Rumors of an ongoing feud between Henry Winkler and Tom Hanks have persisted for decades, with conflicting reports. Back in 2020, Henry, 80, told Vanity Fair there was no feud, but he still alluded to some drama in a recent interview. The tension started decades ago, when Henry was supposed to direct Turner & Hooch, but ultimately lost the opportunity.
A few years after this all went down, Henry confessed that he “got along better with Hooch (the dog) than (he) did with Turner (Tom).” The topic came up again on a recent episode of In Depth With Graham Bensinger.
On the podcast, Henry was asked about the apparent drama.
He thought back to how things were far from smooth sailing when he was on the set of Turner & Hooch. After just 13 days, Henry was fired because of “creative differences.” At the time, Henry was just trying to do a good job, but in retrospect, he has identified some aspects of his approach that could’ve rubbed people the wrong way.
“I guess, at that time, being insecure, I talked too much,” Henry said on the podcast. He shared feedback with Hanks, and it’s possible that Hanks was not all that receptive to it.
“I gave (the actors) direction — what I thought was my job — and I wanted to do it over again,” Henry recalled. “And apparently, that p—ed them off.”
After that, he was fired. The decision left him feeling “devastated.” He admitted that he “didn’t handle it well.”
He might not be the only person who had strong feelings about the situation.
Because years later, Henry was working on a tribute to Happy Days, which Tom had appeared as a guest star on in 1982. Apparently, Tom did not seem the least bit interested in contributing to this project, which may or may not have something to do with the ongoing tension with Henry.
Whether he wanted to avoid Henry entirely or not, Henry revealed that they couldn’t even get his permission to use old footage of Tom. “We did a retrospective on Happy Days, and we wanted 60 seconds of Tom Hanks in his episode,” Henry explained. “And we did not get permission for that.” Oof.
As for how Henry feels about this drama, he seems relatively unbothered at this point.
At the same time, his responses to questions about his current relationship with Tom were definitely not the most revealing answers ever. “What’s your perspective on it?” the podcast host asked Henry after he shared the Happy Days tidbit.
“I am still working on my perspective,” he answered. “I think his wife, Rita, was also a guest on Happy Days in the beginning.”
It seems that the host also wanted to get a sense of whether Henry thinks drama like this can ever be repaired over time. “Do you think that relationship ever repairs itself?” he asked. But again, Henry’s response was quite vague. He simply said, “Sure.”
So, it’s possible that the two men have (or will) move on from all of this. At the same time, it’s been nearly 40 years at this point, so who’s to say, really?
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