Politics & Power Quote by Peter Berg

Hollywood casting is a strange cocktail of humility theater and status flexing, and Peter Berg pours it neat here. Dropping Tom Hanks' name works like a cultural shortcut: it signals the project was "real" enough to chase the safest, most bankable avatar of American decency, the guy studios treat like an insurance policy. "Pretty much every movie in America does" is the punchline and the confession. It normalizes the rejection (everyone asks, everyone gets turned down) while quietly elevating Berg's film into that same big-league audition pipeline.

The subtext is PR math. "Truth is" pretends to puncture spin, but it actually produces a more flattering narrative: we aimed high, we got a pass, and even our pass came with an endorsement. Hanks doesn't just decline; he re-enters the story as a benevolent gatekeeper who validates the movie's quality and its awards viability. Berg routes that validation through Billy Bob Thornton, adding an extra layer of industry camaraderie - the kind of telephone-game credibility that reads casual but is carefully useful.

Context matters: actors and filmmakers talk like this around festival premieres and awards season, when the real competition isn't only on screen; it's in perception. Name-checking Hanks invokes a shared Hollywood reality (constant casting courtship) while planting the most valuable rumor in the room: that the ultimate Everyman saw it, liked it, and is rooting for it.