Colin Hanks gets "Lucky" with killer film, TV show

Actor Colin Hanks arrives for a Film Society Gala Tribute to honor his father Tom Hanks with the Chaplin Award in New York in this April 27, 2009 file photo.

Credit: Reuters/Lucas Jackson

By Zorianna Kit

LOS ANGELES | Fri Jul 15, 2011 2:52pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Colin Hanks has murder on his mind these days. The 33 year-old actor currently stars on screen in the dark comedy film "Lucky," which debuts in New York and Los Angeles on Friday and expands around the United States in coming weeks.

In Lucky, Hanks portrays Ben, a serial killer who wins the lottery, and he also is joining the upcoming sixth season of the Showtime's serial killer series "Dexter."

Hanks, who is the son of Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks, sat down with Reuters to talk about "Lucky," what it's like having a famous father and his most important role to date -- becoming a first-time dad earlier this year.

Q: Did you enjoy playing a serial killer in a comedy?

A: "I was essentially trying to come up with two different characters, which was fun for me. The first version of Ben is that he slouches and dresses a little stupidly. The post-lottery look he stands up straight, he's trying to work out more, he's dressed a little sharper. But in essence he's still the same guy that he was."

Q: You mean still a killer?

A: "Exactly. Even though this great thing has happened to him and he's become popular, he still has this need to kill and he still has a controlling mother."

Q: Short of going out and killing someone, how did you relate to him?

A: "No matter where you are in your life, whatever set of people you're with, it all still breaks down like high school does. You have your social cliques, you have the people you get along with, the people you don't and the people you're ambivalent about. All of the dynamics are still here. The last thing I wanted to do was a scene next to a locker talking about wanting to get the girl, but at the heart of it, it's still the same sort of thing."

Q: So what will you be doing on "Dexter"? More killing? Is there some connection between this film and your new job?

A: "'Lucky' is for laughs, and there's really nothing funny that I'm doing on 'Dexter.' I think more than anything, both comment on the fact that anybody is capable of anything. Just because they are the shy guy in the corner doesn't mean that they are a harmless little bunny."

Q: Your dad is so prolific in his field. Has it been difficult to carve your own identity in the same profession?

A: "I definitely feel a need to remind people that I am a separate person, yes. A lot of time, they say, 'Oh my God, you guys are so much alike! You look like him, you sound like him...' They're not wrong, but after 33 years of hearing it, you just sort of go, 'Yes, I know.' But you can only talk about it so much."

Q: Do you think being the son of Tom Hanks helped you in establishing an acting career?

A: "Has it benefited me in certain ways? Of course. Has it been more difficult? In some ways, yeah. The majority of the time when people want to talk to me, they actually want to hear about someone else. It's this thing I have no control over. I love my dad very much. I'm very proud of him but I'm just as much a fan as everybody else."

Q: Your daughter, Olivia (with wife Samantha Bryant), was born on February 1st. How has fatherhood changed you?

A: "I like to look at scenarios and see how people interact with each other. That's why I'm an actor because I try to recreate that. Since our daughter joined us the spectrum has widened. My job is to recreate moments between people and when you're able to look at moments differently, you get deeper meaning in things."

Q: So it's helping your acting?

A: "Well, I don't know if it's helping but it's adding more work! (laughs). It's adding another dimension."

Q: What's been the best experience about fatherhood so far?

A: Seeing her laugh. A baby's existence for the first three months is a one-way street. One person is doing all the work and the other is crying, sleeping and pooping. So the first moment when you're actually able to do something and they acknowledge your presence, that's a big deal. A very big deal.

Q: Is this the first grandchild in the family?

A: "Yes and the grandparents could not be happier. They cannot wait to just dote on this kid with every single fiber of their being. My wife and I are more than happy to give them our baby and say, 'Here, watch her while we take a nap' (laughs)."

(Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

View the original article here

Tom Hanks: I'm not always a nice guy - CBS News

(CBS News) 

Tom Hanks won one of his two Oscars for paying the title role in the 1994 film "Forrest Gump," all about a sweet but less-than-brilliant guy who just happens to appear at many of the biggest events of our time. Hanks just happens to have starred in many of the best movies of our time. That's NOT a coincidence. Tracy Smith sat him down for some questions-and-answers:

There are few people more serious about movie making than Tom Hanks, but on the set of his new movie, it was hard to find anyone with a straight face.

The film is "Larry Crowne," co-written, starring and directed by Tom Hanks.

"What's it like directing Tom Hanks, two-time Academy Award-winner Tom Hanks?" Smith asked Hanks.

"Yeah, yeah ... long time ago! So long that the clips aren't even in high def, that's how long ago that was," he replied. "Well, he does show up to work on time. THAT'S a good thing."

It's his second turn as director, and his movie sets are happy by design.

"You wanna make it so that everybody is loose enough that they can follow their instincts and make something happen," he said.

It's a style leading lady Julia Roberts embraced.

"He takes it very seriously, to make sure everyone is enjoying their experience," she told Smith.

"You think you can still get a great performance out of that? 'Cause certainly there are people who think, you know, 'It has to be tough in order for it to be great,'" said Smith.

"Well, and I've worked for those people, and it sucks! A word I tell my kids they're not allowed to say," Roberts laughed, "but it's well-chosen, because it doesn't have to be madness and crazy torture to accomplish those goals. It just doesn't have to be. I have really seen the brutal side of that, and you just suffer. You still get a good result, but you suffer in the midst of it.

"You can get a good result and be joyous throughout," Roberts insisted.

Above: Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks in "Larry Crowne." (Universal Pictures)

But there's nothing particularly joyous about "Larry Crowne"'s subject: Hanks is a middle-aged Navy veteran who loses his job at a big-box store, and reinvents himself as a scooter-riding college student.

"The end result - what is interesting to me is because all of this stuff can really happen," Hanks said. "And that, if you can capture that in the glamorous form of a commercial motion picture that people might pay to go see, well then, you're flirting with a high country, and that interests me on all the creative fronts: Actor, writer, director."

It wasn't so long ago that Hanks would've been happy to be just one of those things.

Born in northern California in 1956, Thomas Jeffrey Hanks first took the stage in high school, and made his professional acting debut doing Shakespeare at the Great Lakes Theatre Festival in Cleveland. His first film role ever was as a cocky college student in the 1980 horror flick, "He Knows You're Alone."

"Did you know at that point, 'I'm going to be successful'?" asked Smith.

"Oh, hell, no, are you kidding?" Hanks said. "I was overjoyed to get the paycheck for 800 bucks. And no, I was just, I was hoping to make, you know, $8,000 a year. I was hoping to get, you know, have enough weeks of employee at a theater festival in order to collect the unemployment, which I did."

His next move was, well, a drag: He won a spot on the 1980 sitcom, "Bosom Buddies," playing one of two guys who dressed as girls so they could live in a cheap female-only hotel. The show sputtered after two seasons, but Hanks wasn't about to give up without a fight.

In a 1982 guest shot on "Happy Days," Hanks connected with actor/director Ron Howard, who went on to cast him as a man who loved a mermaid, in 1984's "Splash."

For Tom Hanks, "Splash" was the beginning of what would become a cinematic tidal wave. Thirty-plus feature films, two Academy Awards, and a reputation as one of the classiest acts in Hollywood.

"You know, you clearly are a guy who's well-liked," Smith said. "Everybody says how much they like Tom Hanks."

"Not everybody," he inferred.

"Not everybody? Who doesn't like you?"

"You dig a little deeper, you'll find some blood feuds out there," he said.

View the original article here