Tom Hanks Recalls Taking Out a Loan to Buy His SAG Card (Exclusive)

The legendary actor had faith his career would work out.

Tom Hanks had faith his acting career would work out. 

The actor has had massive success in Hollywood, but as he told ET's Nischelle Turner and Keltie Knight at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday, he took a loan out to get there. 

"[My first acting job on He Knows You're Alone] paid me $800. I was able to pay off the loans I had taken to join the Screen Actors Guild, and we shot for two days on Staten Island in the middle of winter," he said of the movie, which marks his 40-year anniversary as an actor. 

"I borrowed money to join SAG, yeah," Hanks confirmed. "If you don't have it, you don't have it. It was the type of thing where it was better if you had it so you could get the job, but you had to get the job in order to join. It was a classic catch 22."

As the Oscar-winning actor joked, "I didn't have the luxury of my wife's red carpet arrival into the Screen Actors Guild." "Go ahead, tell them why," he said to his wife, Rita Wilson. 

FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images

"Oh, because I got my Screen Actors Guild card because I did an episode of The Brady Bunch," she shared. 

"I was watching on a Friday night... this episode of The Brady Bunch, where this cheerleader was so cute, she knocked me out," Hanks recalled. "And then I married her!"

Hanks  -- a two-time SAG Award winner -- is nominated on Sunday for his role in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. His portrayal of Mister Rogers also earned him a nomination at the upcoming Academy Awards. 

See more on Hanks in the video below. 

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