Tom Hanks

Difficult childhood prepared him for his career

Tom Hanks talks about his childhood and why his parents' divorce was a good thing.

(Bild: APA/Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

"By the age of 10, I was living in ten different houses!" In a new podcast, Tom Hanks reveals that as a child he led a lonely life in self-imposed isolation. 

In "On Purpose with Jay Shetty", the star revealed that his parents Marylyn Frager and Amos Mefford Hanks divorced when he was very young: "I always joke that my parents are probably the reason California has relaxed divorce laws. When they got divorced back then (in the USA in the 1950s), nobody did anything like that - with the exception of Zsa Zsa Gabor."

A loner as a child
As the third of four children, this meant that little Tom had to move around a lot due to his parents' separation and subsequent remarriage. However, he quickly got used to the constant change of scenery: "I didn't mind having to move. I don't think it caused me any trauma for life either!" 

Because he didn't have time to constantly look for new friends and playmates, Hanks withdrew into his own world and became a loner: "I learned to isolate myself emotionally from time to time."

Likes to be alone, but doesn't like to be lonely
According to the 68-year-old, it was a characteristic that later became an advantage: "When you learn to depend only on yourself and not need anyone else, life is easier. I can withdraw on my own and be happy because I don't need anyone." Which is not to say he avoids the company of others - just the 10 percent of people Hanks describes as "assholes and sociopaths". "The other 90 percent of people you meet in life are nice."

Of course, the two-time Oscar winner is also aware of the negative effects of isolating yourself from the outside world: "There is a danger of becoming lonely. And loneliness can lead to anger and bitterness."

Making up stories
According to the Oscar winner, his parents' divorce became the basis for his later job as an actor. From the age of seven, he had to commute back and forth on the bus every week between his mother's small town and the city of Oakland, where his father lived: "I would sit alone for five hours, looking out the window and daydreaming. I would look at the passing houses, farms and cars and make up stories about what was happening in them."

He would then recite these stories to his parents, siblings or friends: "At some point, I realized that there was a job where I could make up stories for a living and put on a show. What I did as a child is exactly what I still do today!"