The Best Advice Tom Hanks Ever Got
As a young actor, Tom Hanks received the best acting advice he’s ever gotten.
It came in the form of a director who blew up at his cast.
While rehearsing for a stage production of The Taming of the Shrew, the actors were not having a good day. They were lethargic. Phoning it in. Asking for lines. Waiting for direction.
It was just about the worst kind of rehearsal a director can have: mediocre.
And it set the director off.
“The director got so freaking mad,” Hanks says in an interview.
Hanks then suddenly takes on the persona of the director and starts shouting: “ ‘I can’t tell you guys what to do every time. Stop asking where you should be. Stop asking what the motivation is. That’s your job. You have to show up on time, you have to know the text, and [Hanks is fully screaming now] you have to have an idea! Now let’s take ten!’ ”
The explosion shook Hanks, and he thought hard about it during the break. “I heard that and I said: show up on time, know the text, and have an idea.”
“I think I can do that.”
But it’s not just the best acting advice. It also works for life. Hanks interprets:
“Show up on time, which actually means a little bit early.”
“Know the text, which means—know what’s going on, know the modus operandi, know what the goals are that everybody has.”
“Have that idea that nobody else has, that will move it a little bit forward.”
“People say, ‘What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?’ And I just told you what’s the best advice I’ve ever been given.”
The advice is simple, but it’s not easy. Learn from Hanks and internalize this advice:
Show up on time.
Know the text.
And have an idea.
It has worked for Hanks and it will work for you.