Even if you’re obsessed and watchForrest Gumpevery day, there still may be some things you don’t know about the film. How many of these little factoids did you know aboutForrest Gump?
In a genius move, Hanks opted out of a salary for filming
WhenTom Hankssigned up to star in the movie he opted out of receiving a salary, and instead wanted a portion of the film’s earnings. It turned out to be a fantastic move on his part, seeing as the film made more than $677 million.
It is estimated by some reports that he earned over $60 million in the end. Hank’s performance in the film also won him an Academy Award, making him the second actor to win the Best Actor Award two years in a row. He won the award the year before for his role inPhiladelphia.
Critics were divided on the film
These days, if you’re one of the few who dislike the film, you’re met with despairing glares and a bombardment of questions but, when the film was first released in theaters, some critics weren’t fans. Yes, the beloved film that holds the #12 position on IMDb’s Top 250 movies chart had a bunch of haters.
Entertainment Weeklygave the film a “C” rating saying it “reduced the tumult of the last few decades to a virtual-reality theme park: a baby-boomer version of “Disney’s America.”
In 2014,LA Weeklyrevisited the film and wrote a rather harsh review that read, “The film is so afraid to dredge up debate that whenAbbie Hoffmanhands Forrest the microphone at an anti-war rally, someone unplugs the speakers so we can’t hear him—fitting for a movie with nothing to say.” Yikes.
Mykelti Williamson couldn’t find work after the film
During an interview withUSA Today, Williamson, who played Bubba, admitted that “I couldn’t get a job afterForrest Gump. The industry didn’t realize that I was wearing a lip device and that I was the same guy who had appeared in 11 TV series. They thought the director had discovered some weird-looking guy and put him in front of a camera.”
Audiences were shocked when Williamson made television appearances because they were expecting a “weird-looking guy” to appear before them. He eventually found work on an array of other memorable classics like inCon Air,Heat, and, most recently,Fences.
Do you recall the scene where Forrest is pulled on stage in Washington D.C., and is asked to describe his experience in Vietnam? As he walks toward the microphone, a nearby police officer cuts out the speaker, and you can’t hear what he says.
You may have thought the script didn’t include his mini-monologue since the audience can’t hear him. However, Hanks admitted that he did have lines during this scene, and they were:
“Sometimes when people go to Vietnam, they go home to their mommas without any legs. Sometimes they don’t go home at all. That’s a bad thing. That’s all I have to say about that.”
Hanks and the director paid for some scenes out-of-pocket
The running sequences in the film are some of the most iconic, and they almost didn’t happen. In fact, the whole film almost shut down completely due to financial issues.
Tom Hanks explained during an interview with Yahoo Movies:
“The studio was one day away from pulling the plug on this one movie I was going to make, and the director came to my house and said, ‘Look, this is going to fall apart because they won’t give us the budget for shooting this one sequence, and we’ve got to have this sequence.”
Director Robert Zemeckis and Hanks decided to split the cost of shooting the running montage and saved the film 48 hours before it was about to be shut down.
Sally Field was only 10 years older than Hanks
In the movie,Sally Fieldplays Forrest’s mother, and it looks like the makeup artists sure did a great job in deceiving audiences when it came to her age. Although Field’s was made up to look like she was decades older than Hanks, in real life, Hanks and Field were only 10 years apart.
It must have been odd playing the roles of mother and son when they had recently played love interests in a comedy film. Forrest Gump came after the two actors had finished the 1988 film,Punchline. The comedy revolves around Hanks’ character, Steven Gold and love interest Lilah Krytsick, played by (you guessed it), Sally Field. Weird transition or not, they pulled off their character relationships in both movies without a hitch.
Although the producers and screenwriters tried to be as historically accurate as possible, there are still some minor mistakes that have been noted by fans over the years. For example, in the scene where we see Jenny dabbling in drug use and listening to the song “Get Down Tonight,” the song wasn’t released until 1975, but that part was supposed to take place in 1974.
When Jenny visits Forrest on the Fourth of July in 1976, we get a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty holding a gold torch, yet the gold wasn’t added to the statue until its restoration in 1986.
Another small goof occurs when Forrest catches the hoards of shrimp and brings them onto the boat. They are already dead and headless like when purchased at the market.
Hey, Hollywood can’t always be perfect.
Blue checkered shirts symbolize a transition
Have you ever watched the film and noticed that Forrest sports blue checkers a lot? This wasn’t due to laziness on the wardrobe team’s side; it symbolizes the many transitions in his life. He wears a different form of a blue checkered shirt in the first scene of each age transition in the film, to signify a change in time.
The movie ends with Forrest’s son similarly wearing a blue checkered shirt when he is getting onto the bus. Although the cast and crew from the film have not acknowledged why they did this, it became a fun Easter egg when it was discovered by fans.
Only an hour an hour and a half after reading the script, Hanks was ready to sign on to do the film, but only under one condition. The producers had to promise him that the historical portions of the film would remain as accurate as possible.
Many people just assumed that the footage of Forrest interacting withJohn Lennonand etc. was entirely CGI. However, the footage you’re seeing is pre-existing recordings of these people with Hanks CGI’d in.
For example, the footage in the scene with John Lennon atTheDickCavette Showwas taken from Lennon’s real interview on July 16, 2025. Seated beside him in the original footage was his wife,Yoko Ono, who is replaced by Hanks in the movie using special effects.
Forrest’s eyes were closed in every photo
No matter how many times you’ve seen the film, this one can still be easily missed. Keep this in mind the next time you watch the movie.
Look at every picture that is taken of Forrest throughout the film. Do you notice anything? In every photo taken of him, his eyes are closed.
This funny character trait was a decision made on the actor’s part, with Hanks explaining that Forrest is trying so hard to stand up straight and look normal that he forgets to open his eyes for the photos. This is just another little Easter egg that shows how much thought Hanks put into making Forrest a truly unique character.
