“I Changed His Diapers”: Veteran Actor Tom Hanks Speaks Passionately About His Son Playing A Younger Him In A Man Called Otto

In the comedy-drama film A Man Called Otto, Truman Hanks, 27, plays the role of a younger Tom Hanks. Being his son and an actor, producers of the film(of which Tom Hanks is one of them) found it unthinkable for any other person to perfectly embody a younger Tom Hanks, 66, but his son, Truman.

At a post-screening Q&A for the film on Monday night, Tom had a moment to explain to People what it’s like working with his son (whom he had with his wife Rita Wilson) on the project. 

Talking to People, he says, “without a doubt, it’s special because you know, I changed his diapers.” The You’ve Got Mail star goes further to explain to People saying, “But you get past that right away because you gotta show up, and you gotta hit the marks, and you gotta do it on time, and you gotta be right there.”

While still talking to People, the veteran romcom actor continues of his son, “I know what that takes, and he does too. It’s a little different when it’s the whole shebang. He was cast for a very specific reason. We resemble each other, he’s not a stranger, and he knows what the pressure is, and he’s gotta do it.”

While still talking to People about the comedy-drama directed by Marc Foster, Hanks slightly ventures into the realities of being an actor and the uncertainty of his performance.

He says, “the thing that we both know is…you don’t know if you did a good job.” He adds, “all you can do is wait for that very surrealistic moment when you see the movie, and it’s like, ‘there it is.’ It’s gonna last forever. Even then, I don’t think you have an idea of whether it works or not.”

Hearing from Truman about working with his father, he jokingly tells People that he and his siblings have mastered the art of imitating their father. “Whenever I do my imitation of him, people are like, ‘That’s not what he sounds like.’ But I have to convey to you the way I hear him. Everyone else hears, ‘Houston we have a problem’; I hear this grumpy old man who’s mad at the DVD player,” he says.

The film, A Man Called Otto, is the second adaptation of a 2012 novel, A Man Called Ove, by Fredrik Backman, and is set for release on January 13.