Tom Hanks Recalls The 'Most Terrifying' Moment Of His Entire Career

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World-renowned actor Tom Hanks has been gracing silver screens since the late '70s and is no stranger to leaving it all on set.

His never-ending compilation of films evokes laughter, reflection, tears, and even sheer terror experienced by the star himself.

In a recent podcast episode of Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend on iHeartRadio, the Forrest Gump icon zoomed in on the "the most truly scary, intense, real-life scene" on set of 2013's Captain Phillips, revealing that the horrifying moment remains one of his most terrorizing memories to date.

"Four of the scariest human beings I have ever met come in, and they are screaming at us. They are slapping us. They are hitting us. They are pushing us down, and they're holding real guns in our faces, screaming at us. It was honestly — we are all bug-eyed with some form of terror. Even though we know it's a movie, that is removed because — guess what? — we all went there."

The film "tells the story of the 2009 siege of the Danish–U.S. cargo ship, Maersk Alabama, by four Somali pirates" per Entertainment Weekly, and, to make matters more realistic, Hanks didn't even meet the men that played the pirates until that very scene.

"We're overweight, old, middle-aged guys who are gonna be taken over by these pirates," Hanks explained, "and we have never met the guys who play the pirates. We don't know who they are. All we know is that they are coming...We have never met them, and they are firing automatic blanks, you know, machine guns. We hear all this stuff that's going on. We don't see anything until the camera outside the bridge of the Maersk Alabama."

For more details on the Cast Away standout's scariest moment on set, check out the full episode on Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend on iHeartRadio now!


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