If Tom Hanks says something is good, we tend to believe him. And it turns out that one of the things Tom Hanks loves is Hamilton, so it’s even easier to be on his side than ever before. That’s one of the best actors around recommending one of the best musicals, so we’re sold.
Hanks knows his way around a historical story, having made some of the best movies around drawn from the past. That includes some of his collaborations with Steven Spielberg, as any list of the best Steven Spielberg movies has to include the likes of Saving Private Ryan and Catch Me If You Can.
In a joint interview with Time, Hanks and Spielberg delved into the idea of historical storytelling and the ways in which certain periods of time have been covered more than others. It was at this point that Hanks brought up Hamilton.
“If you say: ‘Oh, it’s a play about Alexander Hamilton in colonial times’, I say: ‘Well, give me a gun so I can shoot myself in the head, because that’s just going to be homework and medicine’. If you say: ‘No, no, it’s a hip hop version’. ‘Okay, it’s a hip-hop version? Well, tell you what, give me a gun so I can shoot myself in the head, because that just sounds downright silly’.
“And then you go and see it and it actually is so prescient, because, say what you want about the thing, but I saw it twice when it was down at the Public [Theater], and when I realized I was watching a huge African-American man playing George Washington, talking about throwing off the yoke of oppression and the need for human beings to thrive under liberty, I thought: ‘OK, this is brand-new territory that is so salient to our lives today that I never would have been able to imagine it’. And that’s what’s required — the new avenue into it.”
There’s no denying that Hamilton has reshaped the ways in which historical stories are told, and we’re thrilled to learn that Hanks probably knows all of the words to ‘My Shot’. We expect a full performance at the next Oscars and presumably he’s right in the frame to play King George in a movie version. We’d love to see it.
For more on one of our favorite actors, take a look at our choices for the best Tom Hanks movies. You can also find out the Steven Spielberg movie Hanks wishes he had been in and how Tom Hanks invited himself on to this Leonardo DiCaprio classic.
Elsewhere, find out about Hanks’ latest in our Asteroid City review.