Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks for W Magazine

Posted on May 16, 2011 in Fashion

Julia looks great on the cover, but Tom Hanks should sue because that’s quite possibly the least flattering picture of him ever taken.

On Roberts: Dolce & Gabbana’s silk dress. Burberry belt.
On Hanks: Tom Ford’s silk suit; Dolce & Gabbana’s cotton shirt.

W Magazine June 2011 Issue
“American Idols”
By Lynn Hirschberg
Photographed by Mario Sorrenti
Styled by L’Wren Scott
Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks on adult education, starting out in Hollywood, the power of optimism, and their new dramedy, Larry Crowne, the recession-era story of one man’s reinvention

At some point in your career, you changed from playing the romantic guy in Splash to the serious Philadelphia guy. How did that happen?
I told my agents that I wasn’t going to play pussies anymore. I was tired of playing, “Oh, boo-hoo—I was in love, but oh, boo-hoo-hoo.” There comes an age when you can’t do that anymore. I wanted to play men instead of boys. In your mid-30s, it’s time to start playing guys of compromise. And as you get older, men of bitter compromise [Laughs].

You became powerful and famous early on—after Pretty Woman, you were a huge international star. You were only 21. Was that overwhelming?
No, because the business was different then. It was a less loud, in-your-face sort of business. It would be awful to be a young actress today. Back in the good old days, before e-mail, you could decide how you wanted to be, how you wanted to define yourself.

That’s a pretty interesting quote from Hanks. You never really hear actors talk about aging and how it has an impact on their choice of roles. Of course that’s mainly because most actors never really have to give it a thought because they don’t struggle for roles past 40 the way actresses do. Still, it speaks well of him that he’s thought about it. Julia’s quote, however, makes less sense to us. What does email have to do with it?

Inside, Julia demonstrates that old drag queen trick of leaning back to smooth out your face in pictures or sticking your jaw out to give you a more defined jawline. Try it the next time you’re getting your picture taken, ladies. It works miracles. Practice in front of a mirror. Hire a drag queen to coach you on giving good face. We joke because we love (sort of). They both look great.

Roberts wears Versace’s silk dress. Hanks wears Tom Ford’s silk suit and Ermenegildo Zegna’s linen shirt.

Valentino’s red silk lace gown with leather ruffles. Jimmy Choo pumps.

Burberry London’s wool suit; Tom Ford’s cotton shirt. Gucci tie.

What Katie Did’s black and red silk corset; Giorgio Armani’s black wool crepe skirt.

[Photo Credit: Mario Sorrenti, wmagazine.com]

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SUS

I thought you picked up a W from 1993. And, yeah, Julia’s quote about email sounds like my parents talking about The Facebook: “Back when I started in the biz, before AOL…”
tom

Honestly, she looks airbrushed within an inch of her life. Which is a total shame because she doesn’t need to be. Their joint appearance on Oprah last week was such fun and she truly looks fantastic, her face as animation, beauty and some very appropriate age lines. Here, she just looks unnaturally smooth and slick. Pretty? Yes but not natural at all.
tom

Honestly, she looks airbrushed within an inch of her life. Which is a total shame because she doesn’t need to be. Their joint appearance on Oprah last week was such fun and she truly looks fantastic, her face as animation, beauty and some very appropriate age lines. Here, she just looks unnaturally smooth and slick. Pretty? Yes but not natural at all.
andrea

I think she’s using “email” as a metonym for the whole instant-news, instant-access world wide web/internet thingie, a phenomenon that because it can widely broadcast information instantaneously, demands constant content. Starlets today have people constantly and instantly commenting on pretty much everything they do (ahem), whereas in 1990 or whenever the hell that was, the feedback loop was smaller and slower. I think that’s what she means.
MilaXX

It’s Julia so the annoyance factor is pretty high, but I have to admit she looks good here. Tom just doesn’t look that great in profile, but I’ve loved him since Bosom Buddies so unless he pulls a douche move he’s always going to be okay in my book.
Tapiapr

He looks more handsome than ever, I think. He was always so doughy, so soft featured. It seems aging is solidifying his face in a good way.
MilaXX

It’s the old “back when I was a kid I walked 100 miles to school in the snow” comment and it makes her sound silly and self important. I understand what she’s trying to say, but like Gwyneth it all comes out with the stink of condescension.
Sara L.

Wow, love that shot of him with his hands on the table. And she looks gorgeous, of course. Great photos, really, if a bit photoshopped for that extra plastic-y skin look. And I think she just said “email” accidentally, rather than “the internet”.
Sara L.

Wow, love that shot of him with his hands on the table. And she looks gorgeous, of course. Great photos, really, if a bit photoshopped for that extra plastic-y skin look. And I think she just said “email” accidentally, rather than “the internet”.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jessica-TallGirl-Freeman/1043623567 Jessica TallGirl Freeman

Well I’m glad they gave us one shot of Tom’s face instead of that same profile shot where he’s not looking so hot. Love them both!
Anonymous

I think you’re right, Andrea – not email, per se, but all that goes with it. But it’s funny because I don’t think of her as having been around all that long, but Mystic Pizza was 1988, and 20+ years is a long time – especially in Internet years.
Korilian

Hahaha. Now that you’ve mentioned it I can’t stop staring at her jaw!
Anonymous

She looks so stiff and unhappy here. Her body’s going through the motions but her eyes are sad, absent. She reminds me of Barbra Streisand in that they were both quirky and perky and lively when they started out. Then they got so ridiculously famous that I guess they had to wall themselves off (Babs did so literally, as I recall), and turn the expressive, bouyant flame way down low.
ask

Cannot STAND when a man uses the word “pussy” as a derogative to describe a wimp. No better than using the f word. both are disgusting.
Jane

Tom Hanks reminds me of Steve Martin – somebody old enough to be my dad and yet I still fancy the heck out of him.

They book look fantastic though.
Erin James

I thought Roberts was just making the point that she began her career a long time ago, a la “Back when Mia Wasikowska was forming her spine…”
AmyB

I just lost some respect for Hanks seeing him use the word “pussy” as a synonym for weak. We have got to stop using feminine words (bitch, pussy, sissy, etc.) to describe what we do not like or think is weak.
Desirelines

julia roberts looks fabulous. she doesn’t look as photoshopped here as other people do. her face has certainly changed. she looks gaunt which is all fashionable and stuff but she looked so much better when she was younger. anyway, her face has become more intriguing as she got older. and what are you guys talking about her going all babs on us. she still seems accessible. but she’s not a mascot. she’s a powerful woman. how dare her act like one? i’d hate her more if she was still giving answers which make her seem like an ingenue.
Kath

On the cover photo, Tom Hanks looks like he’s smelling something bad, doesn’t he? lol
Long Island

I feel the comment is the opposite of the “100 miles to school” saying. Julia is saying it is harder for young actors today because of the internet/email. When she started you could make mistakes and it wouldn’t have been so public instantly.
SG

they both look great!
scottyf

It’s probably my unconscious chauvinism and male privilege rearing it’s ugly head, but I’ve always thought of the term being shorthand for “pussycat.”
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RK5MAF2VNT32ULNYFIXDANTEC4 Terence

I think she means “before email” as an indicator of not just pre-social media, but pre-Internet.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RK5MAF2VNT32ULNYFIXDANTEC4 Terence

lol.
Anonymous

I also agree with you, Andrea. Julia had quite the interesting personal life when she was younger. It certainly created attention then, but nothing like it would now. There were fewer outlets for that kind of news and fewer ways to provide it.
andyleigh

Tom Hanks has always been my favorite actor. He’s smart, he’s funny, he just puts a smile on my face, even when the role he’s playing is nothing to smile about. He’s the kind of actor that isn’t pretentious, and seems like he’d just be so much fun to hang out with. I have nothing mean or even slightly unpleasant to say about him. Ever.

Julia, too, strikes me as a someone who would be fun to hang out with. I don’t always like the roles she plays, but I do like her.

So I have nothing bad to say about anyone for once. Huh. It’s somewhat disconcerting. Maybe I should go back to bed today and start over.
http://profiles.google.com/sara.e.munoz Sara Munoz

Sure she’s saying that, but what she’s *saying* sounds (to me) more like “I had to work harder to get my face on the magazines than these bitches with their instant fame”.
Oli

Look at her face in the third picture (Valentino dress) for a minute. No wrinkles, her lips end in her mid-cheeks as if she was using those “years-away” bands (remember those? I just dated myself), the shades make her look anorexic instead of mysterious -like a a tragic cartoon of herself. Plus, her expression is like “i’m soooo constipated today”.

I do not hate her in general, but honey, look alive.
Lulu

Wow, no horse teeth pictures? Shocking.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MNMVM2GPVUEIOJXBOSLCXKAW4U judy brown

Wow, cover photo of Hanks is so bad — he looks like Gary Sinise.
Kimmeister

Wow, that first picture (after the cover) is kind of hot!
madam wks

women of a certain age in hollywoodland never smile any more…kinda sad. I, personally, love my smile lines and all that comes with them…
Anonymous

I think maybe Julia Roberts meant that in the early 90s, you had far less exposure that you weren’t in control of. There were tabloids, sure, but there were many more outlets then that were places where actresses would WANT to be seen than not. These days, there’s a glut of places (i.e. the internet) where they can be covered by just about anyone, in just about any way. I don’t think there’s anything particular unusual about this statement. Just stating facts.
Kait

I like both of these actors seperately, but cast as romantic leads for each other is just weird. Maybe they are both too famous and have been in too many romcom’s on their own? Does anyone else get the same “ick” feeling?
Anonymous

I got from it, “I had more control over where my face ended up,” not that she had a harder time getting her face out there, period. Geez.
http://profiles.google.com/ameliaheartsu Amelia Logan

I don’t think she literally meant email. I think she meant our instantaneous internet centered culture, blogging and facebook et al.
Meg

Agreed. He’s one of my favorite actors but I never thought he was good looking. Time is certainly on his side.
Anonymous

“In your mid-30s, it’s time to start playing guys of compromise. And as you get older, men of bitter compromise”

I’ve never thought he was good looking, but he’s always been oddly attractive based on his apparent intelligence and “good guy” public persona. This quote reinforces that.

I do think he’s getting better looking (slightly, not dramatically) as he ages.
Anonymous

I have never understood Roberts’s appeal — physically, professionally, in interviews, you name it. Not once. She’s just a kind of cultural static.
Anonymous

As to Ms. Roberts, her way of speaking is annoying and though she’s attractive, she never struck me as beautiful, really barely pretty. But then (as I’ve mentioned before) I saw her in person just around town in her private life a couple of times during her Lyle Lovett years and really, she just glowed. Her skin really appeared to be luminescent. It was more than I’ve ever seen someone achieve through expensive maintenance and I understood why everyone seemed to speak of her as a beauty.
StL K

Her face looks so sharp for a second I thought it was Lada Gaga with those points glued on. The problem with Hollywood insisting on young-looking women and rugged-looking men is that matchups like this start to look more like a creepy father-daughter coupling.
Anonymous

I’d never have guessed that is Tom in the cover shot…looks weak chinned. Looks like a “pussy” and was “bitterly compromised” in that shot! All focus is on Julia and he’s just an extra…looking adoringly at her. He needs to rework his contracts for approval of photos in the future.

Typically I enjoy each of their movies…him more-so, he’s a fine actor. She seems to often play the same character and is a bit overrated. .
jessamyn

Wow, that is an amazing conclusion to draw from those remarks. There is more resentment coloring people’s reactions to this woman than I would have thought!
http://visceralresponse.com Dina dV

I’ve been a fan of his since Bosom Buddies, too, but I truly fell in love with him when he was on David Letterman, during his most “serious actor” phase and told the most hilarious story about working as a parking valet at some hotel in Oakland and meeting Gabby Hayes. The story just kept building, there was something about golf clubs, Tom was doing voices and Dave was practically hyperventilating from laughing. It reminded me that, at heart, he’s just a really funny guy from the Bay Area who worked his way to what he has, but at least at the time seemed to have a really good perspective on himself.
jessamyn

I got curious about this, and tried to look it up. I couldn’t find a definitive answer – I don’t think there is one – but there are arguments for its being short for pussycat, OR what Amy’s thinking (which probably derives from an Old Norse word for pocket, btw!), OR that it’s short for pusillanimous, meaning “lacking courage and resolution; marked by contemptible timidity.” An embarrassment of riches really. But I agree that not everyone uses it with demeaning intent, and therefore I think it’s better to operate on a benefit-of-the-doubt principle. Why go looking for insult, when there’s so much that’s unequivocal?
http://profiles.google.com/awilsongirl Amy Wilson

Maybe I am unconsciously a male chauvinist too because I also thought it was short for pussycat. Interesting. Personally, the quote made me laugh.
guest

Are you serious? I am quite sure that a straight guy says “I wasn’t going to play f–s anymore” he does not mean “the English terms for cigarettes. Not “equivocal” at all
Guestie

Boy, inside pics look great but Tom Hanks looks terrible on the cover. All I see are bags under the eyes and pasty skin.
Mary Fox

I am interested to see that some commenters thought it referred to a ”pussycat.” My husband is in the military, an environment where the word is used gratuitously, and I guarantee that it is NEVER intended to mean a small furry feline. Perhaps in this context it’s different, but I had a very strong, visceral reaction to Hanks’ use of the word.
Nancy

I thought I was the only person in the world who can’t stand Julia Roberts. From some of the comments here, I am feeling less alone.
Eclectic Mayhem

I seem to remember that Tom Hanks has a Claudette Colbert type issue with his profiles in that he looks entirely different depending on which side of his face you see. I can’t remember whether left or right is his problem side but this cover shot certainly looks problematic!
Jane

She’s working that chin. Every time I go into an elevator, I look up to see if there is a mirror on the ceiling. If there is, I get to see the face I had 20 years ago.
http://tigergray.blogspot.com/ Tiger Gray

”I told my agents that I wasn’t going to play pussies anymore”

Fail.

Julia looks surprisingly good.
Anonymous

It is hard for me to look at Julia Roberts without hearing Liz Lemon imitating her laugh. The photos are just okay. I really don’t like the b&w one of Roberts in the Valentino. She looks so stiff and uncomfortable, and you can’t see the clothes.
Natalia

All I can think is “wow, she has great arms”
PattyAD

Tom’s giving the Gump face on the cover shot - in every still picture of Forrest in the movie, it’s that exact same expression, eyes closed. Unfortunate, since the ones inside are a thousand times better.
caio paiva

I think she used e-mail as both a sign of the internet really reaching normal people’s lives and as a way to mark time, just like it would also make sense if her sentence was “Back in the good old days, when wearing neon-colored leotards was still in fashion…”

Okay, that’s not a good old days example, but you know what I mean.
- Anonymous
  
  Exactly, when she says email she really means before Perez Hilton and TMZ started talking about whether or not certain stars wore panties to whatever event they attended (for example).
scottyf

Well, I definitely bow to the female perspective on this one. In the misogynistic culture we live in, I can fully understand why hearing that word would make you cringe. Whether Mr. Hanks consciously or unconsciously meant it in that context, I would hope that he’s the kind of man who would stop using it if he were to hear of your distaste.

If he didn’t, then Rita Wilson would probably kick his ass.
Anon

Bored by both of them. In every way.
BuffaloJD

Oy. She is vapid.
http://diaryofaconsumerpunchingbag.blogspot.com/ Laura Ann Springer

Cover shot of Tom…Horrid…he looks horrible. However the shot of him standing over the desk…AWESOME. Julia is just beautiful.
Anonymous

UM, the cover shot…OUCH. That does not even look like Tommy. Julia sells magazines so all the attention was paid to her. My hat off to those dedicated Photoshoppers who spent days making two handsome people look like two handsome people.
Anonymous

I’m wondering about the artwork in the background of Hanks’s solo shot. It sort of looks like a tapestry, but if so, it’s in incredible shape–still has such vivid colors. I love the way Hanks echoes the position of the man above his left shoulder. Great work by the photographer & location person to make this happen.

And if that’s the best comment I can summon then this is a pretty boring fashion photo shoot.
Tired mommy

YES!
http://moodring54.livejournal.com/ moodring54

:O
TOM HANKS SAID PUSSY. WORLDVIEW = SHATTERED
Anonymous

Yeah, “pussy = weak”? Hal Sparks begs to differ.
http://youtu.be/DcM0DPH2bNo
Anonymous

Yeah, “pussy = weak”? Hal Sparks begs to differ.
http://youtu.be/DcM0DPH2bNo
Anonymous

Yeah, “pussy = weak”? Hal Sparks begs to differ.
http://youtu.be/DcM0DPH2bNo
http://phdoula.blogspot.com Rebecca

Umm, I cannot imagine how you got that from her quote. She literally says, “It would be awful” and you’re claiming that she’s saying “It would be great”. Unless you have some inside knowledge of her desperate 21-year-old international-star battle to get her face on magazines in the absence of the Internet, I’m not really sure where this subtext is coming from.

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Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks for W Magazine

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