Looking back, we might be forgiven for wondering whether Tom Hanks had forsaken his funnybone, or at the very least kept it discreetly out of sight. But the man who underwent a fantastically successful conversion from classic comic performer to a serious Oscar-winning actor in the '90s is back to his old hilarious self in the Coen brothers' new film, The Ladykillers. It's his first true comedy in a decade, and that alone explains why this film is enjoying a high level of anticipation.
Hanks stars as Professor Goldthwait Higginson Dorr III, PhD, a distinguished southern gentleman-cum-con artist with a penchant for caped plantation owner's suits and the florid poetry of Edgar Allan Poe. Hanks' courtly charlatan carefully assembles a band of thieves (including Marlon Wayans in a delicious turn) for the purpose of robbing a floating riverboat casino, while trying to shield his activities from the prying eyes of his no-nonsense landlady, Mrs Munson.
When you decided to make this film, were you wondering, 'Am I still funny?'
Well, I have to confess I don't spend my days torturing myself over the issue - usually I turn to my wife and family to answer these questions for me. Unfortunately, I'm almost always disappointed by their conclusions! The nature of the comedies I've always done has never been like doing wacky or crazy, goofy things. It was really inhabit a character and be part of a story that is intrinsically, you know, comic, and that was the case with this. I didn't have my crack team of show-business experts scouring the industry for a comedy.
Were you anxious to do a different style of comedy as well?
That was part of it. The era of the overt comedy got altered a while ago. Look at what the nature of a studio comedy essentially is now. It's pretty much about kids having sex or a TV show that has been spoofed. But comedies based on adults in adult situations saying adult things? There aren't that many of them.
What do you enjoy most about the Coen brothers' films?
If there's something that attracts me to Coen brothers' movies, it's that they're always focusing on some foible of the human condition, where the characters get involved in impossible situations. We all think we can get away with stuff, but the characters in Coen brothers movies think they can get away with a lot.
It's even hard to put your finger on what it is about their movies that gives them their unique atmosphere. They're very odd movies that end up dictating their own kind of logic... As a guy that goes to the movies, I just want to see something I've never seen before. I want to have things demanded of me, my attention and my professional skills, in a place I've never been. And this was it.
What was specifically different about this comedy from your perspective?
In caper movies like this, often it's so programmed and it can be very predictable. But this script was wild in that my character never changed his style. The first time I read the script, I was expecting that this guy, who's a con man, would drop his Southern Gothic persona when he goes downstairs into the basement [to join his fellow co-conspirators], that he would drop the façade, drop the flowery language and the affected accent. But he didn't, it was the same guy. And I thought wow! This is going to be different! And it is! That told me oceans about this guy, as opposed to him faking his way through the whole thing. So for me as an actor there was a lot of room to roam!
Do you have any favourite moments in the film?
I love my scenes with Irma [veteran actress Irma P. Hall]. She's the star of the movie. She's the 'lady' in The Ladykillers. She's amazing. She was impervious, a dear, sweet lady who works hard and does her job - and does it beautifully. Irma's had a renaissance life. She was a teacher, her father was a musician who played the black nightclub circuit throughout the South. Irma was a nurse, for crying out loud! She's done so much and most important - she knows this world. The world inhabited by this Mrs Munson. She gets her and she gets her good, from the way she sings in church to simply the way she walks in and lectures that sheriff. I love the way she just keeps talking and barely takes a breath - not letting him get a word in edge-wise. That stuff's priceless.
I also want to announce that no ladies were killed in the making of The Ladykillers. I don't know if they have that thing from the humane society at the end of the title credits, but we should put that up there.
I understand you've never seen the original.
I'm only familiar with it from reading film catalogues and seeing documentaries hosted by Martin Scorsese. I made one remake once, of The Man With One Red Shoe, back when I literally thought they would allow me to make three movies and then banish me to dinner theatre. I watched the original, and I found it to be a real waste of time.
Were you worried that you might be intimidated by Alec Guinness's performance in the original The Ladykillers?
I'm sure I would have been intimidated, and that's the last thing I need. So I didn't bother with it... I mean, you can't do anything about the comparisons, legends like that stand on their own. I just have to go out and do my job and see whether it works or not. I also wouldn't have gotten involved if this would have been a straight remake. Why bother if it's already been done successfully one way? But the Coens weren't interested in that either, so it gave us a free hand to reinterpret the story. Alec Guinness did it before, that's the purest, most beautiful form of the thing, so let's all either shoot ourselves in the head, or go ahead and just pretend the original never existed. If it had just been a remake of The Ladykillers [without the Coens attached], I would have said no.
Were you curious about what the Coen brothers were like?
For years I'd been telling my people, 'What are these Coen guys up to? I'd like to meet them.' So when I heard about this project, I made it a point to find out more. I'd just worked with Mary Zophres on Catch Me If You Can. She's done the costumes on a bunch of Coen brothers' movies, so I asked her what they were like on a set. She said essentially it's a very nice experience. It's very calm and there's no panicking that goes on. I must say sometimes the production office was so quiet when I came in, I wondered, 'Is there a Jewish holiday or something?' I guess the big question was going to be 'how do they work together?' because there are two of them, you know. Is Ethan going to sidle up to me and say, 'Joel has his head up his butt. Under no circumstances do it like that.' The way it turns out is Joel kind of runs the shot, and Ethan is always around with his suggestions. You can ask either one, 'What do you think of this idea?' I liked working with them. You can just call me Zeppo Coen!
