Tom Hanks: 'I said no to an awful lot of things, the things I said yes to were pretty damn good'

The iconic actor on his wild new 'Elvis' movie, his faith in America, and why his Oscar-winning movies might not get made today

Tom Hanks: 'At the end of the day, the only people who care about your image in a movie is the marketing department.' Picture: Rich Fury/AP

There are some artists, and Tom Hanks is one, who go beyond mere popularity and instead come to embody some part of shared American story.

Ever since the actor broke out from a string of roles as a goofy, lovelorn, leading man via the complicated innocence of his work in Big (1988), Hanks has gradually become an avatar of American goodness.