Can you be Mr Reliable rather than Mr Rockstar?

Do you have to be Tom Hardy rather than Tom Hanks?

Father of Five

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I wrote a post the other week about how Woody Allen and I had some things in common.

It was a post that focused on the fact that we both had ex-partners who did all in their power to make our relationships with our children hell.

Someone didn’t want to focus on that message, and responded to tell me to get a better role model.

Now, I certainly don’t model myself on Woody Allen, I couldn’t cope with the neurosis.

In fact I don’t really model myself on anyone, but when it comes to movie actors I have to say my favourite is another Woody … Tom Hanks.

(Spoiler alert: I do mention some incidents from Tom’s movies below, so if you still haven’t seen them all, then don’t blame me if you read on).

Good old Tom Hanks.

Is there anyone who doesn’t crack a smile when ‘Josh Baskin’ and Robert Loggia play the giant floor piano with their synchronised footwork in Big?

Is there anyone who hasn’t shed a tear when Forrest Gump’s love-of-his-life Jenny dies, or when Bubba dies, or when Forrest sees his son off to school?

Is there anyone who doesn’t love at least one of the Toy Story movies?

Of course there isn’t.

Tom is Mr Reliable.

He plays characters we can empathise with.

We can trust him to do what’s right.

He plays ordinary people like us.

He doesn’t jump out of airplanes, or scale buildings. He doesn’t have super powers, or crash cars. He doesn’t love them and leave them.

He does what we do.

Live in the suburbs. Marry our sweetheart. Be friendly to the neighbours.

Of course, that’s Tom on screen, but when you see him interviewed he appears to be like that in real life.

At the start of the Covid pandemic, Tom and his wife Rita became the poster-people of the celebrity Covid sufferers, by contracting it early on whilst filming in Australia.

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Father of Five

Being a father of five girls definitely does not qualify me as an expert in parenting!