Henry Winkler has spent years joking around one of Hollywood’s stranger long-running tensions. This time, he supplied more of the uncomfortable part himself.
The Happy Days star revisited the 13 days he spent directing Tom Hanks in 1989’s Turner & Hooch during a new In Depth With Graham Bensinger interview. Winkler now says his own insecurity may have contributed to the trouble, recalling that he “talked too much” and kept giving direction while working with Hanks and Mare Winningham, according to PEOPLE.
He was fired less than two weeks into filming and Roger Spottiswoode ultimately directed the movie. Winkler still does not say Hanks personally ordered his removal, but he remembers repeatedly giving notes and asking to do work again before concluding that his approach had “apparently” angered the actors.
Nearly four decades later, asked how he views Hanks now, he replied, “I am still working on my perspective.” Asked whether the relationship could someday repair itself, his answer was much shorter “Sure.”
Winkler Says He Ignored His Instinct Before Filming Began
Henry Winkler reflects on his rift with Tom Hanks after being fired as the director for ‘Turner & Hooch’: ‘I am still working on my perspective.’ https://t.co/UbzIj8aFGH
— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) September 9, 2026
Winkler says there was a warning before the first take, although it came from himself. Jeffrey Katzenberg, then chairman of Walt Disney Studios, approached him about directing Turner & Hooch, but Winkler remembers having an immediate feeling that he was not suited to the project.
“Here’s a lesson. When your instinct says, ‘Uh oh! Danger! Warning sign!’ you do not question your tummy,” he told Bensinger. Winkler said he ignored that instinct and later felt as though the decision had hit him “in the face with a two-by-four.”
He nevertheless threw himself into preproduction. Winkler has previously said he spent approximately 11 weeks preparing the movie, and in the new interview he recalled meeting the dogs and working with Hanks during the casting process. The two auditioned actresses together before Mare Winningham was selected, with Winkler remembering an immediate “electricity” between her and Hanks.
Once production began, Winkler believes his insecurity affected how he directed. “I guess at that time, being insecure, I talked too much,” he said. He remembered giving the actors notes, asking to repeat work and doing what he believed was his job, only to conclude that his approach “apparently” angered them.
The Firing Left Winkler ‘Devastated’ After Months of Preparation
Thirteen shooting days into the production, Winkler was called into Katzenberg’s office. He remembers being told, “It’s not in the dailies,” referring to the footage being generated by the shoot.
“I then go to the set. I get my things. I drive home. I’m fired as a director,” Winkler recalled. He said he was “devastated” and did not handle the dismissal well. His agent immediately pushed him in the opposite direction of hiding. Winkler said the agent called and insisted they go to lunch so he would be seen publicly, even though Winkler had no appetite after losing the job.
Winkler told PEOPLE in 1993, “Let’s just say I got along better with Hooch than I did with Turner.” Asked about the supposed feud again on Watch What Happens Live in 2019, he praised the dog and joked that he could barely remember the movie’s title.
Winkler later pushed back on the word “feud.” In 2020, he told TMZ that he did not have one with Hanks and said a recent encounter between them at an awards event had been warm.
Ron Howard Heard About the Fallout From Both Men
One person had an unusual position in the middle. Ron Howard had spent years acting opposite Winkler on Happy Days and would eventually direct Hanks repeatedly in films including Splash, Apollo 13 and The Da Vinci Code.
Howard told The Guardian in 2020 that both Hanks and Winkler separately came to speak with him after the Turner & Hooch fallout. Howard said the two men had “a working style that did not fit” and added that the experience had been painful for both of them.
Their History Goes Back to ‘Happy Days’ and Winkler Still Has Hanks’ Gift
Winkler and Hanks had actually shared a set years before Turner & Hooch. Hanks guest-starred in the 1982 Happy Days episode “A Little Case of Revenge” as Dr. Dwayne Twitchell, a former schoolmate who returns determined to settle an old score with Fonzie.
The appearance produced one of the episode’s memorable images. Hanks’ martial-arts-trained character kicks Fonzie through a stained-glass window at Al’s Drive-In. Hanks later said that guest role helped put him on the path to auditioning for Howard’s Splash.
That older connection surfaced again in Bensinger’s interview when Winkler discussed a later Happy Days retrospective. “We wanted 60 seconds of Tom Hanks in his episode, and we did not get permission for that,” he said.
There is also a surviving artifact from the period when Winkler and Hanks were still preparing Turner & Hooch together. Winkler remembered Hanks constructing a plastic model airplane during their meetings, describing it as a Piper Cub or something similar. Hanks signed the model for him. Winkler still owns it.
