Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. There was a time when you just couldn’t isolate this amazing Hollywood duo from one another. Isn’t it? Regardless of how happening our lives might be in today’s fast-paced, fun-loving, gadget-obsessed time marked by a pervading sense of instant-gratification, only a few would deny not visiting back the nineties.
The nineties were, of course, that part of a time in our lives where communication was often between people interacting with one another; where there was no such thing as virtual reality. The nineties were also that time where selfies didn’t exist so as to be hijacking the pleasure of capturing real-time conversations amid real people driven by a zest to speak and exchange ideas.
The Internet was around but didn’t really have people drooling all over it.
Life was a bit easy-going and if one really wanted to define it in a sedately charming way, then probably using the term nonchalant suffices. But was that all there was about the nineties? In fact, implicit in this time of our lives, now best visited through wearing the sepia-tinted glasses of nostalgia is Hollywood. Now, you might ask why but here’s what was the greatest thing about the 90s!
Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.
Weren’t their movies- Volunteers, Joe Versus the Volcano, Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail- just something surreal? One didn’t have to really hold one’s heart in panic or restless wonder when watching Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan together- isn’t it? There was nothing terrible that would happen in any of Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan movies. Having said that, there indeed were some teary-eyed moments.
But even then, in midst of some tear-drop, there was a feeling of having one’s heart melt with an insane level of gratification. And that’s all that there was to it. Lots of love and some well-invested emotions were in those movies. There was laughter, a beautiful intent in the film, some sugary sweet romance, a bit of quick charm spun over by Tom’s “Hankness” and well, a screen-opposite who was barely any less charming than Hanks himself, Meg Ryan.
Having said that, Meg Ryan recently shared what was it actually about Tom Hanks that moved her to do as many films as she eventually signed with the famous Californian.
Meg Ryan also expressed immense contentment about being reminded, every now and again, that her chemistry with Tom Hanks was absolutely kickass.
And to put it simply, the reason behind those fantastic movies that were part of one of our life’s most beautiful phase had a lot to do with the man Tom Hanks was, rather still is, in real life.
Explaining on Hanks’ persona, Ryan shared, ‘it had everything to do with Tom Hanks’ personality.’
Among the greatest actors to have embraced the big screen, someone, who’s as respected as he is liked for his versatility and absolute commitment to whatever role he’s assigned, Hanks has always brought a nice-hearted, caring, compassionate presence to his parts.
It was indeed the nice-guy approach that he stuck to that appealed to Meg the most, according to the actress herself. The fact that Hanks was a giving actor, someone who ‘stood up for others’ just as well then as he does now and that he seldom cared about his own role in a film and went out of the way to make the others comfortable were facets that endeared him to everyone’s favourite Meg.
It also has to be said that while Meg Ryan was kind and generous with her appreciate words on the Forrest Gump actor, it’s not actually a surprise that she too has been struck by Hanks’ congenial and caring nature. One wonders, just how many have identified that part of Tom’s nature which is well becoming increasingly alien in an industry that often cares about one’s own success.