Henry Winkler has opened up about the decades-long tension between him and Tom Hanks.
The 80-year-old Happy Days star appeared on In Depth With Graham Bensinger on Wednesday, and reflected on being fired as the director of the 1989 movie Turner & Hooch, starring Hanks, 70.
Winkler said he had a gut feeling he wasn’t ‘suited’ to helm the film, but was personally hired for the job by a Paramount executive.
‘I went completely against my tummy, and it hit me in the face with a 2×4,’ he recalled before detailing what he believes led to his ouster.
‘I meet with Tom and we audition women together, and he settles on Mare Winningham… and I guess, at that time being insecure, I talked too much and I gave them direction, what I thought was my job, and I wanted to do [the scene] over again and apparently that pissed them off,’ the star dished about the catalyst of his tension with Hanks.
The actor said he was fired shortly thereafter, revealing: ‘And in 13 days of filming, I’m called into [studio executive] Jeff Katzenberg’s office and he said, “It’s not in the dailies.” I then go to the set. I get my things. I drive home. I’m fired as a director.’
Henry Winkler, 80, opened up about the decades-long tension between him and Tom Hanks, 70, during an appearance on In Depth With Graham Bensinger on Wednesday
The Happy Days star reflected on being fired as the director of the 1989 movie Turner & Hooch, starring Hanks; pictured in May
Winkler said he did not handle the career blow well and was ‘devastated.’
He was subsequently replaced by British-Canadian Director Roger Spottiswoode.
Winkler played Arthur ‘Fonzie’ Fonzarelli on Happy Days, which followed Midwestern friends in the 50s and 60s, from 1974-1984.
Hanks got his big break on the show as a guest star in 1982, with his character getting into a bar fight in the episode.
Winkler told Bensinger in Wednesday’s interview: ‘We did a retrospective of Happy Days, and we wanted 60 seconds of Tom Hanks in his episode and we did not get permission for that.’
Asked what his ‘perspective’ on the relationship with Hanks is now, Winkler answered coyly, ‘I am still working on my perspective.’
And pressed about whether he thinks the relationship will ever ‘repair itself,’ he said plainly: ‘Sure.’
Winkler confirmed he still has a signed model plane Hanks built for him while working on Turner & Hooch, prior to his firing.
‘It was a model plane… While we were having meetings he built a plastic Piper Cub or something like that,’ he shared.
Hanks got his big break on Winkler’s show Happy Days when he appeared as a guest star in 1982
Winkler claimed he was fired as director of Turner & Hooch after asking Hanks to redo a scene. Asked what his ‘perspective’ on the relationship with Hanks is now, Winkler answered, ‘I am still working on my perspective’
It was rumored, but never confirmed, that Hanks and Winkler often fought on set of the buddy cop film; Hanks pictured as Turner in the 1989 movie
Turner & Hooch tells the story of Detective Scott Turner (Hanks) who, after inheriting his friend’s dog when he’s mysteriously killed, sets out to find the murderer with his new canine friend.
It was rumored, but never confirmed, that Hanks and Winkler often fought on set of the buddy cop film.
During a 2019 appearance on Watch What Happens Live, Winkler avoided answering a fan who asked if he ever watched the movie.
Back in 1993, Winkler told People, ‘I got along better with Hooch than I did with Turner,’ referencing Hanks’s character.
Then in 2020, he denied having bad blood with the Forrest Gump star, telling TMZ, ‘I don’t have a feud with Tom Hanks. What everybody says and what is true are two different things.’
