Tom Hanks warned his son Truman he was going to have to “hit the marks” in his performance in A Man Called Otto “no matter what your last name is”.
The Hollywood star, who plays “the grumpiest man in America” in the upcoming comedy-drama, is portrayed by his son, 26, in flashback scenes.
The Marc Forster-directed film follows Otto Anderson as he descends into a deep malaise when his wife dies and he is forced to retire, before boisterous new neighbours move in leading to an unlikely friendship.
Appearing on the Graham Norton Show, Hanks said: “Truman plays my character’s younger self, but he’s not the actor in the family – he’s an artist and is going to be a cinematographer.
“We talked about it a lot and it was all his choice, but I said to him, ‘No matter what your last name is, you are going to have to hit the marks’.
“Not everyone is cut out for that, but he did a magnificent job and I thought he was extraordinary.
“It’s still to be discovered if he’s caught the acting bug – we will see where he wants to go with it.
“I’ve always said to the kids, ‘It’s great work if you can get it but you’ve got to make it stick’.
“But his passion is shaping the shot rather than being in the shot.”
Hanks has two sons with his wife, actress and singer Rita Wilson, and has two children from his previous marriage to Samantha Lewes.
Talking about his upcoming novel, The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece, he said: “Write what you know, right?
“No one knows how we make movies – it is so cockamamie how you get a movie from someone’s idea to the screen.
“I think I invested about 400 pages and nine quarts of blood writing it.”
The Graham Norton Show airs on BBC One and iPlayer on Friday at 10.40pm.
