Tom Hanks has finally revealed why he has almost never played the bad guy onscreen, over a varied career of over 40 years.
The 68-year-old movie star is adored all over the world for lovable roles such as the тιтle character in Forrest Gump, the lead in romantic comedies like Sleepless In Seattle and You’ve Got Mail and a jovial cowboy in Toy Story.
He has only very occasionally tried his hand at a negative character, such as a gang hitman in Road To Perdition and a nefarious tycoon in The Circle.
His likable image has been further burnished by his warm disposition in interviews and the widely circulated stories of his kindly offscreen behavior.
Now, Tom has explained the reason behind his overwhelmingly positive movie roles, in an interview on comic Kevin Nealon’s YouTube channel.
‘You’ve hardly ever played a villain in a movie. Why is that?’ asked Kevin, sharing his theory that the cause was Tom’s ‘Mr. Nice Guy’ reputation.
Tom Hanks has finally revealed why he has almost never played the bad guy onscreen, despite a widely varied career of over 40 years; pictured last month
‘Well, there is that. There is a countenance that goes along with it,’ confessed the Captain Phillips star. ‘But I’ve never – I’m not big on: “Before I kill you, Mr. Bond, perhaps you’d like a tour of my installation.”‘
The two-time Oscar winner added that ‘I always have this problem. I say: “What is the logic of why this guy is doing this? What is the logic behind it?”‘
He explained: ‘And they say: “Well, come on, it’s a movie. You need to have an antagonist and a protagonist.” And to me that’s just kind of boring.’
Tom then brought up Road To Perdition, the 2002 film in which he played a 1930s mob enforcer amid a cast including Paul Newman, Jude Law and Daniel Craig.
He noted that ‘I machine-gunned Paul Newman. I sH๏τ Jude Law. I sH๏τ Danny, Danny Craig. I killed people as an ᴀssᴀssin in a movie, and everybody’s like: “Yeah, but you did it for the right reasons!”‘
Last year, he remarked that he wished that more of his fans would mention that movie when discussing their favorite movies of his.
‘For one reason or another, no one references Road to Perdition,’ he said on ReelBlend. ‘And that was an incredibly important movie for me to go through.’
In reference to his facial hair in the motion picture, Tom joked: ‘You have me – “Don Moustache” with a hat on – in it.’
The 68-year-old movie star is adored all over the world for lovable roles such as the тιтle character in the 1994 classic Forrest Gump, which he is pictured in with Robin Wright
Tom also led the cast of Toy Story as the jovial cowboy Woody, alongside the astronaut Buzz Lightyear played by Home Improvement star Tim Allen
He has only very occasionally tried his hand at a negative character, such as a gang hitman in the 2002 crime drama Road To Perdition
Directed by Sam Mendes, the movie earned an Oscar nomination for Paul Newman (left) and a posthumous win for its cinematographer Conrad Hall
Tom played another of his rare villainous roles in the 2017 thriller The Circle, also starring Emma Watson, John Boyega, Karen Gillan and Patton Oswalt
Read More Tom Hanks and Robert Zemeckis reveal Forrest Gump originally featured a famous animated character 
He added that ‘you also have two guys who turned out to be two of the biggest motion picture presences in the history of the industry with Jude Law and [Daniel] Craig. And I killed both of them!’
Directed by Sam Mendes, the film was a box office success and earned a posthumous Oscar for its cinematographer Conrad Hall.
Paul Newman was also widely praised for his performance in the picture, picking up nominations for both an Oscar and a Golden Globe.
Tom played another of his rare villainous roles in the 2017 thriller The Circle, also starring Emma Watson, John Boyega, Karen Gillan and Patton Oswalt.
Based on a novel by David Eggers, the movie flopped at the box office and earned a blistering critical response to the tune of 15% on Rotten Tomatoes.
