Tom Hanks turned down ‘When Harry Met Sally’

Tom Hanks turned down the lead role in When Harry Met Sally, his wife Rita Wilson has revealed.

The Oscar-winning actor was approached to play Harry by writer Nora Ephron but despite appearing in further rom-coms such as You’ve Got Mail and Sleepless In Seattle that she wrote, he snubbed the 1989 movie because he could not relate to the idea of the character being depressed after his divorce.

He had recently divorced his first wife Samantha Lewes at the time.

“People probably don’t know this, but Tom was offered when Harry Met Sally and he turned it down because he was going through a divorce and he was very happy to be not married,” Wilson said during an appearance on iHeartPodcast’s Table For Two With Bruce Bozzi.

She continued, “And so he could not understand that a person going through a divorce would have anything other than just like, ‘I’m so happy’. But I loved that script.”

Despite Albert Brooks, Michael Keaton, Harrison Ford, Bill Murray, and Richard Dreyfuss also being approached, the role eventually went to Billy Crystal.

Meanwhile, Wilson also recently spoke out about a photograph that appeared to show her husband embroiled in an “angry” exchange on the red carpet at Cannes.

She denied that any argument took place and said that she and Hanks were simply struggling to hear directions on the red carpet.

At the time, the couple, were in attendance at the film festival to see Wes Anderson‘s new film Asteroid City, which stars Hanks.

Hanks also recently revealed that, throughout his filmography, there are a few films he has starred in that he hates.