Decades after Tom Hanks sat on that park bench and delivered one of the most quoted performances in film history, the stories behind Forrest Gump continue to surface — and several of them are as surprising as anything in the movie itself.
From the A-list actor who passed on the lead role to a prosthetic so convincing it derailed its wearer’s career, the Oscar winner still has layers to uncover for the generation of viewers who grew up quoting it.
John Travolta Passed on the Movie
John Travolta revealed he was initially offered the part of Forrest Gump, the role that won Hanks the Academy Award for Best Actor at the 67th Academy Awards in 1995.
Travolta explained his decision while speaking with MTV in 2007: “If I didn’t do something Tom Hanks did, then I did something else that was equally interesting or fun, […] But I feel good about some I gave up because other careers were created.”
The Running Sequence Almost Didn’t Happen
That cross-country running sequence — the one that put “Run, Forrest, run!” into action on screen — nearly got cut because the studio said it couldn’t afford it.
Hanks laid out the full story on “In Depth With Graham Bensinger.” The studio told the filmmakers they couldn’t cover the cost. Director Robert Zemeckis pushed back: “it’s too important a part of the movie just to cut. We can make this work [financially].”
When the studio held firm, Zemeckis went directly to Hanks. And Hanks’s response? “Why’s he talking to me? He’s the boss, I’ll do whatever he says. This is above my pay grade.”
What Zemeckis proposed changed the dynamic of the entire production. He asked Hanks to be his collaborator, not just his employee. “I will open up the cuts and talk about every aspect of the post-production of this with you if you will be my collaborator and not just my employee,” Zemeckis told him.
The two personally split the cost of the running sequence and gave the money back to the studio in exchange for a share of the profits. “Which the studio said ‘Fabulous, great, OK.’ And it was good for us too,” Hanks recalled.
When weather issues later threatened insurance coverage during production, Hanks and Zemeckis covered that cost as well. “And it ended up being very easy after that,” Hanks said.
A Character Wore a Prosthetic Lip
Mykelti Williamson wore a prosthetic lip to play Bubba, and it worked so well that Hollywood essentially forgot who he was underneath it.
“I couldn’t get a job after Forrest Gump,” Williamson told USA Today. “The industry didn’t realize that I was wearing a lip device and that I was the same guy who had appeared in 11 TV series. They thought the director had discovered some weird-looking guy and put him in front of the camera.”
An appearance on David Letterman’s late night show turned things around. Williamson let Letterman wear the lip attachment, and “The very next day,” said Williamson, “the phone began to ring.”
Sally Field and the Age Question
Despite playing Forrest’s mother, Sally Field is only 10 years older than Hanks. Six years before Forrest Gump she played his love interest in Punchline.
Field addressed this in a February 2022 interview with Newsweek, explaining that in Punchline she played “this slightly older woman” while Hanks was “this up and comer.” For Gump, she got to play three different ages — “younger, then I was a little bit older, and then very much older.” As Field put it: “So it’s not a fair example.”
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