Thursday on MS NOW’s “The Moment,” actor Tom Hanks asked reporter Jacob Soboroff what he could do for the “800 people watching,” apparently mocking MS NOW during a live segment from the opening ceremony for the Obama Presidential Center.
HANKS: What can I do for the 800 people watching MS NOW?
SOBOROFF: Oh, come on. We’re live on MS NOW.
HANKS: Alright, add a zero if you need to.
SOBOROFF: I would say millions now that you’re on our air.
HANKS: Alright, alright.
SOBOROFF: How do you feel to be here today?
HANKS: Look, this is a — I feel like I’ve been to the best church on the planet Earth. Wonderful, wonderful words, good music, good acts. Could have used a little bit…I’m going to tell you, it was so hot that every now and again we had to do this, right? And every now again, just to register my applause, I literally tapped my fan on my hat because I couldn’t put it down.
SOBOROFF: I’ve seen you at conventions, I’ve seen you at other events—
HANKS: I’ve never been to a convention.
SOBOROFF: OK, but you’ve been around the Obama universe before.
HANKS: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SOBOROFF: Correct me if I’m wrong, you appeared in advertisements, videos.
HANKS: Yeah, yeah.
SOBOROFF: How did this differ from your experiences with the Obamas?
HANKS: I think he said something beautiful… that this is not about nostalgia. This is not about a magic time, a gauzy time when, oh gosh, we solved all the problems in the world. We made history. A Black man, Black American, was finally in the White House. This is about the work that continues every single day. I love that he said [that], and also the fabulous Michelle [Obama]. Those are about the — I want to get transcripts of those and read them to my kids when I get home.
SOBOROFF: I can help you with that.
HANKS: Okay, alright, thank you very much. But when they were talking about — they said this magic thing. They said, there are millions of us right now who are waking up every day and say, what’s my job here? What’s the — how do I contribute to the good fight? We would think that it’s different. But the truth is, even if we’re standing and waiting to get to higher ground, all we have to ask is the question of what can I do? And there’s something that every single one of us could do.
SOBOROFF: Tom Hanks, it’s great to see you. Thank you so much for talking to us live on MS NOW.
HANKS: Let me just tell you too, this museum, which I was able to see yesterday, it’s actually three museums in one… great gift shop, good swag, no doubt about a lot of stuff that says OPC on it. Good coffee cups and you know what else? It also has fabulous history. It does go back, one of the first things you see here is a copy that’s over 200 years old of the Declaration of Independence. That’s no small thing in order to have in a presidential library, particularly this one. And the last one is, it’s a great art museum. So you can come, just do the swag one day, do the history another day, come back for the art. You’ll have a great time.
SOBOROFF: What a ringing endorsement. It’s really nice to see you. Thanks for stopping by and for adding the zero to our ratings today, thank you so much.
HANKS: Alright, I got to tell you, I can hear the clicks happening before my very eyes.