THE NICE MAN COMETH

The proof of Hanks' newfound freedom-Nora Ephron describes him as now "completely at home in his skin"-is that the psychological and creative heft and substance he has gained have left him lighter and more flexible on his toes than ever: He can play the romantic lead in Sleepless, and follow that work immediately with the most serious role of his career in Philadelphia. He still has the sweet face, the projection of nice-guy sensitivity. But he is beyond the boyishness of Big. And he knows it. "I'm constantly surprised," he says, "that I guess I have some sort of overpowering image or something. Which is-what?-the sensitive guy? The nice guy, the cozy guy, the ordinary guy? Okay, fine. That's not exactly a Faberge egg. It's not a huge, vibrating, V-8 of a powerhouse kind of motion-picture image." He took the Philadelphia role of Andrew Beckett, he says, because he admired Jonathan Demme tremendously (on his first date with Wilson, the two saw Demme's brilliant 1984 Talking Heads rock-concert film, Stop Making Sense) and he read the script and he loved it and that was that. And Demme, who says he first envisioned Daniel Day-Lewis in the role (the actor decided not to take it), says he then thought of Hanks because "he's got keen intelligence, great charm, tremendous backbone, which are vital to the role of Andrew." Says Demme, "I can only work with actors who assume full responsibilities for their characters. And Tom came in with a strong creative response. There was not a lot of directing I had to do." Hanks sits back, looks to the horizon. He is asked where he would place himself in the Hollywood firmament. "Got me," he says, in that deft and unnerving way he has of caulking most access routes to emotion with wit. "I'm still parking cars. Doesn't it change every week and a half?" He takes another tack: "I guess I've dropped from those lists of the '100 most ' people in Hollywood." A bitter lesson? "No! I haven't had any bitter lessons! Look where we are!" he exclaims, pointing to the sand, the ocean, the gee whiz good fortune of being a rich, successful, happily married movie star with expensive beachfront property up the road and a growing proficiency as a surfer. "What's to be bitter about?!" He does not, he says, want to produce or direct. (He has, however, dabbled behind the camera, directing a Tales From the Crypt for HBO and an adaptation of a Raymond Chandler story for Fallen Angels, the noir-ish series of detective stories on Showtime.) "Directing is a test of your communicative skills," he says, "and I don't know how good mine are." And as for producing: "It's a hideous exercise. It's essentially talking on the phone asking people permission to do stuff. And then occasionally coming down with, 'You're not gonna do this to me!' All the posemeister stuff. It's so much more fun to be an actor and to just go in and pretend all day long. Why walk away from that pretty good gig?" (His next good gig: He'll star in Forrest Gump, directed by Robert Zemeckis from Winston Groom's 1986 novel about a simpleton who's caught up in fantastical experiences throughout his life.) "I was flipping through the cable and I just saw Turner & Hooch again. I was watching it for a while with all the distance of time and I actually thought, you know, I acquitted myself pretty dang good in that. I was actually able to pull that off. So okay: Reassure the boy on New Year's Eve (in Sleepless) or kill the bad guy because of the dog (in Turner & Hooch). It's a very good spectrum to jump around in. You know, if there has been any bona fide kind of sit-down, analyzed plan to this checkered career of mine, it has probably been that whatever I'm in, it's not too farfetched for everybody to believe." Hanks prepares to leave the sand, buckle into his Dodge Caravan, tool up the Pacific Coast Highway to visit a pal, and, ultimately, head into what may be another crucial season in the evolution of his career. "I have been here before," he says, remembering the flashbulbs, the magazine covers, the glitter of 1988. "The first time it's this kind of whirlwind of Hey! Man, oh, man! Hey, guess what I get to do, this is amazing! Now it's amazing again, but I understand that, one, it doesn't come along often and, two, it only comes out of the good work that you've been able to do." Five years ago, after all, Tom Hanks played a kid. Now he sounds quite grown up.