It isn’t every day a poor shlub gets a private sitdown with Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks at a swanky left coast hotel, but for this one it happened last Wednesday in the 90210. The dynamic duo sat down to discuss their new film “The Terminal,” the old stuff and being bosom buddies.
Q: What, if anything, were you trying to convey in “The Terminal” about an America that is very different now than it was before September 11, 2001?
STEVEN SPIELBERG: Whatever I said about the post-9- 11 environment, I chose to say it gently. This was not meant to be a picture that emphasized politics or the post-disaster environmaent over character. Of course, this country is much more vigilant at our international airports because of 9-11, but you have to make your own inferences.
Q: Are we sacrificing too much personal freedom in the name of national security?
SS: We sometimes forget about a teeny little thing called the human being. We do tend to suspect everybody. Suddenly everything doesn’t look as safe as it used to look before that horrible disaster. This was an effort to try and show audiences that the people who travel internationally are, for the most part, the same people who traveled before 9-11, and that we should try to start trusting each other again.
Q: Tom, what’s your favorite Spielberg movie?
TOM HANKS: Wow. Well, what’s tough is, which films do you not include on the list? From the perspective of when I saw the film, I’d say “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” It’s easily one of the five greatest motion pictures ever made. That’s not taking anything away from “ET” or “Schindler’s List” or “Saving Private Ryan” — they’re all part of the top ten, for crying out loud. But “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” made me poop my pants.
Q: Have you soiled yourself over a Hanks movie, Steven?
TH: And we’re talking literally. SS: (laughs) I pooped my pants from both pathos and laughter when I saw “A League of Their Own.” That was a great character you played — one of my favorite performances of all time. And I also think one of the greatest statements ever made on the AIDS epidemic was “Philadelphia.”
Q: You’ve both made some emotionally devastating movies.
Are you ever moved to tears while you’re shooting the films?
SS: Absolutely. If you can have an emotional reaction behind the camera to what the actor is doing in front of it, there’s no better signal that you’re really involved. On “Schindler’s List” and “Saving Private Ryan” there were whole days where I would have tears in my eyes all day long. And I’m not patting myself on the back — I think anybody, if they believe in what they’re doing, gets caught up in the emotional journey.
TH: You do get overpowered by what’s going on. You know you’re making a movie, of course, but the emotional power is not like you’re making a movie. After what we did on Omaha Beach (in “Saving Private Ryan”) I had a day off, had a Guinness in the afternoon, and two more at dinnertime because I needed it.
Q: The question on everybody’s mind is when are the two of you going to bring “Bosom Buddies” to the big screen?
TH: We have Steven working on the storyboards. He’s got it all ready to go. If we can shoot in the Vatican — we’re just waiting for those permits to come through — we’ll have it.
Q: Steven, what can you tell us about the next Indiana Jones film?
SS: It’s still in the process. I’m hoping we’ll make it next summer.
Perhaps it’ll come out Memorial Day of ’06, but I can’t promise you that. I was certain it was going to be shot this summer, coming out ’05, but that didn’t happen so I didn’t want to make a promise I can’t keep to the public.
TH: What’s the actual name of it? Does it have a name?
SS: Indy 4 TH: Just Indy 4? (chuckles) Indy 4. You gotta come up with something better than that.
SS: I’ll leave that up to you, Tom.
TH: Only if I get one of those cool Indy Jones hats.
Q: What was your worst airport experience?
TH: There was a four-hour storm delay, we were already in the plane, pulled away from the gate, sitting on the runway. (Impersonating a flight attendant) “Ladies and gentlemen, there’s a storm all over the east coast.” We couldn’t leave until the gate was cleared at La Guardia, so we were sitting there for a while at O’Hare. We were in the plane, on the runway, on a flight that was going to take an hour and a half, but we were sitting on the runway at O’Hare for four hours.
Q: Must have been hot? TH: It’s not necess… well, no… it’s stuffy.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 18, 2004. Read the original PDF.