While Saving Private Ryan returns to the screens on the occasion of the celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the Allied Landings, Tom Hanks, who came from elsewhere in France, talks to Le Parisien about his memories of filming.
If you follow the news at all, it will probably not have escaped your attention that today we are celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Allied Landings. It was not just the international political elite who made the trip to Normandy. Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks were also invited to the commemorations. The two were seen yesterday at Caen-Carpiquet airport, to take part in two ceremonies: one in Colleville-sur-Mer and the other in Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer.
The airport’s Facebook page also immortalized the arrival of the two Hollywood stars…
A presence obviously anything but innocuous; Spielberg and Hanks being behind Saving Private Ryan, which tells precisely this page of history. Spielberg’s masterpiece is also the subject of a limited release in the territory, to celebrate the occasion.
“I considered his choice as a courtesy to me”
Before boarding for France, the actor shared some memories of filming the film with the local correspondent of the newspaper The Parisian in the United States. His first film with a filmmaker who would become his friend.
“When one of the producers at Paramount sent us this script, I was immediately hooked. Steven had also read it at the same time. We called each other the next day, and we agreed to do it in 24 hours. All actors dream of being in one of his films one day. He had no need of a star to make this project a reality. towards me!” he confides.
DreamWorks
Thinking of finding a particularly attentive Spielberg on set and leaving little room for his actors, he will be for his cost. “He let his actors take a lot of initiative. He is much more open to suggestions than you might think” comments Hanks, who recalls that Saving Private Ryan was “[son] first action film. Before that, I had never made any action films at all. So the fact of having to kill on screen didn’t bother me, since it was part of a very specific context.”
