The 1984 blockbuster launched both of their careers into the stratosphere.

Ron Howard says he tried to rein in Tom Hanks’ Splash ad-libs: ‘You’re gonna be funny enough’

The 1984 blockbuster launched both of their careers into the stratosphere.

By Rance Collins

July 10, 2026 5:16 p.m. ET

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Ron Howard and Tom Hanks in 2016. Credit:

Mike Marsland/WireImage

- Ron Howard’s third theatrical feature as a director was also Tom Hanks’ first starring movie role.

- Hanks attempted to put in improvisation, which Howard was not always on board with.

- “Okay, great, great, but let’s just get it the way it is in the script,” Howard told Hanks.

*Splash* was a big, big deal for Tom Hanks. The then-28-year-old actor was, at the time, best known for his performance in the sitcom *Bosom Buddies*, which had initially been a big hit but had fallen in the ratings and was canceled in 1982.

Meanwhile, Ron Howard’s transition into an A-list director was in full swing, with numerous television projects and two theatrical films under his belt, including the 1982 cult hit *Night Shift*, which had featured his *Happy Days* costar Henry Winkler, as well as Michael Keaton and Shelley Long.

So with *Splash*, Howard had a chance to crest into the mainstream, and Hanks had his first starring role in a movie. The stakes were high.

Tom Hanks in ‘Splash’.

Buena Vista Pictures/Everett Collection

On the HBO Max/Turner Classic Movies podcast *Talking Pictures*, Howard said that Hanks was trying too hard to be funny, especially during the first cast readthrough at Howard’s home, with comedic heavyweights costars Eugene Levy and John Candy in attendance.

“Tom was pushing ... that was it, he was just reaching, he was pushing, and I could see it,” Howard recalled. “He’d been a comedy force on his show, *Bosom Buddies*, and he’s a funny guy, but that wasn’t this role. And that wasn’t what we needed. And so I immediately just took him aside and said, ‘Everything’s good, everything’s great ... Your job is to slowly but surely really be in love. You need to fall in love. We need to believe that. And if you’re reaching for jokes and things like that, we’re not going to quite take those emotions as seriously.”

Howard added that he told Hanks, “You’re going to be funny. You’re going to be funny enough,” and noted that while his castmates were “going to score like crazy” with laughs, Hanks didn’t “have to.”

Howard did allow Hanks to ad-lib on some takes, but only in addition to playing it straight the way Howard intended.

“At times he’d riff and try something, and I’d say, ‘Okay, great, great, but let’s just get it the way it is in the script.’”

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However, though he spent much of the movie reigning Hanks in, the final cut includes several of the future *Cast Away*’s improvisations.

“On three different occasions, I can’t exactly tell you exactly what they all are, but one of them was like a thing he did with a mango,” Howard said, mimicking Hanks’ singing “Mr. Mango on my shoulder.” “There was a bit that he invented that I, at the time, thought, ‘Oh man, it’s okay, good. Let’s just try it again without the mango’ ... And in the cutting room, I used several of those moments.”

Howard said that after working with Hanks on *Splash*, he thought to himself, “If I ever get a chance to work with this guy again, I’m going to give him his head.”

Daryl Hannah, Tom Hanks, and director Ron Howard on the set of ‘Splash’ in 1984.

Mark Sennet/Getty

Hanks has also discussed his difficulties adjusting to film performance in the past, crediting Howard with making him a better actor. Remembering the same “not great” readthrough that Howard mentioned, Hanks told CBS Sunday Morning in 2023 his harsher version of Howard’s advice to him.

“‘I know what you’re trying to do and you can’t. You can’t do that, Tom. We won’t a movie’— he literally said — ‘we won’t have a movie if you do that,’” Hanks recalled Howard telling him, adding he thought he was going to get fired. “‘Your job is not to be as funny as Johnny or Gene. Your job is to love the girl.’”

Hanks called it “the first lesson in an ongoing doctorate” in knowing the text of a movie.

Whatever stylistic disagreements the pair might have had on *Splash*, they have maintained a great respect for one another and have worked together again on several occasions, most notably in *Apollo 13*, as well as *The DaVinchi Code*, *Angels and Demons*, and *Inferno*.

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Howard said that he feels that he has always been able to draw from actors the performances he wants, and that he allows room for them to experiment with their own instincts.

“I’ve worked with a lot of different personalities of actors, none of them have ever sandbagged me on that,” Howard said. “I always feel like they give me my version, but I think they also trust me, and their trust is warranted, that I will 100% go to the cutting room with an open mind and look at their version.”

Watch the full episode of *Talking Pictures* with Ron Howard below.

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Original Article on Source

Source: “EW Comedy”