This Forrest Gump impersonator is running around California making residents smile
Somewhere out there, Tom Hanks is smiling. Why? Because a Forrest Gump impersonator has been running around Riverside, California — similarly to what his character did in the 1994 classic. This might just be the most fun and interactive Halloween costume idea we’ve seen in quite some time.
The gentleman in costume didn’t give out his actual name to news sources, staying in character and referring to himself only as “Forrest Gump.” As for his costume, the runner stuck to red shorts, a yellow shirt, a “Bubba Gump Shrimp” hat, and a bit of a disheveled fake beard — so, pretty much the exact replica of what Hanks wore near the end of his infamous “running scene.”
In the movie, Hanks decides to take a short run — yet ends up running across the country. The reason being was that he just “felt like running.”
“That day, for no particular reason, I decided to go for a little run. So I ran to the end of the road. And when I got there, I thought maybe I’d run to the end of town. And when I got there, I thought maybe I’d just run across Greenbow County. And I figured, since I run this far, maybe I’d just run across the great state of Alabama,” Gump says, prior to admitting that he ended up going much farther.
Perhaps this impersonator had a similar motive. Unlike Gump, he’s made a few stops — notably to brighten people’s days by taking photos and participating in short interviews.
A post shared by ABC7 Southern California (@abc7la) on Oct 30, 2017 at 3:11pm PDT
The Riverside Police Department even got a video with him.
Posted by Riverside Police Department on Friday, October 27, 2017
While he seems a bit elusive, he did clue in ABC 7 as to why the costume was important for him this year.
“I’m not doing it for me. It’s just something that took off and made the community happy, made people smile,” the Gump impersonator said. “There’s a lot of bad things going on in the world and it’s nice to take a break from it.”
Earlier today, officers got into a foot pursuit... He got away. That
s about all we gotta say
bout that!
Posted by Riverside Police Department on Sunday, October 29, 2017
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
