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Tom Hanks shows the whole country his grumpy side when ‘A Man Called Otto’ opens nationwide on Friday

By George Costantino and Jason Nathanson Jan 13, 2023 | 8:11 AM


2022 CTMG, Inc. All rights reserved./Nico Tavernise

Grumpy Tom Hanks is now out there for the whole country to see — his new movie, A Man Called Otto, opens wide this weekend.

Hanks plays a guy who just really doesn’t like other people. And the man known as the nicest guy in Hollywood tells ABC Audio he loved exploring his nasty side.

“What you get to do in the course of playing a guy like Otto is you get to be right all the time. That’s the thing I like the best,” he explains.

“Look, there’s righteous fury and there’s also righteous crankiness,” adds Hanks. “You’ve been in this circumstance where you probably said, you know, ‘you can’t park there. Hey, you can’t park there.’ In which case, you’ve called out your inner Otto because there is a right way to do things. And if everybody understands the right way, well, then things go well.”

The two-time Oscar winner also reveals that, in spite of his nice-guy persona, he’s always “a nanosecond away” from getting angry.

“If you are in front of me and you turn without using your turn signal, you don’t turn on your blinker? Oh, dude, I love using that salty language, particularly when I’m in a car alone by myself,” he shares. “And it always starts with, ‘Oh, thanks for the turn signal.’ And then I go on for a little bit farther after that, you know. Not exactly the PG rating of Otto. Might get a little X-rated there.”

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