Tom Hanks Brings His Star Power to the Newseum for “Captain Phillips” (Photos)

When
Tom Hanks arrived at the Newseum Wednesday night for a screening of his new film,
Captain Phillips, he made a beeline for the folks in bright white Navy uniforms. After an obligatory
first stop with the media scrum, he noticed the group in the dress whites, and his
face lit up. They aimed their smartphones at him but he had another idea. “Let’s do
a selfie. C’mon guys,” he said. He took their phones and snapped away.

In the middle of the impromptu photo shoot, one of the participants waved a soccer
ball he’d decorated to look like Wilson, the volleyball that was Hanks’s character’s
sole companion—really his costar—during the movie
Cast Away. Hanks seemed unfazed by the appearance of the ball; maybe it happens at every public
appearance.

“Captain Phillips” is a true story of an American cargo ship, the
Maersk Alabama, that was hijacked in 2009 by Somali pirates about 300 miles off the coast of Somalia.
The ship’s captain,
Richard Phillips, was taken hostage. (Spoiler alert: He was later rescued by another ship, the USS

Bainbridge, and Navy SEALS.)

The captain of the Bainbridge was Cmdr.
Frank Castellano. Both Phillips and Castellano arrived at the Wednesday screening with Hanks and were
in the audience for the film. During his remarks before the film rolled, director

Paul Greengrass asked both men to stand and take a moment in the spotlight.

Greengrass said he was the son of merchant mariner and he felt he “knew something
about this world” as he embarked on making the film. “For the men and women who go
to sea, it’s a hard life, it’s a hardworking life,” he said. “Hopefully we’ve reflected
a little bit of that.”

There were individuals in Navy uniforms throughout the audience, including some brass,
including some brass such as Vice Admiral
Michelle Howard, deputy chief of naval operations for operations, plans and strategy, and Vice Admiral

Albert Herberger. Seated beside me was an officer who identified herself only as “essential” in the
government shutdown and based at the Pentagon. We wondered what it was like there
since the furlough began. “Oh, there are a lot fewer people,” she said, but no, she
would not be one of those who get to sleep late in the morning. “I have to be there
very early.”