10 Hidden Details You Completely Missed In Outstanding Biopics
2. Walt Disney's Signature 'Salute' - Saving Mr. Banks
Though Saving Mr. Banks (2013) isn't exactly celebrated as a 100% accurate retelling of the events which took place during the two weeks Mary Poppins author Pamela 'P.L.' Travers spent in Los Angeles in 1961, it did give us two fantastic performances from Emma Thompson (Travers) and Tom Hanks (Walt Disney).
One detail in Hanks' performance in particular which many may have overlooked when watching the film for the first time was his choice of salute as the character. At a glance, this may just seem like an insignificant hand gesture. However, there's more to Disney's two-finger salute than meets the eye.
Disney famously smoked a lot, so he was often photographed with a cigarette between his fingers. The company didn't necessarily want him to be associated with this habit as time went by, so the cigarettes were soon airbrushed out of images. We were then left with Disney seemingly just holding out two fingers at various stages in his life.
So, Hanks subtly found a way to pay homage to this by performing a two-finger salute at multiple points in the movie. But, we never actually see Disney smoke a cigarette on screen, as that would have immediately landed the flick an 'R' rating.