On Board With 'Captain Phillips': Exclusive Portraits of Tom Hanks and Barkhad Abdi

Tom Hanks and Barkhad Abdi

Four-and-a-half years after Somali pirates commandeered the 17,000-ton Maersk Alabama container ship, Sony is bringing the story to the screen with Captain Phillips, a $50 million drama that revolves around two skippers: the Alabama's Richard Phillips (played by Tom Hanks, 57) and Muse, the Somali leader (played by newcomer Barkhad Abdi, 28).

'Truckers of the Sea'

That theme appealed to Hanks. "I was certainly intrigued by the concept of a guy with a very complicated but extremely unglamorous job," he says. "These guys, as even Phillips describes it, [are] 'the truckers of the sea.' They're essentially hauling stuff in big cargo containers, and it's a pain in the ass, and you've got to deal with a bunch of people, not the least of whom are your crew, who are a very fascinating hodgepodge. That's a tough gig."

'Forrest Gump' Fan

"I was so excited about meeting Tom," says Abdi, a movie buff who had seen many of Hanks' films and adored Forrest Gump. "Then when we got [to the set], Paul [Greengrass] took us on the side and was like, 'OK, you guys are not going to see Tom until we do the first scene where you meet in the movie.' " He says he and the other Somalis (all friends of his from way before the shoot) were disappointed but recognized the authenticity this added.

Life-and-Death Situation

Hanks was equally fascinated by the life-and-death situation Phillips found himself in, when "lo and behold, he looks through his binoculars and sees these really scary-looking guys who almost resemble spiders with AK-47s. And for a short time, he's living by his absolute wits."

Barkhad Abdi: 'I Am the Part'

At age 14, seven years after arriving in Yemen and learning to speak Arabic, Abdi moved again when his family got lucky on its third attempt and won the annual U.S. lottery for a green card, relocating to Minnesota. He drifted from one job to another. Finally, he heard that Hollywood was looking for Somalis.

"People around me would say, 'Oh, they're going to embarrass Somali people, don't go,' " he remembers. "I was like, 'It's Tom Hanks. I'm going to check it out.' So I went [to one casting call]. There's a lot of people there. I said, 'My name's Barkhad Abdi. I was born in Mogadishu, and I am the part.' "

Tom Hanks on His Role: 'It Takes Its Toll'

"There's a lot of mental stress," says Hanks of playing his role. "[There's] the anger that goes along with it and the desperation and stuff like that. You've got to start at 60 miles an hour. It takes its toll."

How Tom Hanks Sees Somali Pirates

Looking back, Hanks says the film led him to see the Somali pirates in a different light.

"[At first] you think, 'They're bad guys and they have machine guns and they're thugs,' " he says. "But Paul, as soon as we started talking about it, says, 'It's true, but the place has been fished out by the global fishing industry, and Somali fishermen with their little lines and little nets can't compete with these trawlers that have literally swept the place clean of marine life.' Well, that alters life in Somalia a little bit."

THR's Todd McCarthy on 'Captain Phillips'

So far, response to this film has been positive. Reviewing the movie before its Sept. 27 debut at the New York Film Festival, THR's chief film critic Todd McCarthy wrote, "Something of a companion piece for director Paul Greengrass to his superb United 93, which was based on the real-life takeover of one of the 9/11 aircraft, this immaculately made reconstruction of a chaotic incident will have a much better time of it commercially."