Fun Facts: Forrest Gump
• John Travolta, Chevy Chase, and Bill Murray all turned down the role of Forrest Gump.
• In reality, Sally Field (who play's Forrest's mother) is only 10 years older than Tom Hanks.
• The scene where Forrest sits in the hallway of his school while his mother talks to the principal was inspired by the Norman Rockwell painting “Girl with a Black Eye.”
• Ice Cube and Dave Chappelle both turned down the role of Bubba.
• jenny’s last name is Curran, but it is never said in the film. The only places you can find it are on her mailbox and on letters that she sends Forrest.
• Kurt Russell reportedly provided the voice of Elvis Presley in the film, but was never credited. Kurt actually played Elvis in the 1979 TV movie Elvis.
• The line “My name is Forrest Gump. People call me Forrest Gump” was ad libbed by Tom Hanks while filming the scene.
• Forrest has his eyes closed in every photo you see of him in the movie.
• Tom Hanks’ younger brother Jim Hanks doubled for him in the wide shots of the running sequences.
• There was no ball in the Ping-Pong matches scenes; it was entirely CGI.
• The line Forrest says when his microphone is turned off at the Vietnam rally is:
“Sometimes when people go to Vietnam, they go home to their mommas without any legs. Sometimes they don’t go home at all. That’s a bad thing. That’s all I have to say about that.”
