Tom Hanks walks slowly down The Green Mile and emerges, as always, smiling.
By Stephen Schaefer

America's favorite actor is nearly unrecognizable. As he sits down to talk about his latest release, The Green Mile, Tom Hanks is the first to acknowledge that during shooting he was as big as he's ever been, and he's not talking about star power. The two-time Oscar winner put on about 40 pounds to play portly prison guard Paul Edgecomb in Mile. Now, in the midst of a crash diet and sporting a bushy beard in preparation for his upcoming film Cast Away, Hanks looks less like a movie star than the regular Joe next door. But that's always been his charm anyway, hasn't it? In The Green Mile, adapted by director Frank Darabont from Stephen King's best-selling serial, Hanks is at his compassionate best as a good man charged with the unenviable task of guiding condemned inmates down Death Row's last green linoleum "mile" to Ol' Sparky, the electric chair. An unlikely holiday film and the thematic flip side to Hanks' previous Christmas release, You've Got Mail, Mile is a tale laden with metaphor, miracles, and the palpable presence of a hulking, Christ-like martyr (played by 300-pound newcomer Michael Clarke Duncan).

Not a big believer in divine intervention, Hanks attributes his decade-long run of mega-stardom to luck and instinct, in that order. He spent most of the '80s cranking out middling comedies, hitting bottom in 1990 with the notorious dud The Bonfire of the Vanities. Two years later, Hanks rebounded as the kindhearted women's baseball manager in the modest hit A League of Their Own. From there, he's come through with six consecutive blockbusters, including Philadelphia (his first Best Actor nod), Forrest Gump (his second), and Saving Private Ryan. He's also done voiceover work in the two Toy Story installments and directed the well-received That Thing You Do! Currently, Hanks is splitting his time between co-producing (with Steven Spielberg) an HBO miniseries called Band of Brothers, a project spurred on by involvement in Private Ryan, and playing a man stranded on an island in the aforementioned Cast Away. After that, he's set to appear as Dean Martin in Dino, Martin Scorsese's highly anticipated biopic.

Hanks is well aware of his nice-guy label and works to project that Everyman appeal. In good spirits, he spoke comfortably about his extraordinary success, his professional responsibility, and being called Mount Rushmore by Jim Carrey.

INTERVIEW

You stand alone now atop the box office since Tom Cruise faltered with Eyes Wide Shut.

Who cares! The hard thing is to make a good movie; that's what you're trying to do. The wise old sage Bob Zemeckis (you have his books, don't you?) told me that George Lucas told him all movies are binary, and they either are or they aren't. They're either a one or a zero. I watched The Insider, one of the most amazing movies, and no one is going to see it. It's a zero instead of one. There is something about the subject matter and the zeitgeist that doesn't interest enough people.

But take A League of Their Own. Everybody thought a movie about women playing baseball was doomed.

It's the luck of the alliance. I've been lucky. I've got talented people working for me; they're at the absolute top of the game. The only credit I'll take is that I think it's interesting. I'd go see these movies.

Do you turn down lots of scripts?

There is a huge amount of stuff I'm simply not available for. If they want to make a movie in a certain amount of time and I just can't, I don't even want to see that stuff … because if it's really great, I'd be bummed out. So actually I think I say no to a lot less stuff than I used to simply because I don't see it.

Would you do something outrageous like be a Bond villain?

No, I don't think so. [But] I will entertain anything; it doesn't matter. You know, it's not obviously about the price, it's not about who, it's kind of about when and what. It's material, that's all.

What's the most outrageous offer you've gotten?

Everybody will take some kind of shot. Most of the weird stuff comes from sweaty people at public functions who try to slip you business cards. It's like, "Yeah, I'd want to talk to you." It's just not going to happen.

Is it true that you said you'd have liked to do Kevin Spacey's role in American Beauty?

Of course I'd like to have done the Spacey thing. But it's easy to say after the fact, after you've sat in the movie theater and said, "Oh, man, I would have jumped at the chance."

So it's true what people say. You do want to play the dark side.

But was that the dark side? That was just a man. I understand exactly what Kevin Spacey's character was going through. I didn't think it was dark at all. It was fabulously human and wonderfully flawed. Those are the only things that I'm interested in.

You're both being mentioned for Best Actor Oscar nominations.

There's no reaction I have to that. That's all part of the big, sweepstakes-competition thing that seems to grow bigger and more massive every year. What can you do? I think it would be great for the movie, and it's a fun night.

Were you upset when Dabbs Greer ended up playing the older version of your character in The Green Mile?

Oh no. The audience is too smart. Would they have taken Kate Winslet in old age makeup [in Titanic]? Or Matt Damon [in Saving Private Ryan]? You could do that back when movies were made in 22 days and the lighting and the film stock was so primitive you couldn't see [the makeup]. People would have said, "It's Tom Hanks in three layers of latex pretending he's an old man." It just wouldn't have worked.

You seem to be on a roll here with male ensembles.

They just come to me. Prior to Saving Private Ryan I never worked with men. I was always working with some babe, and it was always about falling in love, and it just got turned around. I'm not looking for any particular kind of story. I wait until it comes across my desk … and I think it's so fascinating that I hope to be a part of it.

Did The Green Mile really take two years to make?

This felt like it took two years to make. I guess I read the script for the first time a year and a half ago. We started shooting in July ['98], and we weren't even finished by that December.

Didn't it go over by three months?

Oh, Lord, yes. About two weeks into it, we all realized it was one of the long ones. Sometimes they go very quickly, and sometimes they don't.

Why was it so long?

I think it was because Frank [Darabont], having adapted the screenplay, had very specific ideas. It was also one set and … we couldn't have that green mile becoming mundane, "Oh, here's another tracking shot pass the bars." We shot very quickly, but Frank shot a very dense and textured movie here, and that's visible in every scene.

You met Stephen King on the set, didn't you?

Frank didn't tell me … the granddaddy of the project was coming. And it was his birthday. I said, "Howdy do," and "Thanks to you or I wouldn't be here," and we had birthday cake and took some pictures. I don't know what to do around famous and accomplished people except hem and haw.

Somehow we'd think you'd be better.

It doesn't work that way.

Are you a fan of King?

I'm not a big Stephen King aficionado. I'd read The Stand back before VCRs, and I thought that was the Gone With the Wind of the genre, so I wasn't surprised when I read this. He's able to do, I don't know what it is, bring an authenticity. I almost feel like he's telling a story at the dinner table.

Were you intimidated by Michael Clarke Duncan because he's such a huge guy?

There's an instantaneous intimidation factor, but that goes away. He is, I must say, as big a presence spiritually and personally as [his character] John Coffey is. It was the perfect movie to work together. We protected each other and reveled in each other's moments.

What was it like filming the final execution scenes?

That was pretty hairy. The trick of all this is protecting the moment when you're there. In order to manufacture [an emotion], you can't lie. It was an emotionally charged day. You were working at a fever pitch for three hours, and then you'd wait and then work it up again after two-plus hours. We did that in about 72 hours.

Do you believe in miracles?

Oh, the spiritual aspect. I believe it's a miracle you have your job. Oh, forgive me! Ah, the dark side. Sure, I believe it's a miracle we're all here and we're all cognizant. The mysteries of the world are the things that get me. Do I believe in the ability of people to heal? No. I think all those people are charlatans. But I believe in miracles the same way the Amazing Randy does [which is as a skeptic].

How does it feel wearing that beard? You could do Fidel Castro next.

Or The Ted Kaczynski Story, which is going to be a Family Channel movie. It's not uncomfortable anymore; that's when you first start out, which for me was last September. But everybody hates it, including me.

And are you losing the weight?

I'm getting there. It's the standard regimen of how much you eat and exercise. I was as big as a house there for a while. Ultimately [being overweight] is not that pleasant. I'm 43 now, too. It's a little different than earlier on. The metabolism has seized up. I think I'm definitely going on the potato-peel diet.

One of the things that makes your performances so affecting is that you look like a real person. Do you see yourself as a representative of a generation?

I don't see necessarily myself that way, but I probably am. The year I was born, 1956, was the peak year for babies being born, and there are more people essentially our age than anybody else. We could crush these new generations if we decided too. They want to watch TV. Let 'em watch these high school series where the juniors can't get to the prom, and their lives will be in a shambles.

Your son Colin is in one of these high school shows, Roswell. When did you know he was going to go into this business?

He started doing things in college. I want all my kids to develop a passion for what they do, so it does not seem like work. He's been able to do that. I'm ludicrously proud of him.

Did you give him any advice?

There's no advice to give. Well, [a teasing smile] we had one day when we talked about how to handle the press, and I told him he doesn't have to do any interviews. Ultimately, this