LOS ANGELES - Tom Hanks feels a ‘huge responsibility’ when he plays ‘’real people’’.

The Oscar-winning actor has played the lead characters in a number of biographical films, including congressman Charlie Wilson in ‘Charlie Wilson’s War’, Walt Disney in ‘Saving Mr Banks’, pilot Chesley Sullenberger in ‘Sully’, and the titular mariner in ‘Captain Phillips’ and he thinks the movies often become an accepted ‘’official record’’ of events.

He told W magazine: ‘’I play real people a lot. And it is a huge responsibility.

‘’Anytime you are playing somebody who was alive, for good or for bad, that performance becomes a version of an official record of what happened: what motivated them, what obstacles they faced, and how they got through their particular struggle. There’s a degree of leeway that you can allow yourself as long as you’re not turning good guys into bad guys, or knowledge into ignorance.’’

However, the 61-year-old star - who can currently be seen in ‘The Post’ as famed editor Ben Bradlee, who defying threats from then-President Richard Nixon to publish the Pentagon Papers stories in the Washington Post in 1971 - admitted it is much easier playing characters who have passed away because he doesn’t have to meet his real life counterpart.

He added: ‘’Having said that, it’s a little easier playing someone who’s no longer living. Because then you don’t have to meet them.’’

Tom recently admitted he would refuse any request for him to screen the movie for President Donald Trump because of his attacks on the free press.

Asked if he’d accept an offer from Trump to screen the movie for him, he said: ‘’That’s an interesting question. I don’t think I would. ‘’Because I think that at some point — look, I didn’t think things were going to be this way last November. ‘’I would not have been able to imagine that we would be living in a country where neo-Nazis are doing torchlight parades in Charlottesville and jokes about Pocahontas are being made in front of the Navajo code talkers.

‘’And individually we have to decide when we take to the ramparts. You don’t take to the ramparts necessarily right away, but you do have to start weighing things.

‘’You may think: ‘You know what? I think now is the time.’ This is the moment where, in some ways, our personal choices are going to have to reflect our opinions. We have to start voting, actually, before the election. So, I would probably vote not to go.’’