„It's One of The Crappiest Movies Ever Made”. Tom Hanks Considers This Box-Office Bomb His Worst Film
Tom Hanks has spoken in harsh words about the film, which he considers the worst of his career, but nevertheless doesn't regret starring in it.
In 1990 Tom Hanks starred in the film The Bonfire of the Vanities, where we also saw Melanie Griffith, Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman. The show, with an all-star cast, which was supposed to comment on injustice, racism and vague morality, wasn’t well received by either critics or viewers, as can be seen, for example, on Rotten Tomatoes.
This production isn’t also remembered in the best way by Tom Hanks, who bluntly evaluated the film during an interview with Oprah Winfrey. Despite his harsh words, he added that he doesn’t regret having taken part in this production, as he learned a valuable lesson from it.
It's one of the crappiest movies ever made! And yet if I hadn't gone through that experience, I would have lost out on something valuable. That movie was a fascinating enterprise from the word go. It was bigger than life, and for some reason it had a huge amount of attention on it. I can go to Germany, even now, and people will say, "How come you don't make good, gritty movies like The Bonfire of the Vanities anymore?" They have no concept of what it meant to be an American and have that movie enter the national consciousness. Bonfire taught me that I couldn't manufacture a core connection.
Critics alleged that in the case of The Bonfire of the Vanities, mistakes were made in casting the characters. It was believed that Hanks wasn’t the right actor for the role of Sherman McCoy. Fans of Tom Wolfe's book on which the movie was based agreed with this opinion, and even accosted the actor to point this out to him. Hanks wanted to prove them wrong.
And it came along at the right time. When I was playing Sherman McCoy [in Bonfire], people stopped me on the street to say, "You're not Sherman McCoy." I was like, "Oh, yeah?" I was going contrary to everything about the character and even the screenplay, but I kept telling myself, No, no, no – there's a way I can get into this.
When he was asked why he took on a role that didn't fit him at all, he answered this way:
Because I was asked to – and back then, that was still a big deal. I thought I could bullshit my way through.
So, as you can see, Hanks admits that that movie was bad, but admits that he nevertheless doesn’t regret participating in that production, as it taught him some significant things, probably such as how to better choose his roles. The Bonfire of the Vanities, on the other hand, remains one of the biggest film failures of its time. With an estimated budget of $47 million, this production earned only $15.6 million.
