Playing a real person huge responsibility: Tom Hanks

Oscar-winner Tom Hanks, who plays the role of captain Richard Phillips in his upcoming movie of the same name, feels that doing the role of a real person comes with special responsibility.
"I think it's important not to redefine somebody's motivations. (In a movie) you have to have people do or say things they never did or said, and be in places they never were. But you can take that to an extreme where it's not really why this person does what he does, and that's the key. You've got to be a journalist and a historian and a filmmaker all at the same time," Hanks told Parade magazine.

Directed by Paul Greengrass, 'Captain Phillips' revolves around the true-life ordeal of Richard Phillips, the captain of a US-flagged cargo ship, the MV Maersk Alabama, sailing with a 20-man crew and 17,000 metric tons of cargo that was bound for Kenya in April 2009 when it was abducted by four Somali pirates.
The biopic is based on the memoirs of Phillips, who was at the helm of the ship and was taken hostage by the pirates who fled the Maersk aboard one of the ship's lifeboats.
The film received a standing ovation when it opened the New York Film Festival and is touted as Hanks best performance in ten years.

"Captain Phillips" releases in India on October 18.