TOM HANKS STILL CAN’T WATCH THIS ICONIC SCENE FROM HIS OWN MOVIE—AND HIS HONEST REASON SURPRISED FANS. K2

Tom Hanks in Los Angeles on June 9, 2026.Credit:  Kevin Winter/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty

Tom Hanks has a few regrets about his acting choices.

The Forrest Gump actor candidly discussed how he retroactively views his performances during an interview with The Rest Is Entertainment. Hanks responded to a listener’s question about making mistakes in his career.

Hanks indicated that whether his movies are received warmly or poorly, “they are all such profound experiences of success and failure” because individual moments of his performances stand out to him as unsuccessful.

“I do not watch these movies after the first time, really, ’cause they never change,” he said. “And there are movies that have moments in [them] that I cannot watch because I didn’t get there. And sometimes these are the big moments. I simply did not get there. And I know it. And I was confounded by any number of things.”

Hanks then cited one particular scene that he cannot bear to watch. “There is a moment that is painful for me in Cast Away,” he said before describing a scene in which his protagonist Chuck Noland reunites with his former girlfriend Kelly Frears (Helen Hunt) after being stranded on an island. “Chuck is back in Kelly’s house and he gives her her watch back, and there’s a moment where I just think I’m not there. All it is is a turnaround on me.”

Hanks doesn’t find his performance in that moment believable. “I do this gesture that I just think is false, and is me, and is not Chuck,” he said. “If the movie is on, I will get up and leave the room before that scene comes on.”

The Da Vinci Code actor said that he didn’t realize his mistake until he saw the completed movie for the first time. “It wasn’t until I actually saw it when it went down, and I think that we were just moving on there, and I wasn’t there,” he said.

Hanks then responded to a question about whether or not he gives himself credit when he nails a scene or moment on screen.

“The only time that that happens is when I have no recollection of it whatsoever,” he said. “But it’s not a thing, I can’t linger on that. I don’t sit there and say, ‘Oh, watch this movie. Watch this moment that comes up, we really nailed that.’ I look at it, and all I can say is, ‘I was cold. Looks like I’m warm, I was really freezing that day.’ Or, ‘That beard was sticky.'”

You can watch Hanks’ full appearance on The Rest Is Entertainment above.