Tom Hanks Asked If He Could Photobomb A Bride’s Wedding Day Shoot And It Was Adorable

Tom Hanks in Finch
(Image credit: Apple TV+)

Tom Hanks is not only among the best actors of our time, he’s also a delightful fellow who has shown his charm time and time again. His latest great moment comes during one happy couple’s big wedding day. Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson, were going through Downtown Pittsburgh at the same time as a wedding party was snapping photos, and an adorably unexpected moment happened.

Hanks is currently in Pennsylvania to shoot the dramedy A Man Called Otto. New bride Grace Gwaltney was in downtown Pittsburgh on her wedding day shooting photos with her wedding party and photographer Rachel Rowland, and they were about to hop into a limousine when Tom Hanks approached them and asked for a photo with her and her bridesmaids. Spot Hanks' inclusion in Gwaltney’s wedding photos in her photographer’s Instagram post:  

In the last picture in a beautiful spread of images from the couple’s big day, Tom Hanks is seen surprising the bride with his presence, and her best friends look tickled to see the Toy Story and Cast Away actor too. I mean, imagine getting married, and then Tom Hanks randomly appears on the scene – the actor must have known that his presence would brighten their day even more. 

Pittsburgh outlet TribLIVE spoke to the wedding photographer Rachel Rowland, who admit she didn’t realize it was the actor until his voice tipped her off. Rowland shared that Hanks’ wife Rita Wilson was with him and also got some photos alongside the bridal party. Rowland also said this: 

We need more news like this. These stories make people smile. You could tell he loves Rita and she loves him. They made Grace and all of us so happy. We all started screaming once we realized it was really him. I always told myself if I met him I would tell him how important he is and how poignant his movies are and when I met him, I just screamed.

A Man Called Otto will reportedly see Tom Hanks playing a grumpy retired man who strikes up an “unlikely friendship” with his rowdy new neighbors. It’s a remake of the 2015 Swedish film A Man Called Ove. The new movie has a release date for December 25, 2022. It is among the actor’s many upcoming projects, including his role in the Elvis biopic and as Gepetto in Disney’s live-action Pinocchio movie, all among 2022’s upcoming movies

Perhaps playing grumpy Otto got the actor in a good mood to do some light wedding crashing and that couple will always have a crazy story to tell about their special day. While we wait for the next Tom Hanks film, check out how we ranked his best movies of all time here on CinemaBlend. 

Sarah El-Mahmoud
Staff Writer

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.