Henry Winkler Reveals His Perspective on Tom Hanks Amid Long-Running Feud Rumors.
Tom Hanks will make Henry Winkler's days brighter. After being ousted as the director of the Oscar winner's 1989 film Turner & Hooch less than two weeks into shooting, the Happy Days alum offered his thoughts on the long-standing rumor that he has a falling out with Hanks.
Winkler claims that because he wasn't as "suited" to direct the comedy, which also starred Mare Winningham and Beasley the dog, he might have offended Hanks during filming.
"At the time, being insecure, I talked too much and I gave them direction—what I thought was my job," the actor recounted in an In Depth With Graham Bensinger interview that was released on September 9 that he was first apprehensive about directing but was approached by a studio executive. "I wanted to do it over again and apparently that pissed them off."
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After 13 days of filming, Winkler was fired, and Roger Spottiswoode eventually took over as director.
The 80-year-old went on, "I went completely against my tummy, and it hit me in the face with a 2x4," claiming that he was "devastated" by his dismissal. "I don't handle it well."
Since then, Winkler thinks he and 70-year-old Hanks have been at odds.
"Tom, before he was a movie star, was on Happy Days," he observed. "We did a retrospective of Happy Days and we wanted 60 seconds of Tom Hanks in his episode, and we did not get permission for that."
What is his current opinion of Hanks, then?
"I am still working on my perspective," Winkler remarked. Additionally, when host Graham Bensinger questioned whether he believed their connection "will ever repairs itself," the Barry actor simply replied, "Sure."
Media outlets have contacted Hanks' representative for comment, but they have not received a response.
Although Hanks and Winkler have never discussed their disagreement in public, their mutual friend Ron Howard has acknowledged that the two did not agree on Turner & Hooch.
“I’m friends with them both and both men felt compelled to come to talk to me about it," in 2020, the director informed The Guardian. "It was just one of those unfortunate things where they really had a working style that did not fit. I know it was painful for both of them and I was able to lend an ear, if not offer any solutions."
Furthermore, Winkler would not describe his relationship with Hanks as a "feud."
"I don't have a feud with Tom Hanks," in the same year, he informed TMZ. "But it doesn't matter, because what everybody says and what is true are two different things."
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