national treasures

Frankly, How Dare Mamma Mia! Reject Tom Hanks for a Role

If Tom Hanks offers to be in your movie, you’re legally only allowed to react in one of the following ways: Scream until you faint, thank him profusely through song and dance, buy him a typewriter, or cry. However, the schmucks over at 2008’s Mamma Mia! film production believed Hanks’s offer of employment wasn’t good enough for their ABBA exploits, full-on rejecting him when he expressed interest in a character. “I was a producer of Mamma Mia! and I tried out for a role,” Hanks explained on this week’s Graham Norton Show. “I wanted to hire myself, but my singing voice would have scared the children. So, this is the first time I’ve got to appear with [Meryl Steep in a film].” Pierce Brosnan and his singing voice, however, were somehow deemed to be okay.

Frankly, How Dare Mamma Mia! Reject Tom Hanks for a Role