‘The greatest dinner companion’: Tom Hanks reflects on his role in ‘The Americas’ nature series

After narrating the 10-part nature series The Americas, actor Tom Hanks joked that he is now the best dinner companion because of how informed he is.

“Oh, I’m the greatest dinner companion there can possibly be. Like, this is the first time I heard about the atmospheric river: It is a body of water that lives above us, that travels for thousands and thousands of miles,” said the actor in an interview Today.

Delivered in Hanks’ calculated goofiness, The Americas displays the beauty of the most enormous land mass in the Western Hemisphere in a 10-part series which debuted on South African screens on M-Net this past Sunday.

Michael Gunto is the executive producer on The Americas. Hanks said he was drawn to the series by the opportunity to learn.

“I think I’ve lived for that opportunity… I wanted to be on the front line. I feel lucky to be a part of this extraordinary project — of capturing something that is so real that it’s irrefutable to anybody who watches it. And it’s just glorious to be a part of that,” he explained.

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‘The Americas‘

Music on The Americas was produced by Hans Zimmer, who will be a special guest at Lebo M’s music concert in Cape Town next month.

“It is a cavalcade of wonder, an hour of discovery where you will be enthralled, enlightened, educated and — foremost — entertained. This is TV at its absolute best, because – number one – you can’t make this stuff up. It’s the truth. It’s real.”

Hanks reflected on the show and some of the fascinating creatures they profiled, including the tree climbing salamander.

The Forrest Gump actor said the show spends time profiling salamander.

“It seems to me that we spend a lot of time talking about how they get their food, the first ‘f’. When they fight, the second ‘f’ and that third ‘f’…how they fool around and what lengths they will go to, to do that.”

The show uses cutting-edge technology to uncover never-before-seen behaviour amongst the continents’ fauna and flora, highlighting extraordinary, untold wildlife stories.

It took five years to make and filmed more than 180 expeditions. The series reveals the spectacular landscapes of Earth’s most varied landmass — the only one that stretches between both of the planet’s poles.

Each of the hour-long episodes explores a different iconic location, including the Atlantic Coast, Mexico, the Wild West, the Amazon, the Frozen North, the Gulf Coast, the Andes, the Caribbean, the West Coast, and Patagonia.

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