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When Tom Hanks found himself with his pants down in front of the iconic Mona Lisa painting while filming The Da Vinci Code, director Ron Howard couldn’t help but laugh.
Howard, 70, recalled the funny story during a Happy Days reunion event at MegaCon in Orlando on Friday, February 7, telling the crowd, “All of our grip equipment and camera equipment was in the Mona Lisa room” of the Louvre in Paris.
“At one point, we were really hurrying, we were behind schedule. And Tom Hanks didn’t have time to go back to his dressing room to change for the next scene,” Howard explained of the 2006 film, via People. “So I was giving him some notes about what the next scene was going to be and he was changing his pants in front of the Mona Lisa.”
The filmmaker confessed he couldn’t let the hilarious moment go unnoticed. “I said, ‘Wait a minute. This is a moment we have to remember,’” Howard said, revealing that out of all the projects he’s worked on with Hanks — like Splash and Apollo 13 — this wardrobe change was one of the most outlandish. (The pair have worked on five projects total, including The Da Vinci Code franchise sequels, Angels & Demons and Inferno.)
“We’ve been under the water with the mermaid, we’ve been weightless with Apollo 13, and now you’re pantsless with the Mona Lisa,” Howard remembered telling Hanks, 68.
While the film is serious in tone and subject matter, Hanks going pantsless inside the famous art museum isn’t the only wild moment they had filming. (The mystery movie focuses on Hanks’ Robert Langdon as he tries to solve a murder inside the Louvre with clues hidden in Da Vinci paintings.)
Paul Bettany, who played Silas in the movie, told another funny anecdote involving Hanks during a March 2021 appearance on The Late Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
“I had to grab him and I had to punch him in the stomach and it’s very quiet on set,” Bettany, 53, remembered. “It’s always more quiet when there’s a stunt going on because you’re worried somebody’s gonna get hurt. So, everybody’s listening, and I punched him in the stomach and he farted really, really, really loudly.”
The actor recalled being so taken aback by the moment that he “didn’t know what the form was” and what to do next.
“What do you do when the biggest movie star in the world farts?” Bettany asked, revealing, “I kinda looked at him. And he went, ‘What is wrong with you? You just made me fart!’”
Hanks remembered the awkward shoot as well, telling his version during an appearance on The Graham Norton Show in 2019.
“I got beat up by Paul Bettany in The Da Vinci Code,” Hanks shared, noting, “In movie fights, everybody treats it like it’s a real fight.”
He explained, “Paul came rushing in and I met him, and what had to happen was he was supposed to knock me down against a desk and then I landed on the ground. When I hit the floor, I farted.”
