On landing Julia Roberts for the project:

"Mike got her... and I said, 'Okay!' [laughs] That was it. We popped some champagne corks when she said she would go ahead and do it. I think Julia and Mike have a relationship that says, 'Hey, I got something you might be interested in.' And Julia said, 'If you are interested, I’m interested.'"

Hanks on filming scenes with the injured children:

"Well, some of that was special effects and make-up, some of it was not... And the stuff that was not was quite amazing; all those kids were great! The parents knew what was going on, they knew why they were there, the call went out, 'Can we have some kids who look like this?' And some were there - and in so many ways, it’s horribly heartbreaking. I asked Charlie about what is was like. He is a tough guy, he can go visit those camps and look at people right in the eye, be impressed with them, moved by them, but he said he could not come away from those children without being cut off at the spine. He couldn’t see what happened to some of those kids and maintain his decorum. He could talk to any old man, any mother, any young soldier and come out of there without any tears in my eyes, but it was impossible to do with the kids. Because in reality, we were there, we know it was fake and even if it’s not, the kids knew that they were in a movie about that. But when it’s the real thing, I don’t think you ever shake that memory."

Tom hanks on when he'll take time to direct again:

"[laughs] I still have kids I’m responsible for; I don’t want to go away. Directing a movie takes a long time. I’d like to do it, I probably have ideas in my head to pursue, but not until my kids are all done. I just don’t want to be away from them. I think it would be inexcusable. I got to work at it as an actor, sometimes working on a movie as an actor is a vacation for the whole family [laughs], you get to go to some pretty cool places, set up a nice house somewhere and run around all day long. But when you direct a movie, your mind is preoccupied 18 hours a day. I just don’t want to do it."

On whether he's currently producing for his son Colin:

"Actually The Great Buck Howard; Colin knew Sean McGinly who wrote it. Colin found it and brought it in and asked what we thought of it. We said that it was fantastic, so they did all of our work for us. All we did was help them to make the movie. I play Colin’s pissed off dad in it, which I thought I was pretty well suited for it. [laughs] Even Colin said, 'I just did it so you could just come and be pissed off.' I said, 'That’s right, that’s what I want to do.' That’s going to be at the Sundance Film Festival."

Hanks on whether he's played a villain and why he doesn't play those types of characters:

"... I played a guy in a movie where I shoot a guy in the head and machine gun to death everybody else that was in the movie; you know what you guys said to me? 'Yeah, but you were nice.' I play an executioner, a guy whose job was to execute people, and you know what you guys said, 'Yeah, but you were a nice executioner.' And right now, I’m playing a guy who f**ks every chick he can, who was in bed drunk every night, did snort coke, got away with it and you know what you’re going to say to me? 'Yeah, but you did it for all the right reasons, you were so charming when you did it.' You think Phil [Seymour Hoffman] is a nice guy, too, but he is the one who strangles communists in the back streets of Athens."

Hanks on the status and story of the upcoming Pacific project:

"It’s about half way done. It is a monster of a shoot, 10 episodes, each episode is about 27 days of principal photography. We have a huge cast, monstrous logistics, as well as all the bugs and snakes that can kill you in Australia . You realize that. We have guys running through the jungle and swimming in the ocean and, by the way, 'Be aware of the 12 most poisonous snakes and the 16 most poisonous insects.' What I have seen so far is quite magnificent, because the story of War World II has now officially been told again and again, and again. It’s always been a celebration of the greatest generation, etc. We actually had to go to a much deeper and darker place, otherwise we are wasting our time. So that’s what we are attempting to do on this, and I think we are in pretty good shape. We got great cast, fabulous Australian crews and actors we are finding from there; wonderful spirit, great cooperation... The only problem I have with Australia, and it’s a serious problem, it is so far away. If you could just move this island to the middle of the Pacific Ocean, I could get there a little bit more often and actually be a little more involved. It’s farther away than New Zealand for crying put loud."

On whether Pacific has a single director:

"No, it’s multiple directors. I think out of ten episodes, we probably have six directors. Some guys will do more than one. That happens because of a guy named Tony To who I’ve worked with on From the Earth to the Moon, Band of Brothers and now this. Tony will be running that thing with Graham Yost who worked on all three of them, and Bruce McKenna. They are the real trio that make things happen. That will be on HBO in 2009. John Adams will be on HBO March 2008; that’s almost done."

Tom Hanks on whether he personally updates his MySpace page:

"Yeah, I do. I don’t update it a lot, but I’m kind of a busy guy. I use my own camera because otherwise you can be anybody. And I only do it so I can revert the poor job mass media does [laughs] to the true messages that I want to. I always write down what I should do; more books of what I read... There are some links and horse sh*t like that - But it’s fun, kind of goofy. I can show people around my electric car, you have to be careful not to insult someone on My Space because they treat it as though your are on the front page of the New York Times; it’s just My Space [laughs]."