If you only recognize one actor in “Elvis,” it’s probably Tom Hanks. Hanks has been working consistently since the ’80s, starting with his role on a sitcom called “Bosom Buddies.” He rose to fame that decade as the lead in classic films like “Splash,” “Big,” and “The ‘Burbs,” and widespread critical recognition soon followed. The ’90s brought Oscar wins for “Forrest Gump” and “Philadelphia,” as well as a nomination for “Saving Private Ryan.” He’s been in “Sleepless in Seattle,” “Toy Story,” “Cast Away,” and “The Da Vinci Code.”
He’s as A-List as they come, in other words, and he told NPR’s “1A” that the way he got there was by learning how to decline projects that didn’t challenge him. “The only way I could shape my career was by saying no to things I didn’t want to do,” he said, noting it can be easy to accept a job simply because it pays money. “But to look at somebody and say, ‘I’ve done it already, I’m repeating myself, it’s not going to advance me along anymore and I’m in this for something other than that,’ then you gotta say no.”
In “Elvis,” Hanks plays Colonel Tom Parker, the hip-shaking crooner’s manager. Hanks’ participation in the movie made headlines years before it hit theaters; the star was in Australia filming the biopic when he and his wife, actor and singer Rita Wilson, became the first celebrities to go public with a COVID-19 diagnosis.
