dead guys start getting up and moving around, you know, and you move on and you, and you get the other shot. It's, I wish we could just keep it all secret, like the Coca-Cola formula. I wish we didn't have to remember, but I, I, I don't watch movies that I'm in because they haven't changed since I saw them.

47:37So I know how they, I know how they end. Right. And, but every now and again, like you're blown through the grid or something like that and a minute comes on or a scene comes on and what i remember is what happened just before we shot that scene that's all that i that's all i can recall i look at it i don't remember doing the scene per se but i said oh it was cloudy that day and uh you know i i dropped a script in a in a mud puddle and then that's all i had some flan yeah and then it was time yeah what do we have oh you know what somebody made reuben sandwiches that day that was that was really great.

48:13I remember the craft service made Reuben sandwiches that day. Yeah. And I think it was Annie in the accountant department's birthday. And so we all sang happy birthday in the catering tent tour. There you go. There you go. That was that day. I want to talk about here, which I've never seen a movie like this. I really loved it. I was riveted by one thing, which is the camera. It's hard to explain. But basically it has a cinematic technique to it that is very unique. Is that what you could say? I love the graphic novel. And the graphic novel is it's one shot. So you open the book and it's one shot.

48:50And then it's everything that's happening that's ever happened in that one shot. You have done our job for us. And you haven't even seen the movie. No, I love the graphic novel. And Blake, remember when you interject and it's a guest of this caliber, you have to submit a form first. That's right. I'm so sorry. And you didn't submit before. I apologize. We'll cut this part out. Based on your question, I'd like to say, will you shut the fuck up? That's true. That's true. Harrison Ford. That's true. Hey, I'm in good company. I'm trying to talk to Conan. Yeah. What the hell, Blake? Oh, you read the comic book, didn't you?

49:26You know, we had, guess what? Hey, I got a question. How did you drive? Did you come down Beverly? Did you come down Beverly and make a right on Larchmont? Because that's how I got here. I'm so sorry. I'm really sorry. Can I just say, we had Al Pacino here, not Larchmont. Oh, wow. And he, fantastic interview. We're talking about everything. He brings up, we're talking about The Godfather and Blay leans in mid-interview and says, I read the comic book. And it startled Pacino and he said, I gotta go. And he left. Oh, wow. And they ended their interview early. Thanks, Blay. There you go. Sorry about that.

50:03But you're talking to me because I was talking to Bob. Bob and I get together all the time. Bob Zemeckis, just so everyone's clear. All right. Robert Zemeckis, he co-wrote this and he directed it. Right, right. Yes. And I did Forrest Gump with Bob. I did The Polar Express with Bob. I did Cast Away with Bob. And I did Pinocchio with Bob. I played Geppetto. Thank you. And while we were doing that, I would say, you know, we had seen this movie. He had talked about this movie a long time ago. We got time to talk about this stuff, right? We don't have to hurry through this. He had talked about this movie that he had seen.

50:40And he said, hi. I said, I guess not the most amazing thing last night. I said, I couldn't figure out how they got this shot. How did they get this shot? I said, what was the shot? He said, well, it was in the back of a Jeep. And the Jeep's going down this bumpy road. And all you see is the window and the cage of the Jeep and the driver in the back. And the camera is whipping around. And then the Jeep stops. The guy gets out. And I said, where did they get this? How did they do this? Where's the camera? What was the rig? How did they mount this thing? And then they open the guy over the back. And suddenly, you're in the grass.

51:08And you're going through the thing. And I realized they put the camera on a dog. The name of the movie was The Truffle Hunters. It's a great documentary. Wow. I don't know it. It's fascinating. It's about essentially a relationship between the people who hunt out truffles and the dogs that find the truffles. And then this examination of also the sociologic, the business of truffle and also the people that do it. And a lot of the movie was shot from a standard, what we call static POV. The camera never moves. And yet the scene will go on for eight, nine, 12 minutes. And I was talking about, because I ended up saying, I said, God, there was some stuff in there that was the most evocative movie making I've ever seen.

51:50And it was a documentary. There was no music. There was no score. It was just people behaving. And I was fascinated. I wonder, Bob, I wonder if you could do that in a feature film. And he looks at me and he says, buddy, you should ask that. time. Then he has the screenplay that he wrote with Eric, Eric Roth, who did he did Gumpo with us as well. And I said, you need to read this. And then he also handed me the graphic novel by Richard. I can't remember what his name is. Blay, you're allowed to speak. I don't know his last idiot. Sorry. I'm sorry. I blanked out. I'm having a stroke. What did I call those people who write about movies.

52:29What word did I use? Don't make me say it again. So, but then he gave me that. And honestly, I had to read the graphic novel about three times in order to figure out how it was going to translate to this thing. And then when I got it, I literally said, ow, my God, this is a deep throat baby.

53:00Just to inform our listeners, or if you're on YouTube, viewers, that's right, I know how to play the game. Or if you're an alien and you're in space. The camera is locked. You are looking at one point of view. Time jumps. You're going to see Tom and Robin and their characters. You're going to see them at 17, 19, 20, 30, 40. Into our 80s. It is absolutely mind-blowing because it's you. It's you when I, before I first met you, but it's you when I first met you in 1988. I see no trickery. I see no sleight of hand. It's you. Yeah. The tool that we use, everybody, you know, everybody says, what's this mean?

53:49You use AI in order to make the movies. AI is evil. What is it going to mean to movies?

53:57You just hang around a lot of hysterical people. It's all over! When Tom Hanks goes to a donut shop, You want a donut? Do you want a donut? Do you want a donut? You have this effect on people. It's you. It's my countenance that I bring in. It's called Deepfake. All it is is a movie-making tool. In the old days, and by old days, I mean 2019. Before it all changed. we still had hours in the makeup trailer because they had we have to have wigs and hair and they like do things like jennifer jennifer would say she i'd sit down in the chair she says hello she's very lovely lady hello hello tom hello how was how was your evening last night tom and as she's asking me these questions she's grabbing both of my ears squeezing them lifting them up on the side of my head and gluing them up higher on the top of my head as I'm going.

54:54And I said, is that going to hold? Oh, it has to, Tom. Because as you age, your ears grow larger and they fall down the side of your head. And today is the scene where you're only 22. So we have to raise your oofs and glue them to the side of my, and by the way, it works. It stays glued. It's like, I said, you might need a staple gun there. No, no, it all works. You go and you do a data scan and then they match it with every photograph that exists of me. And they go back and find as many photographs of me at the age of 17, 19, 20, 20, for my entire life. Then they jam those in using, are you ready for the scary word?

55:40When I say it, can you guys like, and they use AI in order to do all the work and make it happen faster. You used to have to put a dot on your face, glue it so the computer would read it and then match it later on. Now it uses the pores of your face just to match it like that. So we would, we would have two monitors as we were shooting. One monitor was the way we really looked. And the other monitor with just about a nanoseconds lag time was us in the deep fake technology. So on one monitor, I'm a 67 year old man, you know, pretending he's in high school. And on the other monitor, I'm 17 years old.

56:27Unbelievable. So the big question would be, you talked earlier about how you're hesitant to watch your own work. This, sitting and watching this movie for you, is watching you at 17, 67, and everything in between. Have you had that experience yet? Are you prepared for that experience? I've seen just enough of it, and seeing me at that age, it has finally answered the question for me, which is, no wonder I never got laid. The original title of the film.

57:07Well, I mean, I had a lot of energy, and I was loud, and, you know, I could make you laugh. Well, you just describe anything. I've occasionally been forced to look at myself in 19 from 1990. Every day of my life was televised from 1993. And I'm not happy with any of it. And I always watch it and I look at my wife and I go, why? Well, so what we did actually have to examine this probably more than you ever do on a movie, because we had to literally go, right, and we had technicians that were looking at our skin and stuff like that. But we also had to look at the timing and the cadence of what it is because there is, I don't know what the actual name of it, but there is a factor.

57:59I can't remember what it's called. We thought that we were speaking at a very realistic cadence. And then we would go watch a playback, and it was as slow as molasses. it just took forever. I would say, it's like the cinematic time slip. It seems like it's fast, but it plays in real time. So that's one of the things we discovered about it that didn't make it any more fun to sit there and look at ourselves dressed up as we were. It just occurred to me, I know that I've talked to you and you've, several times, where you've slipped into a Ron Howard impression. You've just, you've destroyed Robert Zemeckis' career.

58:47And yet he comes back for more. Is anyone who directs you, you know, is liable to be impersonated by you? Some are a little, you know, some, I guess, are. I don't even know what a Spielberg impression would be. I don't even, I don't get a sense of him. This would be, oh, I don't care what you say.

59:13on every movie I've done, I think I've worked with Stephen five times. Let's see, Ryan and The Terminal and Catch Me If You Can. Bridge of Spies. Bridge of Spies. Is there another one in there? I can't recall. Is there another one in there? That's fine. IMDB. And he always does this thing. I wake up and I see, you know, Stephen uses, the screenplays of Stephen's movies are the most basic blueprint. stones they are not uh they're not the rosetta stones they are not like set down so it'll come and there'll be a lot of dialogue and you know you do this and explain this and you get there and uh um i'll go this oh man there's an awful lot of stuff in there i think i'd like to cut that i'd like to cut that i'd like to cut that and then i get to work and steven will say okay here's the shot we're gonna start here and the camera's gonna be right here we're gonna be following you and you guys will be saying all your stuff right there i said well i was thinking that maybe we don't need all this oh i don't care what you say i doubt the last the last couple of gigs the last the last couple of gigs that i've had i said i said when everybody is in town we did this on bridge of spies and also about mostly just on bridge of spies i said look i'll get we'll get together with all the guys oh we did on the post we did the post together did the same thing with the post, get everybody together and we'll read through some of the scenes.

1:00:39And I'll just explain. So listen, everybody, there are some days that we will come to work and we will have all of this stuff memorized and we'll be hot. We will have read through it. We'll be prepared and we will get to this, uh, to the stage. And Steven will have done all that work for us. We don't have to do anything except inhabit the space because Steven is telling the story from the cinematic perspective where the camera is and what he's doing. It's not even going to matter. But then there'll be other times, my friends, when we will show up and we'll know it all. And we need to know it because we have to get there.

1:01:17When we shot the stuff on the Gleinke Bridge, on Bridge of Spies, which was the real place where the spies were exchanged. Crazy. We were freezing to death. It was very, very cold. And Stephen came up to us and said, hey, I hope you guys know all your lines because I haven't the slightest idea how we're going to shoot this. And I just turned to all the guys and said, what did I tell you? And then he's the most malleable guy. Well, what if we stand here, Stephen? What if we come out here? What if he comes out? Great, great, great, great. Oh, that's a great idea because they're not going to come.

1:01:49And then he's very excited about all that cut and crows. I do have to let you go because. That's too bad. We're having a good time. I know. I swear to your people that I would. This is your job? You know what? No one. I stepped in shit when this thing came along. I'm the luckiest guy in the world. Can you believe that? No, I trust me. Okay, let me ask you a question. Outside of celebrities, what is the hardest amount of research you had to do before someone came in and talked for it? Where did you guys all have to get educated on what they're talking about? I'll tell you this. I'm just going to guess Pacino was a bunt, I'm going to say, because, you know.

1:02:25Well, I read his book. You love the Pacino, right? I read his book. but I would say the funniest part of my day today was coming in and David Hopping handing me my research on Tom Hanks and I was like, first of all no one needs research on Tom and also you don't need like, yes, more about this Hanks, tell me of him ah, yes you know, it was a funny moment to me that I would need that, but no, there are people who I'm not as familiar with. Like somebody coming to an astrophysicist or something like that. I am an astrophysicist. You're not going to work that hard. Is that what you're saying? Well, you had Robert Carroll, but you were so versed on him anyway.

1:03:09I didn't really need to. The thing is, I have people on that I love to talk to. The author, Robert Carroll. The porn star, Robert Carroll. Oh my God. And you had to do no research. I had seen it all. For Robert Caro, the Lyndon Johnson historian, I needed to bone up. And I do mean bone up. Bone up! All he had to do was go to that web browser history and it was all right there. His favorites, Tabs. I mean, that Tab's just always open. That's what I love about this is that I'm talking almost exclusively to people that I really enjoy, that I want to talk to. And so there are occasionally youngsters, up and comers, and I feel like I need to educate myself on what's happening with the new rock and roll.

1:04:01But other than that, this is Slipknot. Yeah, yeah. But for the most part, it's just just a joy. I mean, this has been a joy. I have to say, I you're not just one of my favorite actors of all time. And I think that that's true for many people. But as a person, you've been unfailingly nice to me over the years. You have been just a mensch to me. And so has Rita, your lovely and talented wife, who's, by the way, an amazing. I mean, I enjoy watching her perform. She's fantastic. She just had dropped a new record, as the kids say, just last Friday. All the time. I mean, you know, I've actually seen her live, but she's recording with these incredible people.

1:04:52She did a bunch of duets from the 70s with Eric, excuse me, with Elvis Costello and Tim McGraw and Jackson Brown and Smokey Robinson. No, she blows me away. What I love is that I love going on stuff with her jobs, you know, because I don't work, man. The most that is expected of me is to carry her lip gloss. You know, I'm not working. Just honey, do you need your lip gloss? You know, that's about, that's about all I, that's all about all I have to do. Then I get free tickets to the show. It's pretty great. Well, when I heard you were coming in today, I was over the moon and I really did enjoy here.

1:05:32And I think you guys would love it. And, and you'll watch it on a real screen. Yes. Yeah. Okay. So this, this is a problem. This is like striking terror in the, into the hearts of anybody uh connected with uh marketing you know with the studio or even my crack publicity teams essentially the uh the ladies who work for me part-time that are outside uh right now um the idea that this is playing only in theaters and you really do need it's best to watch it on the biggest screen possible because there is so much stuff going on screen it's like oh my god this is the worst thing how are we gonna do that i say i believe people understand how movies work no but you don't understand the whole zeitgeist has changed we don't have what social significance of motion pictures have anymore do they go to i hope they go to alamo draft house i hope this place is alamo draft house you know it's like all you have to do is put out there that you're playing only in theaters and let's see what happens yeah we'll go on from there But this is what we do down at the office.

1:06:34And literally, we should do, this is all we do. I mean, every show business atmosphere I'm in, we sit around like we're on a podcast and say this story, that story, what's the name, how that happened, do that. That's essentially how we work in show business. And it's been that way since I was in high school. You know, that's all we've done. Well, also, I can attest to this, having met you all those years ago and watched you work up close. you bring an energy and a, hey, we're all in this. We all have to make this work. That is not common. Not everybody does that. And some people have walls and insecurities and you have always been someone that, and I saw it in 1988.

1:07:17I've seen it when all the times that you would come on my show over the years, all the times I've interacted with you. Hey, we all have to do this thing. Let's all pitch in and make it work. and that's a beautiful quality to have. It really is. And it's rare. Oh, well, God, listen, it was best said to me by Darlene Love, right? Darlene Love. We all know Darlene Love. You know, from all other records. I was on the Letterman show for the Christmas. Oh, yeah. The Christmas show. Every year she does that. Every year she would come on and sing It's Christmas, that fabulous, fabulous, fabulous song.

1:07:52And I was there and it's like, oh, you can go into hair and makeup as soon as Darlene Love is on. Darlene Love is here? You know, it's like, oh my God. What am I going to say? I got to go meet Darlene Love. And so I went in and she was sitting there and said, oh, hi, hi, Miss Love. Well, hello, Tom. So nice to meet you. My goodness. It's just so fantastic. And thank you for your records from the get-go, all the stuff that you have done. And I reeled off some of her stuff that she appreciated. and just the fact that you are still here sharing your voice and your gift with this. Your spot on this show, singing this song, is one of the highlights of my ear.

1:08:33So I'm just so glad that you're here. And she said, oh, honey, I'm just here for the hang.

1:08:41And ain't that a thing? Yeah, yeah. You know? I get that. Yeah, yeah. It's here for the hang. So thanks for hanging, guys. That was great. You know what? You're welcome, Tom. You really owe us one. So here, I'll say, okay, so, hi, my name is Tom Hanks, and I feel cuckoo about being Conan O 'Brien. No, no, my name is Tom Hanks, and I feel joyful about being Conan O 'Brien's friend. Is that good? Yeah. Okay, one more time. Hi. Hi, my name is Tom Hanks, and I feel competitive about being Conan O 'Brien's friend. you're not competing against many people. Trust me. God bless you, sir. Great. Thanks, guys.

1:09:28Great fun. Conan O 'Brien Needs a Friend with Conan O 'Brien, Sonam of Sessian, and Matt Gourley. Produced by me, Matt Gourley. Executive produced by Adam Sachs, Jeff Ross, and Nick Leow. Theme song by The White Stripes. Incidental music by Jimmy Vivino. Take it away, Jimmy. me.

1:09:51Our supervising producer is Aaron Blair, and our associate talent producer is Jennifer Samples. Engineering and mixing by Eduardo Perez and Brendan Burns. Additional production support by Mars Melnick. Talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Batista, and Britt Kahn. You can rate and review this show on Apple Podcasts, and you might find your review read on a future episode. Got a question for Conan? Call the Team Coco hotline at 669-587-2847 and leave a message. It too could be featured on a future episode. You can also get three free months of Sirius XM when you sign up at SiriusXM.com slash Conan.

1:10:26And if you haven't already, please subscribe to Conan O 'Brien Needs a Friend wherever fine podcasts are downloaded.