Golden Globes 2020: Watch Tom Hanks Break Down in Tears While Accepting Cecile B. DeMille Award

Tom Hanks had Golden Globes viewers getting teary-eyed Sunday night as he broke down in his emotional acceptance speech for the Cecil B. DeMille Award. While accepting the honorary prize for “outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment,” Hanks cried about how much he loves his family.

After cracking a few jokes about how he would pay to see “most of the people in this room … get their cars washed” and about how Love Boat was included in his highlight reel, he grew serious as he thanked his family.

“A man is-” he began, choking up almost immediately. “A man is blessed with a family sitting down in front like that,” he said, gesturing to his children and wife, Rita Wilson. “A wife who is fantastic in every way, who has taught me what love is. Five kids who are braver and stronger and wiser than their old man is. And a loving group of people who have put up with me being away for months and months and months at a time. I can’t tell you how much your love means to me.”

He went on to discuss many people with whom he has worked and those he admired, and even offered a bit of advice. “You’re a dope if you don’t steal from everybody you’ve ever worked with, and I have stolen from the likes of the people who only need one name, like Meryl, like Denzel, like Antonio, like Meg, like Julia,” he said. “I have never not been challenged or flummoxed or lost sleep because of the work that was asked of me by the directors I’ve worked with, every single one of them, the screenwriters I’ve worked with, every single one of them.” He then shouted out Nora Ephron, Steven Spielberg, Clint Eastwood and Ron Howard, among others.

He mentioned that actors, directors and screenwriters aren’t the only people involved with creating films, saying that sometimes the movie’s success rests on the shoulders of the makeup artist or the focus puller or, yes, the actor. “And it’s those moments as an actor where everyone I have ever worked with helped me get to that place,” he said.

His bit of advice was seemingly simple: “Showing up on time is one of the greatest liberating acts you can give yourself in a movie,” he said. “That means those people with radios in the ears don’t need to knock on your door and say, ‘They’re ready for you.’ You’re actually already ready, and you have the liberty and you have the freedom of being there early enough to settle down, because when the time comes, you have to hit the marks and you have to go there.”

Hanks choked up again toward the end of his speech when he reflected on his career. “It’s the cold that is making this happen,” he said, through tears. “I swear to God I’m not this emotional at home. Thank you, HFPA. Thank you all here. Thank you all for your inspiration and all of your work and all of the struggle that you guys all go through in order to hit the marks and tell the truth.”

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