JUDY WOODRUFF: Finally:
a tribute to an icon.
Fred Rogers hosted almost 900
episodes of "Mister Rogers'
Neighborhood" over 31 seasons
on public broadcasting stations.
The film "A Beautiful Day in
the Neighborhood" opens today
and explores the friendship that
Rogers forged with
a magazine writer.
Jeffrey Brown talked with the
stars of that film, Tom Hanks
and Matthew Rhys, in New York.
FRED ROGERS, Television
Personality (singing):
It's a beautiful day
in this neighborhood,
a beautiful day for a neighbor.
TOM HANKS, Actor (singing):
Would you be mine?
JEFFREY BROWN: Tom Hanks has
morphed into many characters
over his storied film career.
But in Fred Rogers, he
says, he met his match.
The film "A Beautiful Day
in the Neighborhood" was
directed by Marielle Heller.
TOM HANKS: Mari, who is
ironclad in her discussions
about what she's going to
do, she said, essentially,
you will get a wig.
You will get some eyebrow.
You will get a sweater
and blue deck shoes.
The rest of it is up to you.
Do you know what this is?
It's Lloyd.
JEFFREY BROWN: His foil
is a driven and cynical
journalist sent to write
a profile of Mister
Rogers for "Esquire" magazine,
and the film is based on
a true encounter in 1998.
Played by Matthew Rhys,
best known for his role as a
Russian spy in "The Americans,"
the journalist is
confounded by the sincere...
TOM HANKS: Wonderful
to meet you.
So glad you're here, Lloyd.
I'm looking forward to...
JEFFREY BROWN: ... and
glacially paced Mister Rogers.
And, as it turns out, so
was the Welsh actor Rhys.
So did you know Mister
Rogers growing up in Wales?
MATTHEW RHYS, Actor: Not a jot.
JEFFREY BROWN: Not a jot.
MATTHEW RHYS: Nothing.
I dived into YouTube and
thought, what's going on?
I had no idea.
It seemed bizarre to me
that this -- I was like,
has he forgotten his lines?
Is that why speak so slow?
This is -- what's happening?
(LAUGHTER)
MATTHEW RHYS: What's
been incredible was
having a 3-year-old son.
JEFFREY BROWN: Yes,
you have young kids.
MATTHEW RHYS: Yes.
And for him to be the
conduit of what it truly
is has been eye-opening and
equal part groundbreaking.
JEFFREY BROWN: Rhys would
come to see what millions had:
Fred Rogers was utterly unique
in the history of television,
an ordained minister on a
mission to reach, teach and
help children be themselves.
He didn't shy from serious
subjects, including
divorce, death and racism.
And every child felt he was
speaking directly to him or her.
I asked the two actors
about their experience in
Mister Rogers' neighborhood.
For Hanks, as for many of
us, one question lingered:
Was this guy for real?
TOM HANKS: What is
he trying to sell?
Well, he wasn't trying
to sell anything.
He was trying to make
little kids feel safe.
So, for me as an actor, it's
like, what are my myriad natural
tendencies as a human being
that are going to have to be
whipped into submission, so
that I'm not falling into that
same brand of
cynical presentation?
There is a DNA that you sort
of have to inject into yourself
at the same time that you put
on that version of Batman's
cape and cowl, except it's a
red cardigan sweater and blue
deck shoes.
The individual scenes between
the two of us, of which there's
five or six, of course, were
exhausting.
They were as physically
exhausting and physiologically
exhausting as any scenes
I have ever played.
MATTHEW RHYS: Do you
consider yourself a hero?
TOM HANKS: I don't
think of myself as a
hero, no, not at all.
MATTHEW RHYS: What
about Mister Rogers?
Is he a hero?
TOM HANKS: I don't
understand the question.
MATTHEW RHYS: Well, there's
you, Fred, and then there's
the character you play, Mister
Rogers.
These two men kind of
circle each other with
different intentions,
but also -- but seemingly
the same tactics of waiting
and questioning, until one
either broke or opened up.
JEFFREY BROWN: Rhys' character,
here called Lloyd Vogel, visits
the set to interview Fred
Rogers.
But Rogers wants only to know
Vogel, to understand him and his
struggles, especially his anger
at a father who abandoned the
family long ago and now seeks
reconciliation and forgiveness.
TOM HANKS: If I was going to
show you, admit to you what
the first day of shooting was,
you -- I would point out to you
how I'm talking too fast, I'm
not being as specific as I need
to, I'm not waiting for -- I'm
not really listening, because
I'm kind of, like, petrified.
And think about all the people
who loved us into being.
MATTHEW RHYS: My perspective
of you on that day is
completely different.
And you kind of came
in with this -- it was
like -- it was like what
they said about Rogers.
Everything slowed down, because
you didn't dictate a tempo.
You actually just listened.
And that, in itself,
dictates a tempo.
There is this moment I kind of
had that, oh, God, he's got it.
He's got it.
JEFFREY BROWN: With Fred
Rogers, there's another element,
because the question was, was he
acting?
So are you acting as
Fred Rogers, who's
acting as Mister Rogers?
TOM HANKS: Absolutely.
There is a performance
that he was giving.
There was -- there was
rules that he was following
that were based on his
philosophy on how to
do this.
JEFFREY BROWN: So, who was
the real Fred Rogers or who
was the real Mister Rogers?
TOM HANKS: I heard an audiotape.
There was a child psychologist
who is one of his great mentors
that he -- that he discussed
everything with in front of
-- and they were talking about
trying to come up with an opera
for children.
And this lady had this kind of
-- what I think what we could
do is, is the thematic element
of the chorus here with the frog
could actually be a bridge to
the original theme of the first
act.
Pause, pause, pause, pause.
And this is Mister Rogers now.
If the frog could have a
worry that he brings - - and
these are just people talking.
These are people at work
trying to figure out how to...
(LAUGHTER)
TOM HANKS: This is like
a production meeting
that he's going on.
And he's still put that
brand of thought to it.
MATTHEW RHYS: I think, to me,
what seemingly the performance
element is only to succeed
in a greater communication
to that audience at
which it is aimed.
JEFFREY BROWN: Fred Rogers
believed in the power of
television, right, as a tool for
change, a tool for
reaching people.
Television hasn't really
worked out that way.
TOM HANKS: Well, he
didn't change television
on as a technology as
an art form, but look
what he created for a half-hour
at a time, extraordinarily
wise, smart things that made
children understand the
world a little bit better.
If you only get a half-hour
out of that once a day, I think
you're still a half-hour ahead
of the curve.
JEFFREY BROWN: What
about in the general
culture, a film like this?
Do you think there is a
craving, a need for Fred Rogers?
TOM HANKS: Don't you think
there's some, like, marketing
executive, you know what we got
here?
(LAUGHTER)
TOM HANKS: What we have
here is counterprogramming.
MATTHEW RHYS: Yes.
TOM HANKS: You see
what I'm saying?
MATTHEW RHYS: I like it.
TOM HANKS: What we're going
to do is, we're going to
have a guy with the puppets.
MATTHEW RHYS: Yes.
Oh, that's good.
That's good.
TOM HANKS: We will
shoot it in Pittsburgh.
No, I think it can
work, if we hit it.
(LAUGHTER)
TOM HANKS: If we hit the
counterprogramming situation.
MATTHEW RHYS: It is like
this -- there's an incredible
symphony going on at all times.
And it's in the pause
that sometimes the
greatest potency is found.
And I think, if we do that for
a small number of people for
a brief moment, so much so the
better.
JEFFREY BROWN: "Mister Rogers'
Neighborhood" ended its
television run on PBS in 2001.
Fred Rogers died two
years later at age 74.
The new film, "A Beautiful Day
in the Neighborhood," opens
today around the country.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm
Jeffrey Brown in New York.
JUDY WOODRUFF: A reminder
we could sure use
Fred Rogers right now.
I can't wait to see this film.