Article about Hanks’ “Orange County”

Anyone miss me? Our computer was in the shop this past week so I wasn’t able to get online until tonight.

Thanks to eleen for this :)

Here’s an article that appeared in the Express entertainment section of the Sunday Telegraph (Australian Newspaper)…

Heartfelt Hanks (by Terry Lawson in NY)

The first thing I think when I walk into Colin Hanks’ hotel suite, where he’s enjoying a cigarette and watching an NFL game, is: “Does his dad know he smokes?”

This is despite the fact, that Hanks the younger is 24, and I have no idea whether father Tom smokes.

One of the drawbacks of being the son of America’s most beloved movie star is being under constant scrutiny. The only antidote, of course, is to be your own man – which Colin Hanks achieves in the comedy Orange County.

In his first starring role, Hanks makes a far better impression than his father did in say, Bachelor Party. In fact, Orange County may be the funiest comedy since Election, which was also produced by MTV. In Orange County, Hanks plays Shaun, the only semi-sane member of a dysfunctional Californian family. His Father (John Lithgow), a belligerent business man, is remarried to a woman only a few years older than Shaun, while his tipsy mother (Catherine O’Hara) keeps her elderly second husband nearly comatose on medication. His brother (Jack Black) is a slack stoner whose success schemes are all inspired by drug reveries. Shaun is a contented surfer – until his best friend drowns catching a wave. He finds a book on the beach that convinces him he has to get into Stanford to study writing with the author. His quest for admission leads to many hilarious and tragic episodes.

“I am just so proud of this movie,” Hanks says.

A few nights before, he viewed Orange County with an audience – and was thrilled by their response. “To be in a comedy that works, that people really like, working with all these friends, it’s like, ‘How did I get this lucky?’ ”

Hanks was, in fact, pals with director Jake Kasdan, son of Lawrence, who wrote Raiders Of The Lost Ark and directed The Big Chill. As a regular on the TV series Roswell, he had also become friendly with the people who worked on Freaks and Geeks, including Mike White. Yet Kasdan and White didn’t simply hand the starring role in Orange County to Hanks.

“It doesn’t work like that in Hollywood,”Hanks says. “You can’t let your personal relationships over-ride your judgment.” Kasdan adds: “We read hundreds of guys. Before Colin, we didn’t have a Shaun.”

The cast also includes Schuyler Fisk, daughter of actor Sissy Spacek, as Shaun’s girlfriend, Lily Tomlin and Chevy Chase.