BEVERLY HILLS-It's one thing to shoot at Disneyland. It's another to be Tom Hanks, the first actor to play Walt Disney, shooting at Disneyland.
"Instead of riding the rides, (people) would stand around and watch us shoot," says Saving Mr. Banks director John Lee Hancock.
Hanks plays the corporate titan in 1961, as the visionary tries valiantly to get uninterested British author P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson) to relinquish the rights to her beloved Mary Poppins so he can bring the story to the big screen.
Does it take an icon to play an icon? In this case the similarities are striking: Their reputation for benevolence and innate cheer precede them, and both Disney and Hanks' talent have rendered an indelible impression on the entertainment landscape. Both also represent the American Dream, turning tough childhoods into a creative path of their own making. "I'm so glad I had a miserable childhood because it fueled me," cracks Hanks. "Not miserable, but confused."
That day shooting at Disneyland, as fans swarmed Hanks on set for autographs, Thompson found herself contemplating Hanks' and Disney's powerful connective tissue.
"There's an element of Disney in you," she says, turning to her co-star in an interview, "in the sense that people respond, I imagine, to you in a similar way. And you're very familiar to people in a benevolent way, not the same way as Arnold Schwarzenegger is familiar to peopleâ?¦ you represent something to do with an innate part of the American character, and its best part. And it's wonderful to see that."
Hanks doesn't directly acknowledge the comparison, but says being at the park in period clothing and sporting Disney's mustache was powerful. "Do you know that when (the park) opened they weren't able to have all their landscaping put in?" he says. "Instead of pulling out the weeds, they left the weeds and they had the art department find out the Latin name of the weeds so they could put little signs next to all the (plants)â?¦ Is that not the Walt Disney-ist thing? It's brilliant."
Those who know Hanks well recall even the smallest acts of kindness. "Tom brought everybody in massage therapists (for the cast and crew). He had them on set every day for like, two weeks. For anyone who needed one," marvels screenwriter Kelly Marcel.
Hancock recalls a moment at Disneyland when an eight-year-old extra approached the star, hoping for an autograph on her birthday. "He went immediately to a megaphone and called out, 'Everybody stop what you're doing! We're going to sing Happy Birthday!'â?¦ And the little girl had a birthday she will never forget because Tom Hanks sang at the top of his lungs to the megaphone 'Happy birthday' to her at Disneyland on Main Street."
It was the Walt Disney-ist thing.
Copyright 2013 USATODAY.com
Read the original story: Icons collide in Walt Disney tale
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