Actor tells Graham Norton Show he found director ‘intimidating as hell’ on set of Sully, where the real-life pilot he was playing also voiced opinions

Veteran actor Tom Hanks has likened Clint Eastwood’s directorial style to wrangling animals. Hanks worked with Eastwood for the first time on Sully, the story of a real-life feat of heroism in which his character, Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, safely landed an endangered plane New York’s Hudson river in 2009.

Hanks told the the Graham Norton Show: “You certainly don’t want one of those Eastwood looks.

Hell of a film-maker: the directors who make Clint Eastwood look soft Read more

“He treats his actors like horses because when he did the 60s series Rawhide, the director would shout ‘Action!’ and all the horses bolted. So when he’s in charge, he says in a really quiet soft voice, ‘All right, go ahead,’ and instead of shouting ‘Cut!’ he says ‘That’s enough of that.’ It’s intimidating as hell!”

Hanks also said that the real Sullenberger made for a strong presence on set, even criticising Eastwood for his lack of punctuality when he was 20 minutes late.

“Sully was very particular about how we portrayed the procedure and the emotions,” said Hanks. “He pulled out this dog-eared, stapled and notated script that he had read. Postits, stapled index cards all over it – I’m sure his wife had even written ‘No’ across it in lipstick! We went through every page and every moment, every beat had been commented on. He had opinions.”

Hanks and Eastwood campaigned for different sides during the recent US presidential campaign. The actor – who was even mooted by documentary-maker Michael Moore as a future Democrat candidate – was a vocal supporter of Hillary Clinton, frequently speaking of his lack of faith in her rival, Donald Trump, whom he described as a “self-involved gas bag”.

Eastwood, meanwhile, came out for Trump in August, saying the Republican was “on to something, because secretly everybody’s getting tired of political correctness”.

“That’s the kiss-ass generation we’re in right now,” he said. “We’re really in a pussy generation.” Eastwood also said he thought a lot of the backlash to Trump was misplaced.



“We see people accusing people of being racist and all kinds of stuff. When I grew up, those things weren’t called racist.

“Everybody, the press and everybody’s going, ‘Oh, well, that’s racist’ and they’re making a big hoodoo out of it. Just fucking get over it. It’s a sad time in history.”

Following Trump’s election earlier this month, Hanks sought to reassure his fellow Clinton supporters about the future. “We are going to be all right,” he told an audience in New York. “We will move forward, because if we do not move forward, what is to be said about us?”