Tom Hanks rips critics a new one as he defends his films and more news

Tom Hanks, the beloved actor, isn’t pulling any punches when it comes to his movies.

The 68-year-old Oscar winner recently opened up on Conan O’Brien‘s podcast, sharing his thoughts on how film reception has changed over time. He didn’t mince words, using some colorful language to describe movie critics.

“Now what happened is that time has become one of the metrics for how these things matter, right?” Hanks explained. “In the day it was just a fist fight. It was every movie you came out, are you going to make the playoffs or not? Guess what? No, kid, you’re 2 and 12 and you ain’t going nowhere. Or, you got a shot.”

He went on to describe the different stages a movie goes through. “It used to be you had these Rubicons that you crossed,” Hanks said. “First of all, do you love it or not? That’s the first thing. Yes, okay, you have crossed the Rubicon, right? The next Rubicon you cross is when the movie is completely done a year and a half later, and you see it for the first time, and you might like it. It doesn’t matter if it works or not, you look at it and say, ‘Hey, I think we acquitted ourselves pretty good.’ That’s Rubicon No. 2.”

Hanks continued, “Then the critics weigh in, that’s Rubicon No. 3, and that’s always up down. ‘We hate it, we like it. This is the worst thing… Oh hey, oh hi Tom, I saw you in a movie. It was cute.'”

He jokingly added, “That’s when you ask the wife, ‘Hey, honey, could you take the revolver out of the glove box and hide it somewhere, because I think…,”

The Toy Story star pointed out that box office performance also plays a role in a film’s legacy. “Then a ton of time goes by when none of that stuff matters anymore,” he reflected. “And the movie just exists exactly as it is outside of loser winner status. Thumbs up, thumbs down. And that’s when this stuff comes around, where it’s like that this thing that didn’t work back then, kind of does work now, or just the opposite, a thing that was huge back then is a museum piece and doesn’t really speak to anything.”

When O’Brien, 61, mentioned Hanks’ initial disappointment with his directorial debut That Thing You Do! (1996), which has since become a cult favorite, Hanks didn’t hold back.

“Let me tell you something about these c–suckers who write about movies,” Hanks responded, before asking O’Brien and his co-hosts, “Can I say that?”

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