In a recent interview, Tom Hanks took full responsibility for the way he fired Conor Ratliff on the sets of the hit HBO show, Band of Brothers. On Thursday, the actor of Search Party spoke about this incident on his reputed podcast- Dead Eyes- where he retold the story of being cast on the show and then being fired for having dead eyes. While Hanks admitted that this didn’t ring a bell, he did own up. He told Ratliff that the actions of firing were entirely the responsibility of the director, and he was owning up for what he did. Hanks further mentioned that this was probably one of those requirements to put the story in a different way.
Tom Hanks Distraught Over Directorial Action
Tom Hanks stated that in the inner sanctum of the show, where every single executive decision was being taken, he probably told the others that Ratliffe had dead eyes. He believes that he could have said innumerable things to justify the firing, only because he had a particular direction in which he wanted the show to go, and Ratliffe didn’t feature in that. He could have mentioned that Ratcliffe was too slight and short, or that he took tall and had a head full of blond hair.
Back in 2000, Ratliff, then 24, had auditioned for a role in the HBO miniseries- created by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg. Before the filming for his role even began, Ratlifee was fired from the show because the Forrest Gump actor stated that he had dead eyes. 20 years later, Ratliff had put out a podcast that explored casting and rejection in the moviemaking business. Hanks did find the story quite harrowing and took full responsibility for what he believed to be his actions.
Tom Hanks further admitted that he was quite distraught after he heard about the genesis of the podcast from his children, Colin and Elizabeth.
