Scott Grimes Tried To Land His Band Of Brothers Role By Burning Tom Hanks A CD
The 2001 HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers" was massive in scope, containing at least two dozen main characters, and just as many supporting players besides. It told the true story of an actual World War II infantry regiment nicknamed Easy Company, following the group on several dangerous missions, all overseen by Richard Winters, played in the series by Damian Lewis. Those paying attention in 2001 might recall the overwhelming size of the television event, and what a boon it was for the actors in it. Looking closely, one can see small roles from the likes of James McAvoy, Tom Hardy, Jamie Bamber, Dominic Cooper, and Simon Pegg.
Each of the show's ten episodes, running anywhere from 45 to 70 minutes, focused on a different soldier in particular, with other characters becoming supporting players in the week's story. Actor Scott Grimes played real-life soldier Donald Malarkey (1921-2017), a young man who fought in several notable WWII battles before returning home to Oregon to attend college. Scott Grimes wanted to play Malarkey with a burning passion.
"Band of Brothers" was created by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, and their fame inspired actors from miles around to come and audition. Because the casting call was so broad, many of the young hopefuls felt obligated to do something, anything, to stand out. According to an HBO behind-the-scenes video, Grimes revealed a bright idea. Figuring that Malarkey was "a guy who is prone to love a song," Grimes had the perfect plan to get Hanks' attention: He burned the executive producer a CD.
Making CDs in 2001
Two things were troublesome about Grimes' plan. For one, it was immensely difficult, and immensely expensive, to make CDs in 2001. Those old enough to have made CDs at the time might recall the limitations. Not every home had a CD burner yet, and iTunes, which featured easy CD-burning tools, didn't launch until January of 2001, after "Band of Brothers" was already in production. Those with particularly sharp nostalgia goggles might even wistfully recall the phenomenon of CD-burning services, when you selected pop songs out of a website's licensed library, then requested they mail you a burned CD in a professional-looking jewel case, emblazoned with a personal message.
The other problem was that Grimes didn't exactly know much about the real-life Donald Malarkey. The real Malarkey was born in Oregon. Grimes assumed, just from his name, that he was born in Ireland. As such, the actor thought that his character should be well-versed in Irish folk music. He described his thought process:
"I bought this CD burner, and I bought a CD, and I recorded this song on this little system I had, and I recorded 'Oh Danny Boy,' because I thought, 'Hey, Malarkey, sounds Irish.' And I think also in the original script that I still have in my garage it said, in the description of Malarkey, something about he loves to sing. It never really happened within the project."
Grimes assumed that his idea was novel ... and it kind of was. No one else thought to hand a CD to Tom Hanks. The actor recalls thinking "it was a done deal. And I said, 'Nobody can do what I just did and burn a CD!'"
The actual audition, it turns out, had nothing to do with music.
Tom Hanks broke the ice
Grimes recalled walking into a room with Tom Hanks for the very first time. Hanks must have sensed that young actors might be intimidated to meet a movie star of his stature and seemingly took efforts to put them at ease. It seems that Hanks joked around with Grimes for a bit. The ice-breaking helped. The actor said:
"When I walked in ... first of all, I have to tell you, this is Tom Hanks. He was sitting there with a yellow legal pad writing down things. And he didn't look up. For a second I was like, 'That's rude,' you know? I just walked into the room — not that I'm anybody, but I'm nervous as it is. It's Tom Hanks! And he kept looking down at this notepad and he kept writing, holds his finger up like, 'Give me one second this is really important.' So I'm like, 'Oh, okay.' And then he says out loud, 'Fire the pool man ...'"
The joke, of course, is that Hanks was concerned with his petty "rich guy stuff" — firing his pool man — over the audition that was about to happen. Because Hanks has a reputation for being aggressively nice, however, Grimes immediately picked up that this was a joke. He said:
"He broke the ice, man, with this wonderful joke, immediately got me comfortable. I waited 'til the way out, but I handed Tom Hanks this CD."
Grimes didn't say what Hanks thought of the CD or even if he listened to it at all. But even if he didn't, Grimes was cast as Donald Malarkey and got a nice career bump from his appearance on the show. He went on to star in 112 episodes of "ER" and many other TV shows and movies, and his next film is Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer."