A few days ago a marathon was held in Mendoza where a character stood out among all the runners. This is Anthony Marshal Carrasco. The 40-year-old Chilean, who became a sensation for running Forest Gump, played the iconic character by Tom Hanks in the 1994 film of the same name.
In an interview with MDZ, Marshall Carrasco revealed how his career began and how he became “Forrest Gump.”
“I started running about 15 years ago, amateur, running twice a week,” said Marshall Carrasco. “In 2021, I’ve had a pandemic and telework for several years now and I’ve lost my hair and beard. Once, while I was jogging down the street, a man said to me: “Hey, you see. he runs in the movie to him who had run. That’s when I thought so, what I was thinking,” said MDZ.
Then Marshall Carrasco decided to dress up as Forest Gump and run a marathon in that outfit. “In 2022, the return of the Santiago Marathon was announced in May, so I thought I could order a suit as a Forest Gump writer and participate, since I have hair and a beard,” he said.
But the process of making the decision to buy a suit and put it on the road was difficult: “I spent four months deciding to buy a suit and another four, which was a month before the marathon,” he reveals. . “It was a complicated and long internal struggle process, which also helped me to connect it with the story of Forest Gump. In the meantime, I took the opportunity to review the film and see how the character acted and ran.”
Finally, after a month of marathon, Marshall Carrasco, with a plucked spirit, went to the center of Santiago de Chile with a Forest Gump costume. “It was liberating because I let go of all my fears, inhibitions, and low self-esteem and shame. It stayed in clothes for everyday use. When I put on Forrest’s clothes, I got the courage and desire to go out,” he said.
Anthony has run long marathons of up to 42 kilometers with clothes that are not called active, but he insists that he is fit for what is generated in his environment.
Looking for a better world
Anthony managed to stand out in the running world by combining iconic characters and running marathons. Their fight isn’t limited to running tracks, but the connection to Forest Gump goes beyond the superficial.
“As a child I suffered assault and harassment, I was locked in my house and my parents didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t go out, I couldn’t go in the city. I lived in a small town where everyone knew everyone.” other and unfortunately, there were parts that were forbidden to me, because there were children who harassed me”, he commented, and he knew that this motivated him to take up the battle sign against the intruder, both because of what he himself suffered, and because of what. the genius of poetic skill in movie
“I’m very pleased to use the theme of wildlife, respect, inclusion and empathy, because they are values that I feel are being forgotten in society,” Carrasco said. “What better way than to bring out today with a character that is loved by people,” he added.
Anthony commented that he is also proud to be able to help people and his cause touches his heart: “I had contact with families with autistic children. A child with this condition after me asked his parents to watch the film. Forest Gump two or three times a day, and not only because the son they began to take him to competitions and began to have greater contact with a crowd of people, autistic children are usually uncomfortable, but this boy began to come out.
“I want to encourage children to put down their beliefs and forget about bullying, also, I would like them to learn about autism in schools and to make it known that people with this condition are not a crowd. We are all different, but in the same way. At the same time we can all have and future as a promising single in the movie,” he concluded.
