Tom Hanks Explains Why He Wouldn’t Take Another Gay Role: ‘We’re Beyond That Now’
Accepting change. Tom Hanks reflected on his lengthy career in a new interview, and he admitted that he probably wouldn’t take one of his Oscar-winning roles today.“Let’s address, ‘Could a straight man do what I did in Philadelphia now?’ No, and rightly so,” the Captain Phillips star, 65, told The New York Times in a Q&A published on Monday, June 13. “The whole point of Philadelphia was don’t be afraid.
One of the reasons people weren’t afraid of that movie is that I was playing a gay man.”The Uncommon Type author won an Academy Award for best actor for his performance in the 1993 film, which also starred Denzel Washington.
Hanks played Andrew Beckett, a lawyer who hides his AIDS diagnosis and his homosexuality from his coworkers because he’s afraid it could compromise his career.
After the firm fires him, Andrew sues the company for discrimination.The movie was one of the earliest mainstream depictions of the HIV/AIDS crisis, which is one reason why Hanks believes he landed the role of Andrew.
