'GI Gump'
Child star actor, Fort Riley soldier to return to big screen
5:46 p.m. Tuesday, May 13, 2008
“Run Forrest, run…”
He was told to run as fast as he could.
“It was fun and I think, you know, being eight years old, it didn’t strike me as much as it would now,” says Spc. Michael Conner Humphreys.
An all-grown-up Humphreys, who played little Forrest in the film Forrest Gump is ready to make his real-life run out of the Army. The Fort Riley soldier ends his enlistment on June 4.
“I’m not rushing it, cause I know it’s going to be one of those things that’s gonna get here,” Humphreys says. "You know, I think I’m wanting it real bad, but it’s going to come and I’m going to be ‘well, I kind of miss the military now.’”
Though Humphreys is best known as little Forrest in the Academy-Award-winning film, he’s planning his second return to the big screen in the film Pathfinders, where he plays a soldier in combat, just like the elder Gump. And he says he can’t wait to see what plays out on the big screen.
“Pretty much about a soldier in a real war,” Humphreys says. "You know, I’m a soldier, and I’ve been in a real war. You know, I don’t know how much more qualified you can get, other than somebody who was in World War II.”
Humphreys has spent a 15-month deployment in Iraq, from 2006-07, then returned to Fort Riley this past year.
Humphreys says an acting career isn’t out of the question, but college is a definite goal.
So is life really like a box of chocolates? You never know what you’re gonna get?
“I didn’t figure this was coming along at all,” Humphreys says. “Cause you know, I was getting out soon. I was like ‘I got to figure out what I’m going to do,” and all of a sudden, somebody like pops up and says ‘Hey, you want to do a movie?’ ‘OK, where’d that come from, but hey, yeah!’ So I think that applies, definitely."
We shared some chocolates with him. And his favorites are…
“Strawberry or orange cream ones…”
The movie Pathfinders will begin filming in late June.
It’s the story of the men of the 504th Parachute Regiment who jumped into Normandy early on D-Day to disrupt German activities.
Read more about Humphreys here.
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