Word Smith: Equipoise

Word Smith: Equipoise

Listening to a 2012 interview of Tom Hanks by Guy Roz the other day, Hanks was describing any sense of self-doubt he may have experienced in his acting career, past or present. For his answer Hanks spent time talking about a concept of deciding if anyone wanted to emulate the famous baseball player, Joe DiMaggio.

“In order to be Joe DiMaggio, you had to start having a different type of demands of yourself. You had to stay out on the field a little bit longer and work a little bit harder, and also say a word that is very, very, very hard to say. Sometimes you had to say: NO. Saying yes to something is easy. You’ll make a lot of money, you’ll get to work with somebody great, you get to go shoot somewhere and they’ll pay you and you’ll be done and it’ll come out and be fun. It’s very hard sometimes to say, “No, in that this is not going to scratch the itch that I am feeling. And in order to maybe stay on point. This isn’t gonna teach me any new vocabulary.” I wanted to be a different type of actor, and I also wanted to be a different type of artist that would start bringing even more to that binary formula.”

Hanks claimed that DiMaggio truly understood the meaning and demands of equipoise. And Hanks claimed to be striving for it every day in every scene he has on stage or in the movies.

He defined the word as follows:

“Equipoise means that you have to have this perfect balance between relaxation and concentration. You’ve got to be able to move in whatever direction is required at the moment.”

Joe DiMaggio hits his second homerun June 28, 1939 vs. Philadelphia Athletics. This image by Fine Art America is from the first game of the Yankees double-header with the Athletics.