Tom Hanks Calls One Of His Movies The Crappiest Ever Made
Tom Hanks thinks The Bonfire of the Vanities is his worst film and "one of the crappiest movies ever made."
Tom Hanks has starred in some of the most acclaimed movies of all time, but he’s also given his fair share of Razzie-worthy performances. According to Far Out, however, there is one movie Hanks himself hates more than any other, The Bonfire of the Vanities. The Forest Gump actor calls the 1990 Brian De Palma comedy “one of the crappiest movies ever made.”
The Bonfire of the Vanities was not Tom’s best film, and it’s not even close to his best film from 1990. That honor goes to the much weirder (and much better) Joe Versus The Volcano. Vanities stars Tom Hanks as Sherman McCoy, a Wall Street millionaire, alongside Melanie Griffith as his mistress and Bruce Willis as alcoholic journalist Peter Fallow. The movie was hated by critics and fans, raking in a paltry $15 million at the box office against a $47 million budget.
Tom Hanks blames his performance in The Bonfire of the Vanities on an inability to relate to Sherman as a character. Hanks claims he tried “bullsh***ing” his way through the production, but it was ultimately impossible. Still, the actor doesn’t regret making the movie.
“I hadn’t gone through that experience,” said Hanks, “I would have lost out on something valuable,” One lesson the film clearly taught Hanks was to be pickier about his projects. The actor’s next three movies after his worst film were A League of Their Own, Sleepless in Seattle, and Philadelphia.
Those three roles fit Tom Hanks much better than Sherman McCoy. Sleepless in Seattle established Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan as Hollywood’s favorite onscreen couple. Meanwhile, Tom’s role as Andrew Beckett in Philadelphia won him the Best Actor Oscar award.
It’s hard to imagine Tom Hanks in a bad role, but he’s had more than you think. The thing about Tom Hanks is that Cast Away and Toy Story are such good movies that they make everyone forget about trainwrecks like Dragnet and Bachelor Party. When Tom was a young actor still perfecting his craft, he would take pretty much any role that came along, whether it was good or not.
It’s the smaller, supporting role as washed-up baseball coach Jimmy Dugan in A League of Their Own that really shows where Tom Hanks was following the failure of The Bonfire of the Vanities. The actor went from top billing to second banana behind Geena Davis. Had the movie not been a massive hit, who knows how far down in the credits Hanks would have fallen on his next movie.
Luckily. Tom Hanks recovered from his worst flop and became one of America’s most beloved actors. Hanks’s next role will be in the new Wes Anderson comedy Asteroid City. The movie is currently in post-production and comes out on June 23.
Asteroid City takes place in 1955 at a Junior Stargazer convention. The film boasts an all-star cast, including Margot Robbie, Jeff Goldblum, Tilda Swinton, and several others. Asteroid City will be the first time Tom Hanks has worked with the quirky Rushmore director.
Hopefully, Asteroid City will be less like The Bonfire of the Vanities and more like one of Tom’s better movies.
