Tom Hanks paid for the iconic cross-country running scene to be in 'Forrest Gump' himself after the studio said it was too expensive

Forrest Gump Paramount
Tom Hanks in "Forrest Gump."
  • Tom Hanks revealed that he and director Robert Zemeckis split the cost to get the cross-country scene in "Forrest Gump."

  • In an interview on "In Depth With Graham Bensinger," Hanks said Paramount refused to do the scene because it couldn't afford it.

  • Zemeckis thought the scene was crucial, so he and Hanks made a deal where the two paid for the run to be shot and, in return, Paramount would share more of the profits with the duo.

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There are many moments in Robert Zemeckis' 1994 Oscar-winning movie "Forrest Gump" that have made it a modern classic. But perhaps its most memorable sequence is when Gump, played by Tom Hanks, sets off on a three-year run cross-country.

It turns out that the scene would never have been made if Hanks didn't pay for it himself.

In an upcoming episode of "In Depth With Graham Bensinger," Hanks said the studio that made the movie, Paramount, refused to let Zemeckis do "the run," as they called it during production, because it was too expensive.

"The studio said, 'We can't afford it; you're not going to do it,'" Hanks said. "And Bob said, 'It's too important a part of the movie just to cut. We can make this work.' And they said, 'No, you can't.'"

So the director turned to his star to help.

"'He said, 'Well, this run is going to cost X amount of dollars,' and it wasn't cheap," Hanks told Bensinger. "He said, 'You and I are going to split that amount.'"

forrest gump
"The run" scene in "Forrest Gump."

Hanks agreed, and he and Zemeckis made a deal where the two paid for "the run" to be shot and, in return, Paramount would share more of the profits with the duo (thankfully for them, the movie was a hit).

"The studio said, 'Fabulous. Great.'" Hanks said.

The result is a beloved seven-minute sequence in the movie in which Gump stands up from his porch and begins to go on "a little run," as Gump says in a voiceover, "for no particular reason" after he makes love to Jenny (Robin Wright) and finds the next morning that she's gone.

His three-year run across America gains him national attention, as everyone believes he's doing it for a cause. People even run along with him, and he helps birth the "s--- happens" logo and smiley-face T-shirt. It concludes with Gump, now sporting long hair and beard, stopping in the middle of a road out West and telling the group following him, "I'm pretty tired. I think I'll go home now."

Hanks said in return for writing a check to pull off "the run," Zemeckis allowed him to be a major collaborator on the movie, as the director invited Hanks to sit in on the editing, where he could craft the Gump character alongside Zemeckis.

"Forrest Gump" was the second-highest-grossing movie of 1994 behind "The Lion King." And the movie won six Oscars, including best picture, best director for Zemeckis, and best actor for Hanks.

Watch Hanks explain paying to make "the run" happen in the movie:

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