Henry Winkler on his feud with Tom Hanks
While giving an interview on ‘In Depth With Graham Bensinger,' the veteran actor and director opened up about his decades-old tension with Tom Hanks. He recalled the incident of being fired from ‘Turner & Hooch’ at the time, saying that although he had been selected by a big production studio executive to direct the film, he was not well suited for the project.He further shared, “I went completely against my tummy, and it hit me in the face with a 2x4. I now meet the puppies, and I meet with Tom [Hanks]... and I, at that time being insecure, talked too much, and I gave them direction. I [did] what I thought was my job, and I wanted to do it over again, and apparently that pissed them off.”He further shared that after the first 13 days of shooting, he was removed from the project, which left him feeling devastated.
Recalling the entire ordeal, he added, “And in 13 days of filming, I’m called into [studio executive Jeffrey Katzenberg’s] office, and he says, 'It's not in the dailies. '" I then go to the set. I get my things. I drive home. I’m fired as a director... I don’t handle it well. I’m devastated.” During the interview, he also opened up about how he is still developing his perspective on the situation; however, there is still some scope for their relationship to mend itself.The actor, however, had stated in a Vanity Fair interview in 2020 that there was no ‘feud’ between him and Hanks, concluding his remarks at the time by adding, “I don’t have a feud with Tom Hanks. What everybody says and what is true are two different things. "Henry Winkler rose to fame with his work on 'Happy Days', and also worked on projects like 'Barry', 'Normal', 'The Waterboy', 'Memories of Me', 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show', and many others.