Tom Hanks plays a wide range of ages in his new film, and he’s got mixed views about it.
The 68-year-old actor features in Robert Zemeckis’s Here, based on the 2014 graphic novel by Richard McGuire.
Here follows the events of a single spot of land, and the people living on it, over the course of more than a century.
Hanks stars alongside Robin Wright as the pair play an old and middle-aged Richard and Margaret Young.
“The single perspective never changes, but everything around it does,” Zemeckis told Vanity Fair.
“It’s actually never been done before. There are similar scenes in very early silent movies, before the language of montage was invented. But other than that, yeah, it was a risky venture.”
The film uses a mix of traditional make up effects and digital de-aging to achieve the various looks.
Meanwhile, for Hanks, who won his first Oscar aged 37, he says he isn’t looking to go back to his thirties.
Tom Hanks plays a wide range of ages in his new film (Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)
When asked by Entertainment Tonight if there was a specific age he enjoyed playing in the film, he said that ‘the hardest for us was when we were playing 35’.
“That time when your metabolism stops, gravity starts tearing you down, your bones start wearing off”, he explained. “You stand differently.”
Notably, the Toy Story actor says he is ‘in better shape now’ than when he was in his 30s.
Opening up about the difficulties of being 35, he said: “You know why? Because my kids are grown up, I’m getting decent exercise, and I can eat right.
“You can’t do that when you’re 35. Life is such a burden!”
Tom Hanks was 37 when he won his first Oscar for his performance in Philadelphia (Fotos International/Getty Images)
Although he previously told People that ‘it’s good to look young again’, he clarified that ‘it’s not great to be young again’.
“It was kooky,” Hanks added.
“That was like the gimmicky kind of aspect of it, because you could do that with regular makeup if you want to do that.
“But because we have this other super fast-filter computer that happened right then and there, we don’t have to wait for the post-production process to view [ourselves as young].
“Look, I’m 68. The much more difficult part that was both physical and spiritual emotionally is when Richard and Margaret are 35 and 42 — when the aging process just begins to kick in and you no longer are able to spring up off a couch. And you’re not yet to a place where life slows down completely.”
Featured Image Credit: Taylor Hill/FilmMagic/Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
