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Gary Sinise beats Tom Hanks to boot camp

Gary Sinise doesn't have a lot of sympathy for Tom Hanks and the other actors of "Saving Private Ryan" who went through a 10-day boot camp to add authenticity to their roles as downtrodden World War II soldiers. You see, he's a survivor himself. To research his part as Lieut. Dan Taylor in 1994's "Forrest Gump," Sinise not only shared some of the same agonizing military exercises as the "Ryan" squadron, he even had the same drill master, Capt. Dale Dye. "In 'Private Ryan' you had 10 actors who were used to cappuccino and their trailers," says Sinise, whose new film, "Snake Eyes," opens next Friday. "The guys in my platoon were all extras in the film and were actually in the military, so they were used to being out there."

Captain Dye, a retired U.S. Marine Corps officer who has made a career out of whipping pampered actors into soldiers, was just as demanding back then as he is now. "We were out there sleeping with rats and snakes and bugs and all that stuff," remembers Sinise. "Dye had his own squad of terrorists who would harass us at 3:00 in the morning, bombs would be going off... you really got a sense of how scary it would be to be out in the middle of the jungle." The actor is hoping that Dye's hardcore drills pay off as well for Hanks and company as they did for him: Sinise nabbed best supporting actor nominations from the Oscars, the Golden Globes, and the Screen Actors Guild.


Posted Jul 31, 1998 | Order Article Reprints