Tom Hanks apologizes to Connor Ratliff for firing him from Band of Brothers for his ‘deadly eyes’

Tom Hanks has apologized to actor Connor Ratliff, more than two decades after allegedly firing him from Band of Brothers for having “dead eyes”.

atliff, who is currently starring in The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, announced that he was fired from a small role in the 2001 HBO miniseries shortly before filming began and was replaced at the last moment.

Since then, he’s tried to delve deeper into Hanks’ reasoning, and the story even inspired the title of his podcast, Dead Eyes, which features guests including Seth Rogen, Jon Hamm and Hanks’ stepson, Colin Hanks.

In a surprise move, Ratliff has now tried to secure the man himself as a guest for the third season finale.

On Thursday’s episode of his podcast, Ratliff recounted the story of auditioning for the military drama at age 24. However, Hanks initially said “none of these moments rang a bell”.

“It’s a bone-chilling, bone-chilling story,” added Hanks. He said he took “full responsibility” for his actions.

“Without a doubt, this was the action of the director, and that was me,” Hanks told Ratliff. “There’s something stuck in the crawl or one of those very, very subtle types of decisions that steer the story in the direction you want it to.”

He added: “In the inner sanctuary whatever this casting is on Band of Brothers… I’m sure I said, ‘I don’t know the man, that guy’s already dead. .’ I could say, ‘He’s too blonde; he’s too tall and I can’t let the adjutant be taller than Captain Winters. ‘

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“I could have said, ‘He’s too short and light… I could have said any of these things, and they would be true and they would be opinions.”

Ratliff said he understood how hard Hanks might have felt about the comment but said it was “huge” for him at the time.

“I built this thing too big and then it’s gone,” he said.

Hanks said he was “terrified” after learning the podcast’s name from his son Colin and daughter Elizabeth.

“I really felt a chill down my spine,” he said. My heart rate spiked and I said, ‘I did… what did I do? What did I do?'”