Now and Then Thursdays: Busted In Front of Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington

The other day I wrote a post about a big sci-fi film that will be shot on Penn’s campus this summer.

An alum by the name of “Dara” then made the following comment and mentioned:

“I remember when Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington shot the library scene of “Philadelphia” at Furness. I walked to the library with a friend very early one morning to try to catch the stars, but no such luck!”

I too (Matt Rosler, C’96) was actually on campus for the filming of Philadelphia during early January 1993 for Mask and Wig’s Spring Show rehearsals. I managed to sneak in while they were filming and got into a bit of trouble…

I remember one night a bunch of us Mask and Wiggers snuck into Furness and went up to the balcony area looking down to where they were shooting. I saw Tom Hanks sitting at one of the tables in Furness. I think he was wearing one of those soon to be popular red and blue Penn felt hats (see image below). At the time I had my big EOS Rebel Camera with the 300mm telephoto lens and attempted to shoot a picture without a flash.

To this day, I remember the moment after I shot that photo I heard a walkie talkie go off saying “Get that kid’s camera“. I panicked and some assistant approached me and demanded I remove the film. I think I had convinced her not to make me remove the film and somehow my friends and I raced out of Furness through some emergency fire door.

The next day I went to develop (yep, I said develop) the photo, and to my dismay the photo didn’t come out because it was too dark. But the memory lives in my head!