Career nice guy Tom Hanks was thrilled to play "repugnant" character in Elvis

Tom Hanks, international man of magnanimity, is known for many things: playing everyone’s favorite toy cowboy, fathering the inventor of “white boy summer”, and hating the idea of a Forrest Gump sequel almost as much as we do. One thing he is decidedly not known for, however, is being a money-grubbing, power-hungry dick—which is exactly why he wanted to play one so badly when Baz Luhrmann gave him the opportunity.

Hanks “wanted to play a character his fanbase wouldn’t want him to do” and therefore “jumped at the chance” to portray Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis’ lifelong “despot” manager, who “exploited the hell out of him” but also really “did love Elvis,” according to director Baz Luhrmann, per Deadline. (Hanks’ Tom Parker was also very surprised to learn that Elvis was, in fact, white, in a clip that did the rounds on Twitter earlier this summer.)

The Oscar-winning director revealed that he expected Hanks to be hesitant about accepting the role, but in reality, the actor was on board “within 15 minutes.”

“I sat down with him, having not even written a script yet, and he said ‘Well if you want me I’m your guy,’” Luhrmann continued.

Not everyone has been as enthusiastic about Hanks’ villainous turn as Hanks himself, however. While co-star Austin Butler has been almost unanimously praised by critics, Hank’s performance in the glitzy biopic has drawn a more, let’s say mixed reaction. In the words of The A.V. Club’s film editor, Todd Gilchrist:

More baffling—even catastrophic—is Hanks’ turn as Tom Parker, whose simmering Dutch roots were distantly identifiable in real life but are amplified here by an accent better suited for one of Austin Powers’ enemies. Notwithstanding the just plain bad choice to tell the story of one of the most iconic artists from the viewpoint of his scoundrel of a manager, Hanks maintains a consistent veneer of menace and untrustworthiness, down to his cryptic descriptions of Presley as the singer’s cultural stature grows throughout the film. One supposes that Hanks deserves credit for finally playing an outright villain for the first time in his career, but he plays Parker like such a fiend that it seems clear he was egged on, to his detriment, by Luhrmann’s campy excesses.

Elvis is now streaming on HBO Max. Tom Hanks also appears as the far less evil Geppetto in Disney’s live-action Pinocchio, which premiered September 8 on Disney+.