Remaking History

By Belinda Luscombe

Tom Hanks is feeling frisky. Inexplicably, the bathroom of the hotel suite we're in has a glass door. When Julia Roberts announces she needs to go, he gleefully pulls up a chair for a better view before giving Philip Seymour Hoffman a little lecture about turning 40 and getting rid of the extraneous--like, say, smoking. The three Oscar winners have gathered to chat with TIME's BELINDA LUSCOMBE about their new film Charlie Wilson's War, written by The West Wing's Aaron Sorkin, directed by Mike Nichols and produced by Playtone, Hanks' company. The true story of a large-living Texas Congressman who secretly helped the mujahedin expel the Soviets from Afghanistan, the movie is history played for laughs. The interview played the same way.

TIME: A lot of people probably don't know much about this story, and I just thought the mujahedin were feisty Afghans who beat the Russians by themselves. Were you aware of it at the time?

TOM HANKS Well, I remember the invasion. I remember President Carter coming out, and there was a big dramatic thing on TV: the Soviet Union has invaded Afghanistan--we were going to cancel the Olympics, and we weren't going to go to Moscow in 1980. I didn't realize what the covert action of the CIA had done, and whatnot.

JULIA ROBERTS I was 13. I missed all of this.

PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN Yeah, I was in junior high in this whole thing. I definitely missed the idea that there was a covert operation going on.

ROBERTS Did I say I was 13? Sorry, I meant I was 3.

HANKS I remember thinking that the Soviet Union had done something really stupid, but it was a sign of that classic Soviet aggression machine, the same way that they'd taken over Hungary in 1956 and gone into Czechoslovakia in 1968--that it was those robots that showed up on Lenin's Tomb every May Day. And I thought, They have made a mistake equal to anything wrong America has done. I remember thinking that it could turn into their Vietnam.

ROBERTS Three months. Did I say 3 years? I meant months.

Tom, did you want to play Charlie Wilson from the beginning, or did you ...

HANKS Let me tell you, if there's a movie called Charlie Wilson's War, guess who I want to play? [Laughter.] If it was called Wee Willy Winky, I want to play Wee Willy Winky. I can't help it. I am selfish in this manner. What--Phil's going to play him?

HOFFMAN I'll play Willy.

HANKS From the producerial point of view, I thought I'd be good casting. From an actor's point of view, I wanted to.

This is a movie that makes people think about America and what it has done, especially in the Middle East, and there have been quite a few of those recently, and audiences have not been that drawn to them. Will people go to this one?

HOFFMAN God, I hope they do.

HANKS This isn't about Iraq.

Well, none of them are really about Iraq.

HANKS Oh, no, I think you're wrong. I think some of them are very specifically about Iraq, and I don't know if you can make a war movie about Iraq until we have some distance on what has happened in Iraq because I don't think you can make a fake movie by going to Marrakech or Death Valley and putting guys in desert commando outfits and having them shoot at extras with special-effects helicopters flying around and have that be more insightful than what I can get off of YouTube by typing in "combat footage from Iraq." Charlie Wilson's War is about something happening in 1980. I'm going to lay claim to the fact that we actually have some distance and perspective now.

HOFFMAN Also, this is really a great story about these characters whose liabilities are their greatest assets, if that makes any sense.

Besides, you get to see Julia in a bikini and Tom's naked bottom.

ROBERTS Listen, that's worth the price of admission, to see Tom's tochis.

HANKS Look, it's very basic. The girls had to be naked. It's not fair that I don't have to be naked, you know? Come on! Turnabout is fair play.

Well, one of the girls has her shoes on.

HANKS Oh, yeah. That's one of the rules of cinema. It goes along with anybody who's coming back from the grocery store has to have straws of celery pointing out of the bag. Any hot chick getting into a hot tub must be wearing some stiletto heels. It's just good art direction.

Julia, I went to lunch with an Oscar lobbyist ...

HANKS Can you believe that there's such a thing as an Oscar lobbyist?

... and he said that this was the first of your matron roles.

HANKS Julia is overjoyed to hear that!

ROBERTS The man has obviously not seen my ass. [Laughter.]

HANKS Can you please add the adjective dowdy to the words matron role?

What he meant is, this is not you as ingenue. It's not you as romantic lead ...

ROBERTS Right, but my ingenue days are well behind me, aren't they?

HOFFMAN No, I still go there. [Laughter.]

ROBERTS Listen, however you label it, it's just good work for me, you know? Joanne's so fantastic to play, and between the hair and the tits and the attitude, bring it--if that's matronly, I loved every second of it. I don't read that many scripts. I finish less than I care to reflect upon. I mean, it's just s___, it's just a big pile of steaming s___ that sits in my house and drives me crazy because it's paper, and I don't want to send more paper to China to be toxically recycled. It just tortures me. With this--I mean, I didn't even come into the thing until, like, page 35 or something, and I was glued to every word. It's amazing.

Steve Martin says that in any career, the struggle is the interesting part--that when you're successful, it's not so interesting anymore. And you guys probably don't know this, but you're responsible for $9 billion worth of ticket sales among you. I think a lot of it is The Man with One Red Shoe.

HANKS No, I think that had it not been for The Man with One Red Shoe, it would have been $10 billion worth. [Laughter.]

HOFFMAN See, I'm rehearsing a film right now, and I was reading through it the other day, and there's a struggle. The struggle is right there for me. I mean, maybe the career is there, but there's still an innate struggle to try to do this thing well. It's like it slips out of my fingers every time I think I got it.

HANKS When you just start out and no one knows you from Adam, nobody says to you, "What's with the hair?" You're just a guy, and that's the way your hair is. Then you become famous, and people say things like [miming shoving a mike in someone's face], "What do you mean by the hair?" That's what happened to me on the Da Vinci film.

ROBERTS People say to me, Why don't you want to be funny anymore?

Tom, your son is in show business, and Julia, your niece is. I wonder how you advise them about how it's done.

HANKS What advice can you possibly give? Just do good work, you know? That's about it. Oh, and don't talk to the press too much. I remember being told that if you did not have a good set on Johnny Carson, you were going to be set back years in your career.

ROBERTS I couldn't get on Carson.

HOFFMAN You what?

ROBERTS You had to audition to go on Johnny Carson, and I didn't get on.

HOFFMAN That's ridiculous.

HANKS But the truth is, look, there's only 24 hours in the day. And if you're not doing work that is good enough to make people want to set aside YouTube, set aside the stuff that they've TiVoed, set aside the stuff that's coming in from Netflix, set aside anything that is going on, if you're not doing good enough work to make people think, Oh, there's this movie that I want to see, then you're done. We sleep for eight hours a day; we work for eight hours a day. You have about four hours to entertain yourselves. You have to do something that's going to be interesting enough for someone to say, I'm going to spend my four hours a day watching this movie.

ROBERTS I just want to sign up for that eight hours of sleep. Where do I get on that bus?

Tom, are you doing Da Vinci 2?

HANKS Oh, yeah, let's call it that! [Laughter.] But I got other stuff first. I got a John Adams movie.

And Julia?

ROBERTS Got a little project with Clive Owen.

HANKS Clive Owen--I hear he's your main boy.

HOFFMAN That's what I heard too. Whatever.

HANKS She's got everybody on a little string. She's a puppet mistress is what she is.

ROBERTS Tony Gilroy is writing it and directing.

HANKS Can we be in it?

ROBERTS I'll make a couple of calls, and I'll text you.