Tom Hanks pretended to space-walk along bottom of swimming pool as a child
Tom Hanks tried to replicate the sensation of space-walking at the bottom of his swimming pool as a kid.
The Apollo 13 actor revealed on Friday's episode of The Graham Norton Show that he used to weigh himself down and breathe through a hose to make himself feel like an astronaut up in space.
Detailing his longtime love of space, he said, "We had a doughboy swimming pool when I was a kid. I had a cheap mask, a brick in the back of my swimsuit that would hold me down at the bottom, and I would breathe through a hose for 10 minutes so I could feel like I was space walking."
Hanks, who famously played astronaut Jim Lovell in Ron Howard's 1995 movie Apollo 13, told The Telegraph earlier this year that he is so keen to go into space that he is willing to clean toilets for it.
"I'm your man. I would probably sign up right now!" he said. "That might be a good idea, I'll do all the work. I'll clean the toilet. I'll serve the food. I'll fold clothes. I'll stow the gear. That way, the others could be free to do other stuff."
However, Hanks, 67, changed his tune when Norton asked if he was tempted to sign up for a flight into space.
"I don't need to go up for five minutes and up-chuck before we come back down," he quipped.
Hanks appeared on the show, which airs in the U.K. on Friday night, to promote The Moonwalkers: A Journey with Tom Hanks, an immersive space exhibition that opens in London on 6 December.
