Geena Davis praises Tom Hanks

Geena Davis says "one of the great joys" of her life is working with Tom Hanks.

The pair co-starred in Penny Marshall's 1992 movie 'A League of Their Own' about women's baseball in America and although Tom, 63, was the only man in a main role in the cast, Geena said he fit in easily with the rest of the team.

She told The Hollywood Reporter: "One of the great joys of my life is that I got to make 'A League of Their Own' with Tom Hanks. He and Penny Marshall, our director, were friends from doing Big together a few years earlier -- but I don't think I'd met him before we started making the movie. Now, 'A League of Their Own' was rather unusual at the time. Still is, really.

"Not only was it about a nearly forgotten chapter of history on the homefront during World War II, it was an almost exclusively female ensemble, directed by a woman. Tellingly, I never heard Tom make a single joking remark about how many women he was working with. In my experience, on the very rare occasions where there's only one man in a group of women - on a panel or something - they always find it necessary to make uncomfortable jokes about it. That's not Tom. And I don't think it ever even occurred to us that he was the only guy on the team."

And Geena, 63, revealed that Tom was beloved by all the cast and crew.

She said: "My first impression of Tom was that he's funny as hell, up for anything and ready to go, at all times. As I'm sure anybody who's ever worked with Tom would say, he really is just the nicest, most fun person to be around, with the biggest heart. It's because he loves acting. He loves to work. Now, this is weird to admit, but my goal is for people to say, 'Geena's the nicest person I've ever worked with.' But how the hell are you going to compete with Tom Hanks?"