Tom Hanks Denounces Censorship of Old Books: ‘Let Me Decide What I Am Offended By’

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Actor Tom Hanks opened up about his thoughts on book censorship after the release of his first novel.

The two-time Academy Award winner spoke with the BBC about his new book The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece: A Novel.

Hanks told the BBC’s Rebecca Jones that he began writing the novel in 2018 after the release of his collection of short stories Uncommon Type.

“I wrote in between films, I wrote wherever I was, I wrote on planes, I wrote at home, I wrote on vacation, I wrote in hotel rooms, I wrote on long weekends when I wasn’t working,” Hanks said.

The book follows the making of a multimillion-dollar superhero action film and doesn’t shy away from characters with egos, “cry-babies, psychological train wrecks, on-the-wagon alcoholics, off-the-wagon addicts,” and even deals with the topic of sexual harassment.

The BBC also asked Hanks about censorship in books, highlighting that his publisher Penguin Random House has recently modified books by Roald Dahl and PG Wodehouse for modern times.

“I’m of the opinion that we’re all grown-ups here. Let’s have faith in our own sensibilities as opposed to having somebody decide what we may or may not be offended by,” Hanks said.

“Let me decide what I am offended by and what I’m not offended by. I would be against reading any book from any era that says ‘abridged due to modern sensitivities,'” he added.