The process by which the director, Robert Zemeckis and  Ken Ralston were able to make President Kennedy appear to be speaking the words "I believe he said he had to go pee", was a technically complicated one and I am proud to have been an integral part in achieving that effect.

My first audition for the part was in April and the actual shooting of the scene with Tom Hanks was in November of 1993.  The time between my first audition with the
casting assistant and my third audition with Tom Hanks, was spent preparing myself for the role of JFK. I immersed myself in the study of everything I could find on JFK.  I watched hours of video and archival film footage, and listened to hours of audio tapes of his speeches and interviews.  I checked out every book the libraries
had on our famous President.

You see, at the time, right after my first audition, it was still uncertain just how the finished scene would turn out.  I prepared myself to appear as President Kennedy in the film.  Luckily, I have a strong physical resemblance to President Kennedy so if it turned out that they could not do the desired special effects, then
they would have an actor who would appear and sound like  President Kennedy.

After the second audition I was requested to go to a Beverly Hills hair coloring salon and have my hair dyed auburn to match President Kennedy's color.  I also
spent a few hours in the studio barber chair having my hair coifed perfectly to resemble Kennedy's.

The entire process of auditioning and preparing to play a role of this magnitude was incredibly exciting and I felt that after many years of studying acting
I finally had a fantastic role to prepare for. I continued to practice the Kennedy dialect daily and looked forward to the call from Paramount telling me that I had the part.  Seven months after my first audition, the call came,  we shot the scene and my voice remains in the finished product. Forrest Gump won Best Picture that year.

The experience working with Robert Zemeckis, Tom Hanks and the entire crew was fantastic.

Jed Gillin