Hanks, referring to his new movie, The Post, which recalls the days leading up to The Washington Post’s decision in 1971 to publish the government’s secret history of the Vietnam War, added: “And this movie – this is what this entire film deals with.

“We made this movie about 1971, but it really is about 2017. There’s no reason not to get involved in what this overpowering discussion is about.”

It is not the first time that Hanks has addressed the #MeToo movement: in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter last year, he mused: “There’s a lot of reasons people do this for a living. Making a movie is a life experience that can create an awful lot of joy. You can meet the person you fall in love with, you can laugh your heads off. That’s the good stuff. The bad stuff can happen on a movie as well. There are some people who go into this business because they get off on having power. And the times they feel the most powerful, which is why they went into the business, are when they are hitting on somebody who’s underneath them, [and] I don’t necessarily mean completely sexually.

“There are predators absolutely everywhere.”

However, Hanks also said that he believes the industry is capable of turning things around. “Somebody said, ‘Is it too late to change things?’ No, it’s never too late. It’s never too late to learn new behaviours. And that’s a responsibility of anybody who wants to obey a code of professional ethics.”

Images: Rex Features

Tom Hanks’ response to the #MeToo movement is so incredibly thought-provoking