Tom Hanks isn’t new to voice work. In fact, he’s been doing it (and doing it well) for 30 years, starting in 1995’s “Toy Story.”
But when he took on narrating (and executive producing) “The Americas,” NBC’s docuseries highlighting North and South America, his approach was very different.
“There was a key thing here. Oftentimes, you record to nothing; there’s no imagery that goes along with it. They send along the text. But the great pleasure, the great tool, the great advantage here, is that we were shown exactly what was onscreen. I didn’t have to imagine anything,” says Hanks. “To me, there’s no substitute for that instinctive first lunge you take at material. It’s pure. It’s void of alteration, and it’s just pure focus.”
The team behind the doc, led by executive producer Mike Gunton, spent five years on 180 expeditions, due to the detail and effort it took in capturing the most incredible moments from the lives of certain species. The first sequence Hanks voiced was the moment when spectacled bears came down a hill, which was photographed from a drone up above.
“It was intimidating as hell, because you didn’t want to put a hat on and make a comment on what we were seeing. You had to do just the opposite. You had to go along with this incredibly cinematic, visual story. And if you talk too much, you’ve blown it,” he says. “If you don’t say enough, [you’re] missing out on a great opportunity. And if you don’t trust the instinctive thrust that you have to it, you’ll be bringing something inorganic to it.”
Mike Gunton and Tom Hanks
Austin Hargrave/NBC
Hanks knows that some think voiceover is “the easiest work in the world,” but this was not at all a simple task. “You do not want to mar something that is so magnificent. You don’t want to be that kind of park ranger who’s giving a tour that gives way too much information or it gets bogged down in the minutia.”
For Hanks, he says he looked at his job as simply responding to the incredible things he was seeing. He notes that he could imagine this as a piece narrated by Joanne Woodward, Lawrence Olivier, Morgan Freeman or David Attenborough — but that wasn’t what they wanted.
“The whole point of it was that’s not what this is. I always viewed it as a dinner party with a slideshow: ‘Would you like to see my vacation in the Amazonian rainforest? You’re not going to believe what orca whales do when they’re hungry.’”
Gunton refers to Hanks as “America’s dad,” a badge the Oscar-winner wears with pride.
“I think that might say more about the induced trauma of family of origin issues for most of America. But I will say, I would love to be called something specific: The best park ranger they’ve ever heard,” says Hanks, who then tells the story of attending a campfire event at a state park and watching a park ranger speak for 50 minutes. “It was riveting to my 8-year-old mind. Believe it or not, part of me thought, ‘How do I get that job?’ Look, I have enthusiasms that are particular to me. I have a willingness to dominate every dinner table that I sit at. It’s one of [my] character defects that I’m working on. But I’m going to treat that seriously when someone comes in and says, ‘We look upon you as a dad.’ Because the best dads are going to offer up wisdom, patience and just the right amount of discipline when the time comes.”
So, he says he’ll “grab onto” the title, “provided I don’t have to campaign for it is, I’m just going to have it handed to me!”
What else makes Hanks the best “dad” for the job? Trust, Gunton adds — the audience can trust him — something that goes a very far way in today’s world.
“People need to trust the the person who’s telling these stories has got integrity and is telling them the truth. Because nature is complicated, and people want to know what really is going on here, what’s the real science, the real environment, all those things,” says Gunton. “And I think that was another reason why I thought you were the perfect voice.”
Hanks adds: “There’s no lies in this thing. There is no crypting together of stuff in order to present some sort of sensibility or an idea, or promote an idea… No CGI, no lies.”
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