Tom Hanks has one of the longest and most decorated careers in Hollywood. He has worked with hundreds of actors across six decades of film and television. And somewhere along the way he developed a habit that almost nobody knows about.
After every production wraps he sits down and writes a handwritten letter to every co-star he worked with on that film.
Not an email. Not a publicist message. A handwritten letter — personal, specific to the person, reflecting something real about the time they spent working together.
The detail has surfaced quietly over the years through people who have worked with him, mentioned almost in passing, always with a kind of quiet surprise at receiving something so deliberate from someone so famous. What is remarkable is not just that he does it — it is that the people who receive these letters almost never talk about them publicly.
Which says everything about the tone in which they are written. These are not letters designed to be shared. They are letters written from one person to another, meant to be kept, not performed.
In an industry built almost entirely on performance and image management, the handwritten letter is almost a radical act. It requires time. It requires genuine attention to the person you are writing to. It cannot be delegated or automated or sent by someone else on your behalf.
Tom Hanks has won two Academy Awards, starred in some of the most beloved films ever made, and is regarded by almost everyone who has worked with him as one of the genuinely good ones.
The letters might be why.