Tom Hanks Reveals He Questioned Whether Anyone Was 'Going to Care' About 'Goofy' Forrest Gump

The actor opened up about making the iconic 1994 film, which won six Oscars, on Tuesday night at the New Yorker Live event in New York City

For Tom Hanks, making Forrest Gump was similar to a box of chocolates — he didn't know what he was going to get.

At the New Yorker Live event on Tuesday night at Symphony Space in New York City, the 66-year-old actor recalled to editor David Remnick that he had some doubts while making the iconic 1994 movie.

"I say, 'Hey Bob, I've got a question for you. Is anybody going to care about this movie?' " Hanks said, recalling a conversation he had with the movie's director, Robert Zemeckis.

" 'This guy sitting on a thing in these goofy shoes and this cuckoo suit with a suitcase full of Curious George books and stuff like that. Are we doing anything here that is going to make any sense to anybody?' " he continued.

"And Bob said, 'It's a minefield, Tom. It's a g— minefield,' " Hanks added. " 'We may be sowing the seeds of our own destruction. Any footstep we take can be a bouncing Betty that'll blow our nuts right off.' "

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RELATED GALLERY: Forrest Gump Cast: Where Are They Now?

Yet committing to "so much dialogue" — and shooting for 27 days straight, Hanks said, traveling to various locations while Forrest ran across the country — resulted in a movie that resonated with fans and critics.

It also won him a Best Actor Academy Award, netted Zemeckis a Best Director trophy and took home four other Oscars including Best Picture.

In 2020, Hanks opened up about the rigors of shooting the movie. And on the In Depth with Graham Bensinger podcast, he talked about how Zemeckis, 70, came to him and said the studio wouldn't be funding the scenes where Forrest runs across the country because they were too expensive.

But Zemeckis knew how crucial the sequence was to the movie and went to Hanks with an alternate plan. As the latter recalled, "He said, 'Well, this run is going to cost X amount of dollars.' And it wasn't cheap. And I said, 'Okay.' He said, 'You and I are going to split that amount, and we're going to give it back [to Paramount]. We'll give you the money back, but you guys [Paramount] are going to have to share the profits a little bit more.' "

"Which the studio said, 'Fabulous, great. Okay.' And it was good for us, too," Hanks added.

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The gamble clearly paid off, with the movie turning into an instant classic and bringing in $330.5 million domestically and over $1 billion total worldwide.

Forrest Gump also benefited Hanks, who reportedly made $65 million off the film, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

On Tuesday night, the actor paid homage to Zemeckis' vision.

"Bob Zemeckis — God bless him, I've worked with him more than once — landed on the absolute truth of anybody who has gone forward and said, we are going to commit something to film today, and eventually we'll cut this into something," Hanks said. "You do not know if it is going to work out."

He added, "You can only have faith."

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