Why star wouldn’t play Philadelphia role today

HIS portrayal of a gay man dying of Aids in the taboo-busting Philadelphia landed him an Oscar.

But Tom Hanks has said he would not be able to play the role today.

In the 1993 film, one of the first times Hollywood tackled Aids, the actor played a lawyer who loses his job after bosses discover his sexuality and health status.

Speaking to the New York Times Magazine, Hanks said: ‘One of the reasons people weren’t afraid of that movie is that I was playing a gay man. Could a straight man do what I did in Philadelphia now? No, and rightly so. We’re beyond that now, and I don’t think people would accept the inauthenticity of a straight guy playing a gay guy.’

Hanks followed his best actor Oscar with another for Forrest Gump the following year. When collecting his Philadelphia gong, he spoke of how too many gay men had died from HIV/Aids.