Actor Tom Hanks lost his cool after his wife Rita Wilson appeared to be pushed by fans that had gathered around the couple earlier this week. Videos of Hanks confronting the swarm of fans is going viral.
It showed the couple exiting a restaurant in New York City and walking towards their car. On the way, several people gathered around them, seemingly asking for photographs. The group also included the paparazzi. The couple kept walking even as the fans called out to Hanks. Wilson appeared to slip and stumble abruptly, which is when Hanks stopped, turned towards the crowd, and yelled.
“Back the f**k off!” he said, adding, “Knocking over my wife?” He turned around and stepped inside a waiting car, as several people off-camera apologised to him.
While some people made jokes in the comments section, others said that Hanks did nothing wrong. “They’re lucky it wasn’t Will Smith’s wife,” one person wrote, perhaps making a reference to the recent incident at the Oscars, when Will Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock for making a joke at the expense of his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.
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“A completely 100% reasonable reaction,” another person wrote. “They get hounded constantly and they have no reaction to it, people snapping pictures and hopping in for on the move selfies and nothing. Then they almost took out his wife and he stepped in and made it perfectly clear that was unacceptable. Hell yeah he got heated, dude is probably irritated all the time by people but knows that’s how it works with the position he has put himself in so he controls it and puts his wholesome Tom face forward to his fans…”
Several people pointed out how unusual it is to see Hanks get so heated–the actor is popularly known as ‘America’s dad’ and has cultivated an amiable public persona over decades. He is currently promoting director Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis movie, in which he plays the iconic star’s manager. The film will be released on June 24.
