Gary Sinise, who played cocky Lieutenant Dan Taylor isn’t an amputee in real life. However, in the film, his character is wounded in the Vietnam war and loses both of his legs. He is shown prior to the injury, as an able-bodied officer, and after the injury, in a wheelchair as a double amputee. Special effects were used to virtually erase Sinise’s legs in the editing room, with computer assistance, and with props. Sinese also wore blue fabric on his legs to make it easy to digitally remove them.
Sinese was shocked by the film’s effects the first time he saw the finished film. He said of director Robert Zemeckis and special-effects supervisor Ken Ralston “They were constantly working it out, making sure we were shooting it the right way so we could figure out the effect later on. When I saw it later I thought, ‘Those were really stunning, flawless effects.’” In summary, the effects make it hard to believe that Sinese isn’t actually an amputee.
Haley Joel Osment's Debut
The 90s child actor Haley Joel Osment was everyone's favorite on-screen kid for years. His endearing face landed him countless roles, many of them even dramas and thrillers (how can anyone forget The Sixth Sense?) And it all started with Forrest Gump. Osment was only six-years-old when got the chance to play Forrest's son in this Academy Award-winning film, and boy was he adorable!
Years later he remarked on what it was like to play Tom Hanks' son. The actor, who is now 32 (and has a majestic beard) said that Hanks was was “a great first cinema Dad.” He sure was everyone's favorite on-screen son. Haley went onto play a string of films at a very young age. The good news, he's still acting and even graduated from Tisch's School of the Arts.
Tourists Make Excellent Reporters
One lucky tourist got the chance to star in what would become an American classic. When Tom Hanks visited Washington D.C to receive his medal of honor, the reporter who interviewed Gump wasn’t really an actor.
He was a tourist who was asked to read the script. The tourist was from Atlanta and had been visiting D.C. with his wife that day. Producers saw him and asked him to read the lines. Apparently, he read them quite well as they ended up taking him for the film.
Actual Footage
When Forrest receives a Medal of Honor, it looks pretty real. How did they do it? Creators actually used real footage of none other than Sammy Davis. The footage shows him receiving a Medal of Honor from President Lyndon B Johnson. Hanks’ head was digitally placed onto Davis’ body to make it look realistic. The real Sammy Davis joined the Army out of high school in 1965.
He was assigned to the 4th Artillery, following his father who had been an artilleryman in WWII, and after completing training he requested to go to Vietnam. On November 19th, 1968, exactly a year and a day after the nightlong firefight at Cai Lay, President Lyndon B Johnson awarded Davis with the Medal of Honor.
Ice Cube As Bubb?
Rumors have it that Ice Cube and Dave Chappelle turned down the opportunity to act as Bubba, Gump’s friend in the film. Apparently, the rapper and arguably the most celebrated lyricist, Ice Cube, passed on the role because he didn’t want to portray a dumb character. The legendary comic, Dave Chappelle, also said no to the role but later did costar with Hanks in You’ve Got Mail.
Mykelti Williamson accepted the role, and the rejectors subsequently regretted turning it down, thinking that the film wasn’t going to be that successful. While they may have expressed some soreness over the missed opportunity, both Ice Cube and Chappelle have both led incredibly successful careers. You can't do it all!