‘A League of Their Own’ Director Penny Marshall Pushed Tom Hanks to Get As Fat As Possible for His Role as Jimmy Dugan

There’s no crying in baseball, and there’s never too much eating in it either if you’re Tom Hanks.

The 1992 historical sports comedy A League of Their Own is a completely timeless and mostly fictionalized account of the real-life All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL), and its contribution to the sport of baseball in the quotes department remains nearly unmatched: “There’s no crying in baseball,” “The hard is what makes it great” and “Did anyone ever tell you, you look like a penis with that little hat on?” are all bangers, and they’re all spoken by the fabricated boozehound Jimmy Dugan, played by Hanks.

A departure from his usual affable, fuckable everyman character, Hanks’ portrayal of the ball-scratching, long-pissing and hilariously ornery manager of the Rockford Peaches is one his best-ever comic roles specifically because it was so off-brand. During a chat with the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Hanks explained that the key to his transformation from boyish, lovable, Big-style lead to flask-swigging asshole in A League of Their Own was a physical re-shaping prescribed by the film’s director Penny Marshall.

Marshall told Hanks to get as fat as he possibly could before filming started on A League of their Own, because you can’t be a proper drunk without a good beer belly.

When filming for A League of their Own began in 1991, audiences had just seen Hanks play an attractive everyman and romantic lead in Joe Versus the Volcano across from his perennial rom-com partner Meg Ryan. As such, Marshall understood that turning one of America's most adored leading men into a scumbag with a heart of gold and a bladder full of booze was a tall order — and that Hanks’ dinner order should be similarly sized.

“On A League Of Their Own, Penny said, ‘Put on as much weight as you can. I can’t have you cute, because you’re too young, and I don’t want the girls to think, ‘Oh, Jimmy’s cute,’” Hanks explained on Happy Sad Confused, noting that he was pretty confounded by his director’s instructions at first.

“So I said, ‘Well, you know, if I’m the guy who’s 36 and I’m managing a girls’ baseball team, there’s got to be a problem with me,’” Hanks recalled of the conversation with Marshall. “She said, ‘Well, you’re a drunk.’ But then I said, ‘Well, why am I a drunk?’” Later, Hanks found the answer to his own question, “Oh, I know what happened. I blew my knee out trying to get out of a woman’s hotel room. And that cost me my career.”

A lecherous athlete packing on a few pounds after an avoidable injury ended their playing days was a perfectly believable backstory for Hanks and his gut, and the result was one of Hanks’ best and belchiest performances. However, when watching A League of Their Own today, it’s hard to believe that Hanks could possibly have been considered inordinately portly for a baseball player — compared to half of the MLB, Jimmy Dugan looks like he’s on Ozempic.