From the archive: Antonio Banderas speaks to Attitude about his deleted Philadelphia scene with Tom Hanks

Wherever you stand on non-LGBTQ people playing LGBTQ roles, it’s hard to deny what a memorable same-sex couple Tom Hanks and Antonio Banderas made in 1994 film Philadelphia.

Tom won an Oscar for his work in the legal drama, in which he played Andrew, a gay man and lawyer living with AIDS. Antonio meanwhile, played his boyfriend Miguel.

It’s also worth remembering that, three decades ago, straight actors were still declining gay roles for fear of being typecast. In a 1995 interview with Attitude, Antonio Banderas addressed exactly that.

“Look at the work Elizabeth Taylor has done for AIDS awareness” – Antonio Banderas

“All that stuff is changing,” he told us. “Look at the work Elizabeth Taylor has done for AIDS awareness. The people Philadelphia attracted, like Tom Hanks, Mary Steenburgen, Jason Robards, all wanted to be in an entertaining story that also had something to show.”

He furthermore added: “None of them thought twice about it.”

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny star Antonio went on to describe a deleted scene from Philadelphia, saying: “Tom and I had a scene in bed where I tell him a story in a funny way about how a guy in the gym said to me: ‘How you gonna feel knowing your boyfriend’s gonna die?’

“And I tell him I said: ‘How do you know you’re not gonna die first, bitch?’”

Last year, Tom Hanks told the New York Times he would think twice today before accepting the role of Andrew Beckett in the moving HIV/AIDS drama. “[…] Let’s address ‘could a straight man do what I did in Philadelphia now?’ No, and rightly so,” he reflected in an interview with the outlet. “The whole point of Philadelphia was don’t be afraid. One of the reasons people weren’t afraid of that movie is that I was playing a gay man.”

He furthermore continued: “We’re beyond that now, and I don’t think people would accept the inauthenticity of a straight guy playing a gay guy.”