Tom Hanks on his on-set behavior: ‘I’ve had tough days trying to be a professional’

Tom Hanks says he isn’t always on his best behavior when it comes to being on movie sets.

The Oscar winner is regarded as one of Hollywood’s nicest and most admired actors, but even he’s had tough days on the job. In his new novel, “The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece,” he writes about an actor who is disruptive and delays filming.

“I have pulled every single one of those moments of behavior myself on a set,” Hanks told the BBC in a new interview published May 8. “Not everybody is at their best every single day on a motion picture set.”

The 66-year-old Hanks has been a working actor since his film debut in the 1980 slasher “He Knows You’re Alone.” Since then, he’s starred in dozens and dozens of films, becoming a cultural icon with two Academy Awards.

“I’ve had tough days trying to be a professional when my life has been falling apart in more ways than one and the requirement for me that day is to be funny, charming and loving,” he shared. “And it’s the last way I feel.”

While he may have his low days, there’s one thing that Hanks will absolutely not stand when it comes to his work.

“What cannot occur on a motion picture is that someone cannot monkey around with the timing or the length of the shoot or the budget,” he says about the importance of being on time. “That is a cardinal sin in the motion picture business.”

However, he said people would “be amazed at how many people know that they can get away with it, and are told they can get away with it, because they are carrying the movie on their shoulders.” 

Hanks previously spoke with TODAY’s Savannah Guthrie about his nice-guy reputation, saying in January of this year, “My brat kids will probably tell you, ‘When is Dad not in charge with his inner crank?’”

“I like to use the word ‘fascinating,’ as opposed to nice,” he continued. “But, listen, we have all been stuck in traffic, right? So when that stuff happens I do, in fact, go absolutely berserk.”

Fans saw him release his inner crank in “A Man Called Otto” while portraying sourpuss Otto Anderson. He joked that he wished he “had lived a life where people would truly fear me.”