“Let me take full responsibility for doing this to you.” Actor rejected from Band of Brothers for having “dead eyes” years later was apologized to by Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks has apologized to the actor, whom he reportedly rejected from Band of Brothers, for an unfortunate incident years ago.

Edyta Jastrzebska

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Source: Band of Brothers, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, HBO, 2001

When work was underway and the cult series Band of Brothers, an unfortunate situation occurred involving Connor Ratliff and Tom Hanks. Ratliff was to play the role of Major Richard “Dick” Winters, however, despite the casting, he eventually had to say goodbye to the role. According to reports, Hanks, who was executive producer of the series and director of the episode with Ratliff, found Ratliff to have “dead eyes,” making him unconvinced about his performance and the actor was turned down.

The problem of the situation is that the information should not have reached him. It should remain in a closed circle, where Hanks shared the remark. Ratliff was deeply affected by the experience, after which he said goodbye to his role in the cult series. And he didn't forget it even years later, starting the Dead Eyes podcast, to which he managed to invite Hanks himself in the 31st episode.

That's when Ratliff and Hanks talked about the unfortunate incident. Although Hanks did not fully remember the situation, he took full responsibility for it and apologized to the actor.

Let me first take full responsibility for doing this to you. This was without a doubt the act of the director, and that was me.

Hanks explained that this situation should not have happened and the message should not have reached him from the casting department. He noted that such comments are usually off-record and should be kept confidential. He also confessed that he understood why Ratliff felt affected by this, so he apologized to him without reluctance.

Ratliff later showed Hanks a photo of himself from that time, and after looking at it, Hanks concluded that the actor did not have “dead eyes” at all. This doesn't change much, as Ratliff lived with this opinion for years and lost his role in Band of Brothers, but at least he received some closure.

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Edyta Jastrzebska

Author: Edyta Jastrzebska

A graduate of journalism and social communication as well as cultural studies. She started at Gamepressure.com as one of the newspeople in the films department. Currently she oversees the Gamepressure movie&TV newsroom. She excels in the field of film and television, both in reality-based and fantasy themes. Keeps up with industry trends, but in her free time she prefers to watch less known titles. Has a complicated relationship with popular ones, which is why she only gets convinced about many of them when the hype around them subsides. Loves to spend her evenings not only watching movies, series, reading books and playing video games, but also playing text RPGs, which she has been into for several years.