'Sleepless in Seattle's Ross Malinger lifts the curtain on his enduring bond with Tom Hanks

Erstwhile child star Ross Malinger, remembered for playing Tom Hanks' son in Sleepless in Seattle, reflected on their time together and “natural chemistry” as father and son.

For the unversed, the 41-year-old former American actor was eight years old when he portrayed Jonah Baldwin, the son of Sam Baldwin, played by Hanks, who tries to set his father up with Meg Ryan’s Annie.

Now conversing with Entertainment Weekly, Malinger opened up about his deep-rooted friendship with the Academy-winning actor.

He said, "We genuinely cared about each other. That natural chemistry allowed me to really bring a lot of intensity and emotion to Jonah’s character."

The Little Bigfoot star went on to reveal Hanks was "always joking around and making me laugh” on the set of Sleepless in Seattle.

Malinger called to mind an instance which happened at the fish market where the 69-year-old legendary actor and filmmaker kept picking up fish, moving their mouths and "making them say goofy things."

Notably, after filming and press for Sleepless in Seattle ended, Hanks invited The Simple Life star to the premiere of his 1993 movie Philadelphia and his 1996’s That Thing You Do.

It is pertinent to mention that following his collaboration with Tom Hanks, Malinger acted in more than 20 TV shows and movies before leaving Hollywood.