Challenges motivate Tom

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He’s been nominated for the Best Actor Oscar five times, and won it twice, for Philadelphia and Forrest Gump. Critics say that with Cloud Atlas, his latest film that was released in city theatres on Friday, Tom Hanks is now in the running for a sixth nomination.

There would be an odd sense of rightness in the actor’s receiving a sixth nomination for Cloud Atlas — for six is the number of roles he’s essayed in this film, based on the 2004 novel of the same name by David Mitchell.
Even for Tom, who’s taken on some serious challenges as an actor, producer and director in his over three decade long career, portraying six characters in Cloud Atlas — each with a different physicality, characteristics, personality — wasn’t an easy task. “Every character that I played was different from the other, and the switch between the characters was difficult. I got the hang of it later though,” said Tom, in an email interview. “The physicality, the vocal quality has to come out of a very organic place, and that’s a task when you’re portraying just one person. With six, the time simply isn’t enough (to do that). But it was still fun.”
When Tom says that “time was his enemy” as far as preparing for his six roles in Cloud Atlas went, one has to keep in mind that this is the same actor whose meticulous, time intensive approach to each film has influenced Bollywood actors like Aamir Khan. He admits, “It was difficult to go to some of the places emotionally that my characters needed to go to… But having been in Hollywood for so long, I like trying new things. With every movie, I’m evolving. Challenges motivate me.”
The actor has a penchant for choosing film roles that reflect his personal beliefs and commitments. Philadelphia was merely one of the many ways in which the actor has shown his support for the gay community, Apollo 13 and the documentary From the Earth To The Moon are byproducts of his interest in the US’ space programme. The philosophy of Cloud Atlas is something he believes in as well. Adding that Indian audiences will especially identify with “the themes of karma and reincarnation that are explored in Cloud Atlas”, he says, “Karma is like science. It follows Newton’s Third Law: ‘Every action has equal and opposite reaction’. I do believe in that — that everything is connected and all our deeds, our actions are going to reflect in our next life and maybe the life after that too.”
Apart from Tom, Cloud Atlas stars a whole galaxy of talented actors including Halle Berry, Susan Sarandon and Hugh Jackman, and Tom says while it was rare for the entire cast to be on the same set at the same time, they still tried to meet as often as they could. “I had a great time working with everyone, especially Halle, because she is such a beautiful person and simply outstanding as an actor,” Tom says.
Also exciting was working with Cloud Atlas directors Lana and Andy Wachowski (the Matrix trilogy, V For Vendetta) and Tom Twyker (Run Lola Run).
Tom is ready for his next challenge. “I’d love to come down to India,” he says.