Tom Hanks has many classic film scenes to his name but one of the most iconic is his scene playing “Chopsticks” on the floor piano in Big. When The Jonathan Ross Show hosted the legendary actor, Ross just had to get Hanks to reprise the scene. This time instead of Robert Loggia playing the piano with Hanks, the stunning Sandra Bullock did the honours – in her six inch heels no less!
Ross surprised Hanks by initially hiding the giant floor piano beneath a mat, but the film star quickly got into the swing of things by busting out “Heart and Soul”, which is the famous theme from his 1988 film Big. As you can see below, he followed it up with “Chopsticks”, which is the second song he played in the piano scene from the movie.
For the first round, Ross showed off his piano chops by playing the higher melody for “Chopsticks” while Hanks played the bass notes. Despite struggling with his dress pants riding up, Hanks did a great job on a song he hadn’t played in decades. After a bit of horsing around with the piano, Ross then invited the one and only Sandra Bullock up to do a piano duet with Hanks.
Ever the gentleman, Hanks suggested she might want to take her six inch heels off first, but Bullock was having none of it and insisted she could nail it in her huge heels. True to her word, Bullock delivered a flawless version of “Chopsticks” with the Hanks – right up until the last chord, which she declined to do as it required a huge stretch that’d probably result in a wardrobe malfunction. You can watch the original scene from Big featuring Hanks and Loggia below.
The Walking Piano was created in 1982 by Remo Saraceni and the original design featured only one octave. To create the famous scene in Big, the director had a three octave version made, which allows for a duet to be played. Not to be outdone, Ross had the full three octave version prepared for his bit with Hanks and Bullock.