Tom Hanks Paid For Iconic Forrest Gump Scene Himself to Ensure It Wouldn't Get Cut
Tom Hanks revealed that the crew of Forrest Gump, which won an Oscar, had a lot of challenges while filming. As a result, one of the most memorable scenes almost didn't make it into the movie.
Tom Hanks shared a behind-the-scenes story about the making of the classic film Forrest Gump in an interview with In Depth with Graham Bensinger.
According to Hanks, Paramount Film Company initially refused to pay for the shooting of the iconic scene in which Gump becomes a national legend while humbly running across the United States. The studio cited the high cost as the reason for their refusal, but Hanks and the director, Robert Zemeckis, were determined to include the scene in the movie.
In fact, they were so committed to including it in the film that they agreed to personally finance the scene in exchange for a percentage of the profits from the theatrical release (somewhat standard practice nowadays for big name actors like Tom Cruise or Robert Downey Jr. )
Hanks recalled that "The studio said: 'We can't afford it, so don't shoot that scene,'" but the director said the scene was too important a part of the movie to just cut it. Zemeckis suggested that he and Hanks were going to split the cost of filming the scene and pay for it themselves.
Hanks added that they had agreed with Paramount that for this movie, the studio would increase their percentage from the rental – it turned out that they earned even more than they spent.
Fortunately, their gamble paid off. Forrest Gump ended up earning $683 million at the box office and Hanks himself earned about $65 million from the film. The movie also won six Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Director. It's clear that this iconic scene played a major role in the success of the film and will continue to be remembered as a classic moment in cinematic history.