Tim Allen loves to keep up with his “wonderful and engaging” friend Tom Hanks.
During Allen’s appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show Wednesday, host Kelly Clarkson asked the actor, 69, about his future with the Toy Story franchise after TMZ spotted Allen dining with Hanks in Los Angeles in September.
Allen didn’t directly answer the question but did gush about his longtime friendship with Hanks, 66, as he told Clarkson that he and Hanks “really became very close friends from Toy Story 1.”
“He’s a very different person than me and he eats off my plate,” Allen added, describing how Hanks stole some of Allen’s french fries from his plate while they worked on the first Toy Story.
“He and I differ on so many things. I adore that man’s heart and mind,” Allen told 40-year-old Clarkson, adding that he and Hanks get together for “the most peculiar lunches” from time to time.
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“We’ve been going to lunch since Toy Story 1, two times a year, and we’re like two older women ’cause we will sit almost too close to each other at a booth,” he said. “It’s just weird.”
Allen, who reprises his The Santa Clause role as Scott Calvin in the upcoming Disney+ series The Santa Clauses, added during the interview that even Hanks’ wife Rita Wilson does not know what he and Allen talk about at their lunches.
“And I don’t think I’ve ever trusted a human being as much as Tom to even listen to me and vice versa,” Allen told Clarkson. “We have very different opinions on so many things, but he’s gotten me to accept — he’s really a wonderful and engaging person. He’s the first guy to listen to me and doesn’t judge.”
“As one buddy of mine says, ‘don’t should on people,’ ” Allen added. “Don’t throw in your opinions, just listen and be able to walk away from that and go ‘god, I heard what somebody said.’ “
“The short answer is I’ve stayed out of this ’cause it has nothing to do [with my character],” Allen told Extra of the new film in a June interview.
“This is a whole new team that really had nothing to do with the first movies,” he said, adding that while Lightyear has “a wonderful story,” the movie “just doesn’t seem to have any connection to the toy.”
