FameFlynetUK/FAMEFLYNET PICTURES If Tom Hanks ever wants to pull a De Niro again and pack on pounds for a part, he's gonna have to think twice about doing it.
In the U.K. for the premiere of his new thriller, Captain Phillips, at the BFI London Film Festival Wednesday night, the two-time Oscar winner told the audience that his days of gaining and losing weight for film roles are over now. The news comes after Hanks revealed he's been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
"I've talked to a number of actors who have gained weight for roles, and just the sheer physical toll it puts on one's knees and shoulders—no one wants to do it again," the Guardian quoted Hanks as saying. "I'm 57 and I don't think I'm going to take on any job or go on vacation again and see to it that I can gain 30 pounds."
So alas, we won't be seeing Hanks gain 28 pounds as he did to play an alcoholic baseball coach in 1992's A League of Their Own. In fact, the actor suggested that such see-sawing with his weight "may have had something to do" with getting diabetes "because you eat so much bad food and you don't get any exercise when you're heavy."
But Hanks noted that he had hints of the disease dating back at least two decades.
"I think I was genetically inclined to get it, and I think it goes back to a lifestyle I've been leading since I was probably 7, as opposed to 36," he said.
Hanks made the bombshell announcement about his health during an appearance Monday on The Late Show with David Letterman.
Luckily, as opposed to letting himself go again, as the titular hero in his latest movie, he only had to grow a goatee and don a Boston accent. The Paul Greengrass-directed Captain Phillips hits theaters on Friday.