Little pranks between friends can be funny for both parties. In the case of Denzel Washington and Tom Hanks, it has been over 30 years since Denzel made a mean joke with his colleague. The two acting legends have stood so far only once in front of the camera: That was in 1993 during the courtroom drama Philadelphia and neither of them has forgotten it.
Tom Hanks needed to lose 30 pounds for Philadelphia – and Denzel Washington wasn’t helping
In 2022, Denzel Washington was a guest on The Graham Norton Show. Host Graham Norton brought the conversation to the topic of food, after which Denzel Washington revealed his love of midnight snacks. Shortly afterwards, Graham Norton asked his guest about it Prank he played on Tom Hanks on the set of Philadelphiawhen Tom Hanks had to lose 15 kilos during filming. In response to Norton’s question, Washington laughed and told the story:
It was extreme. I mean, he only ate about 800 calories a day and he lost a lot of weight. […] He was actually very thin in the courtroom scenes. So I left chocolate bars there […]. I had pizza delivered to him.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8epYa4lER8&ab_channel=TheGrahamNortonShow
So while Hanks was supposed to lose weight, Denzel Washington kept pestering his colleague with delicious food. It was certainly a lot of torture during the strict diet. But in the end That didn’t stop Hanks from delivering an Oscar-worthy performance. Tom Hanks won his first Oscar with Philadelphia, while Denzel Washington wasn’t even nominated despite a remarkable performance.
At his Oscar acceptance speech Tom Hanks was finally able to take revenge for the torture, which Denzel Washington also remembered in a conversation with Graham Norton.
He thanked me when he won the Oscar.
As is well known, Denzel Washington and Tom Hanks are good friends and still get along today. So there wasn’t really any bad blood because of the prank. Rather, it shows that both actors share a sense of humor.
A thematically similar article is on our sister pages AdoroCinema and FILMSTARTS were published.