Tom Hanks sat down with Jeffrey Brown back in 2017 to discuss his book, "Uncommon Type",
and the Harvey Weinstein question popped up.
What's interesting is what Hanks' body language said in those moments, as you're about to
find out.
Welcome back, my body language buddies!
my name is Jesús Enrique Rosas, I'm the Body Language Guy, and it would be great if you
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Let's see how many emotional clues can you spot in the following clip:
- I think there was knowledge amongst a certain group of people, mostly who did business with...
with Harvey Weinstein.
There are countless women who understood what was happening, and many people said, well,
that's just Harvey being Harvey.
We could see two evident emotional displays such as a classic shrug, and he fiddling with
his glasses.
Those are the easier to spot, especially because when he shrugged, he was stuttering at the
same time.
We are just getting started, there is no direct meaning in these signals but it's important
to take note of them.
It's also easy to notice how Hanks talks about the matter nodding, in a way of connecting
with Brown about this terrible topic.
Also, that eyebrow raise when he emphasizes the concept of many people saying that this
was just Harvey being Harvey.
That's a way of saying that yes, it was MANY people.
As usual, we should pay attention to people's words, because that's how we can compare their
body language to what they are saying.
Let's see if you can spot the underlying idea in the words that Hanks is about to say next:
- Any place there's a boss, with underlings, in any corporation or any industry, you have
a type of sexual politics that goes on, that can slide in between appropriate ethics and
decorum to... let's see, inappropriate behavior to the point of harassment and sexual predatory
behavior - Well I think people understand that, but...
One thing that caught my attention is that, to the pressing question of this culture of
'casting couch' in Hollywood, he tries to frame the concept as something general that
can happen in ANY corporation or ANY industry.
Well, he's not wrong.
People abusing their power in a sexual way can happen in any of these structures, and
the more power, the higher the odds.
But it's like saying that people in my neighborhood throw cigarette butts on the floor, but people
in every neighborhood does that.
You're not directly saying that it's not that bad, but you're implying that it's not that
bad.
Like, there are so many other examples of the same thing happening.
But we have to, at least, compare what we have seen so far with other gestures, postures
and attitudes in the same interview to see if there is a break in his body language patterns.
When we take a look at other moments during this interview, when he was being asked less
pressing and less disturbing questions, he was much more relaxed and his body language
was more chatty.
Notice how he has no problem using his hands to express himself at this point, using illustrator
gestures to emphasize his words.
In another posture, he was not crossing his legs, but even so, he kept his hand covering
his groin.
Maybe it's a bit of a defensive posture or maybe he doesn't feel comfortable sitting
like this.
The same when he crosses his legs the other way.
His right hand still looks relaxed.
This is his body language baseline, or his usual body language expression, and this is
how we know he was nervous with the Weinstein questions.
I told you to look at Hanks' body language, especially his hands, just to have an idea
of his nonverbal expression when he is relaxed and feels confident.
Let's watch the following clip, still talking about Harvey Weinstein, and compare his hand
gestures:
- The dam has burst here.
In a big way.
And it is not just the holes of places like Harvey Weinstein's office where this was standard
operating procedure.
Yeah, his right hand is much more tense than any other moment of this interview, firmly
grasping the armrest while his left hand also shows illustrator gestures with a lot of tension.
This is why it's so important to spot different moments of people's body language so you will
have a direct understanding of which topics do they like, and which topics make them feel
uneasy.
In this case it's just one hand, but in other cases it can also be a foot that shakes, a
movement of the head or even a pursing of the lips.
That's one of the reasons, one of the most important abilities you could develop is being
able to read people's body language out of the corner of your eye, so you can see their
whole expression at the same time.
This ability is included in my complete program to read people, that you can unlock for yourself
with my Body Language and Persuasion Masterclass.
You can find all the information, and how to join, with the link in the description
of this video.
Now, let's compare Hanks' body language with another interview where he was also addressing
this delicate topic.
One tip: Make sure to focus on his forehead this time.
- We gotta hear from everybody.
So we have to understand how vast, and how all-encompassing this was.
That's A. B, it's all gotta change.
There are...
Hanks has these wrinkles in his brow area that are permanent, I guess from having his
eyebrows tense all the time.
I've mentioned how some vertical wrinkles signal sadness, but in his case, it's part
of his "everyday wrinkles", if you want to name them in some way.
But it's worth noticing that at the start of the clip there was further tension on his
forehead in the shape of horizontal lines that disappeared seconds later.
So whatever emotion he was feeling at that moment, he was releasing it.
Hard to spot on his brow area, but his forehead revealed it.
We should make sure to take these body language signals as markers to better understand the
emotional state of the person.
And it always depends on YOUR intentions.
It depends if you want to make the person feel better, or you just want to carry on
a nice conversation, or... you want people to reveal a bit more about themselves.
This is a common interrogation technique.
You don't use the same tactic or strategy over all the interrogation process.
First you need to identify the topics that ellicit an emotional response.
If your goal is to make the person like you, then you make sure that they feel good.
And the best way to do it, is to make them talk about the things they like.
When you find out what it is, you double down on it.
It's way trickier when you want people to open themselves to you.
You can't just ask the pressing questions.
You need them to relax first.
That's why sometimes we need to backtrack over some topics.
Maybe just play the fool and paraphrase a question so it doesn't sound as annoying.
But if you think about it, when you're interested in what a person says, and you're not familiarized
with the topic, it's perfectly ok to ask for details.
Now, having this in mind, let's take another look at that first clip that you saw, now
that your brain had a couple minutes to digest it:
- I think there was knowledge amongst a certain group of people, mostly who did business with...
with Harvey Weinstein.
There are countless women who understood what was happening, and many people said, well,
that's just Harvey being Harvey.
The difference is that you're watching the clip AFTER watching the one from the BBC interview.
The attitude is different.
There are many more emotional displays, he even stutters when talking about the topic.
You can actually compare and confirm that he's affected in some way!
And there is another clue from the way Hanks talks about this.
He says "A certain group of people knew...", or "Many people said..."
Of course he is never going to give any names, and it would have been an uncomfortable moment
if Brown asked, "Do you know of someone in particular that you could name?"
But he's carefully choosing his words to distance himself from that topic.
He can't avoid that, because he's one of the greatest A-listers in Hollywood, so it would
be naive to think that he did not know, at least as a rumor, what was happening in Harvey
Weinstein's offices.
I will be digging deeper in this topic and that's why I'll be reviewing those disturbing
Kevin Spacey videos as well.
If you want to refine your observation skills, all you have to do is download my 100+ body
language tips, right in the description of this video.
My name is Jesús Enrique Rosas and it will always be a pleasure, my body language buddies!
Much Love, and Bliss.