Tom Hanks is no stranger to playing big screen heroes, with many of the best Tom Hanks movies trading on his ability to portray morally righteous people battling the odds. And when he starred in one of the best Clint Eastwood movies in recent years, Hanks used all of those skills.
The 2016 movie Sully, directed by Eastwood, starred Hanks as the airline pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger. It told the story of the 2009 incident in which Sully was forced to land a passenger plane on the Hudson River in New York City to save the lives of those on board.
And Hanks told Variety that Eastwood brought in some real people to give one of his best movies an extra dose of realism.
In the scenes recreating the rescue of passengers from the river following the emergency landing, Eastwood brought in some of the people who took part in the real rescue effort.
Hanks said: “That was in the spirit of Sully saying: ‘Everyone did their job that day’. If you were there that day, you could come and be part of the shoot, and what was going to be a part of the popular record of what happened that day.”
It’s not the only time that Eastwood has used real people on the big screen when adapting a true story. For the 2018 movie The 15:17 to Paris, Eastwood cast the real people responsible for taking down a terrorist to play themselves.
Sometimes, there’s no substitute for casting the best actors in Hollywood to star in your new movie. Tom Hanks is always a no-brainer. But occasionally, there’s room for a little added verisimilitude. It doesn’t always work, but it’s a nice touch when it does.
For more of the best Clint Eastwood moments, check out why he regrets making this Western or the reason Clint Eastwood uses this Secret Service trick on his movie sets.