Tom Hanks built Forrest Gump’s voice and some mannerisms by listening to young Forrest actor Michael Conner Humphreys, recording their conversations, and rehearsing the screenplay aloud with dialogue coach Jessica Drake. Hanks said he worried about the Southern drawl, but director Robert Zemeckis insisted it stay. The accounts describe vocal and performance work; they do not establish a specific physical-training regimen.
How Michael Conner Humphreys shaped Hanks’s performance
Hanks said the production needed to cast the child playing Forrest before he could settle on the adult character. At a 2013 BAFTA interview, he recalled listening to Humphreys’s distinctive way of speaking and recording conversations with him. Hanks said the cadence informed Forrest’s voice and that some of the character’s mannerisms, including how he held his hands, came from Humphreys.
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That was a point of reference, not simply an attempt to reproduce a child’s performance. Hanks and his coach worked through how the voice would function for the adult Forrest in the film.
BAFTA’s 2013 Life in Pictures interview
How Hanks developed Forrest’s voice
In an interview with Fresh Air, Hanks described following Humphreys with a tape recorder and then working with dialogue coach Jessica Drake. He said he and Drake read the entire screenplay aloud in the two weeks before filming began, including stage directions and dialogue for other characters. That process let him hear the script repeatedly while developing a voice he felt suited the character.
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Hanks also said his first attempts at a Southern accent were unsuccessful. He described trying approaches and having to fail before finding one that worked; he did not give a quantified account of how long that experimentation took.
NPR’s Fresh Air interview with Tom Hanks
Why the Southern drawl stayed
The accent was a concern for Hanks. In a 1994 report, he said he was “scared, real scared, of the accent” and asked Zemeckis whether it could be softened. The report quotes the director’s response: “No. You gotta do it. The accent is what it’s all about.”
That contemporary account makes clear that the drawl was a deliberate part of the character, not an incidental voice choice. It does not establish that Hanks was copying a complete regional dialect from Humphreys; the documented influence is the young actor’s cadence and mannerisms.
The Virginian-Pilot’s 1994 report on the accent
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What is—and is not—documented about his preparation
The cited accounts document Hanks’s work on voice, script, and selected mannerisms. They do not establish a running practice, conditioning plan, formal movement coaching, or other specific physical-training regimen for the role. Those claims should not be inferred from the character’s actions in the film.
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Turner Classic Movies’ Forrest Gump overview
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