Forrest Gump it is one of those films that never ceases to move us and make us smile every time we see it again, even after more than 25 years. Winner of 6 Oscars, he quickly became a cult film full of quotes, with scenes and phrases that have entered popular culture ("Run, Forrest, run" o "Stupid is whoever is stupid!" to name just two).
Great merits for the success of this film go to its main interpreter, Tom Hanks, at the time still not too famous as an actor but in those years his exploit was about to begin. Forrest Gump it was shot, in fact, in the summer of 1993, the same year it came out Philadephia, the film for which Hanks received his first Academy Award for Best Actor.
Why does Forrest speak like this?
Sifting through the special contents of the blu-ray edition of the film, we learned of an interesting curiosity concerning the 'speech' of Forrest, one of his most distinctive features. As explained in the first few minutes of the film, Forrest was born with a less than normal cognitive development, which in many cases can lead to language difficulties. In addition to that, Forrest was born in a small town in Alabama, a state with a strong southern accent. As a result, Tom Hanks managed to combine these two characteristics and that particular descent came out if we want to call it that (a trait that in the Italian version was still maintained thanks to an excellent work by the voice actor Pannofino).
Want to know who has Tom Hanks to thank for that success? Little Forrest.
Hanks has indeed revealed that inspiration in speaking in that tone it came to him as soon as he got to know the actor who would play Forrest as a child, Michael Conner Humphreys.
We talked a lot about that aspect, whether to do nothing or do something very heavy - says Tom Hanks in the extras. - I'm not a great linguist, but I was looking for something original and I was pretty lost, I had no ideas. Then they gave Michael the role of little Forrest. There I had enlightenment.
We still didn't have a clear idea of how Forrest should speak. We just didn't know. When Michael showed up, we thought “Well, here we go. Here's how we will do it! " He seemed to be pulling his voice out of his spine. So I literally took his vocal cadences and adapted them to an adult. When I was it was like I was trying to hold a tape recorder in front of his face.
Michael Conner Humphreys was an 8-year-old boy, born and raised in Mississippi (another state in the South). He learned of the audition for Forrest Gump from a local newscast and after hundreds of auditions the production did, he came along and won them unanimously.
His was an original accent. - Says producer Wendy Finerman. - It was impossible to ask a dialect coach to figure out if he was from Alabama or Mississippi. He had his own accent. And it was perfect because it fully mirrored Forrest, who is an absolutely unique person. It could not be expected to come from a specific region, only from Forrestopoli and Michael Humphreys seemed to come from right there.
Article Forrest Gump and the talk of Tom Hanks: that's where he got his inspiration From We of the 80-90s.
