Clint Eastwood treats actors like horses, Tom Hanks says - 'it's intimidating as hell!'

Tom Hanks finds director Clint Eastwood 'intimidating as hell.' Photo / Getty

If you think it would be intimidating working for Clint Eastwood, you'd be right.

Tom Hanks, who played Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger in Eastwood's latest film, described what it was like working with the legendary director for the first time.

Clint Eastwood and Tom Hanks on set of Clint Eastwood's Sully October 7, 2015 in New York City. Photo / Getty

"You certainly don't want one of those Eastwood looks," Hanks told the Graham Norton Show.

"He treats his actors like horses because when he did the 60s series Rawhide, the director would shout 'Action!' and all the horses bolted.

"So when he's in charge, he says in a really quiet soft voice, 'All right, go ahead,' and instead of shouting 'Cut!' he says 'That's enough of that.' It's intimidating as hell!"

Tom Hanks and Clint Eastwood attend the 20th Annual Hollywood Film Awards. Photo / Getty

The 60-year-old Hollywood star also said the real Sullenberger made his presence known on the set.

"I'll just say this, I visited him and he said, 'Nice to meet you, glad you were on time. Clint turned up and he was 20 minutes late.

"Then he pulled out this dog-eared, stapled and notated script that he had read. Postits, stapled index cards all over it - I'm sure his wife had even written 'No' across it in lipstick!

"We went through every page and every moment, every beat had been commented on. He had opinions."

Director Clint Eastwood and actor Tom Hanks on the set of Sully. Photo / Getty

Hanks and Eastwood were on different ends of the political spectrum during the presidential campaign.

While the 86-year-old director praised Donald Trump for "saying what's on his mind", Hanks once called the Republican nominee "a simplistic self-involved gasbag of a candidate".