With his recent return as Woody in Toy Story 5, Tom Hanks thinks it’s time the Academy Awards recognize voice actors… just not in their own category.
The 2x Oscar winner recently explained that there are multiple voice actors who have the chops to take home a statuette in one of the current acting categories at the 98-year-running award show.
“I think they have enough categories,” Hanks told Gold Derby. “The truth is, a voice actor can win Best Actor. The judgment is, ‘any performance that moved you.’”
Hanks used Andy Serkis as an example, given his performances in the Lord of the Rings and Planet of the Apes franchises.
“Even though he does not appear as Andy Serkis, he gives all the raw material for it. There’s been people who have been close to being nominated that do not appear on camera. That could happen to a pure-vocal actor,” added Hanks.
Buzz Lightyear (voiced by Tim Allen) and Woody (Tom Hanks) in ‘Toy Story 5’ (Disney/Pixar)
Hanks’ comments come as he reprises his voice performance as Woody in Toy Story 5, premiering June 19 in theaters, more than 30 years after the first Toy Story premiered in 1995.
Since the first Academy Awards were held in 1929, no voice actor has ever won in the acting categories, although the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences added the Best Animated Feature category to 2002’s ceremony. Meanwhile, the Best Animated Short Film category goes back to 1932, previously referred to as Short Subjects, Cartoons and Short Subjects, Animated Films.
In recent years, the Academy has added categories for Achievement in Stunt Design, beginning in 2027, and Best Casting, with the first award going to Cassandra Kulukundis for One Battle After Another at this year’s ceremony.
