Denzel Washington and Tom Hanks have a lot in common: both started their careers around 1980 (Hanks with a horror film that he now makes fun of!), and both have two Oscars each to their credit. In addition, they are not only considered two of the greatest actors of their generation, but have also ventured behind the camera (Washington has directed four films, Hanks has directed two films).
Nevertheless, the “The Equalizer” star and the “Sleepless in Seattle” actor only appeared in front of the camera together once: for “Philadelphia” (1993), with which Hanks, who was previously known primarily for comic roles, demonstrated his talent for Wanted to prove character roles.
In the highly acclaimed drama by Jonathan Demme (“The Silence of the Lambs”), he plays the gay lawyer Andrew Beckett, who is fired after his positive HIV diagnosis is revealed. He then decides to sue the law firm – and enlists the help of, of all people, a homophobic lawyer (Washington)…
“Philadelphia” at Amazon*
On set, Washington didn’t always make life easy for his co-star. While filming the film, Hanks was already preparing for the lead role in “Forrest Gump,” which meant that he had to lose a lot of weight – and was only allowed to eat 800 calories per day. Of course, the actor always struggled with food cravings, which Washington took advantage of for some pretty nasty pranks:
“In the scenes in the courtroom he was extremely thin,” remembers the 69-year-old during an appearance in the Graham Norton Show. “So I purposely left candy bars lying around and stuff like that. I pretended to sneeze and threw candy at his feet. I even had pizzas delivered to him.”
Fortunately, Tom Hanks was able to cope with his co-star’s nasty jokes – and he turned him down by winning a Best Actor Oscar two years in a row, first for “Philadelphia” and then for “Forrest Gump”. “He thanked me when he won the Oscar,” Washington said with a laugh – who couldn’t even get a nomination for the legal drama…
Brad Pitt in turn had to take the pranks from George Clooney and Matt Damon endure. You can find out how they deprived the superstar of sleep while filming “Ocean’s Eleven” in the following article:
“It was brutal”: This is how Brad Pitt was deprived of sleep by George Clooney and Matt Damon
This is an updated republication of an article that previously appeared on FILMSTARTS. A similar article previously appeared on our Brazilian sister site AdoroCinema.
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