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JUDY WOODRUFF: Finally: 
a tribute to an icon.

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Fred Rogers hosted almost 900 
episodes of "Mister Rogers' 
Neighborhood" over 31 seasons

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on public broadcasting stations.

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The film "A Beautiful Day in 
the Neighborhood" opens today 
and explores the friendship that

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Rogers forged with 
a magazine writer.

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Jeffrey Brown talked with the 
stars of that film, Tom Hanks 
and Matthew Rhys, in New York.

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FRED ROGERS, Television 
Personality (singing): 
It's a beautiful day 
in this neighborhood,

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a beautiful day for a neighbor.

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TOM HANKS, Actor (singing): 
Would you be mine?

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JEFFREY BROWN: Tom Hanks has 
morphed into many characters 
over his storied film career.

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But in Fred Rogers, he 
says, he met his match.

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The film "A Beautiful Day 
in the Neighborhood" was 
directed by Marielle Heller.

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TOM HANKS: Mari, who is 
ironclad in her discussions 
about what she's going to 
do, she said, essentially,

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you will get a wig.

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You will get some eyebrow.

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You will get a sweater 
and blue deck shoes.

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The rest of it is up to you.

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Do you know what this is?

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It's Lloyd.

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JEFFREY BROWN: His foil 
is a driven and cynical 
journalist sent to write 
a profile of Mister

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Rogers for "Esquire" magazine, 
and the film is based on 
a true encounter in 1998.

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Played by Matthew Rhys, 
best known for his role as a 
Russian spy in "The Americans,"

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the journalist is 
confounded by the sincere...

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TOM HANKS: Wonderful 
to meet you.

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So glad you're here, Lloyd.

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I'm looking forward to...

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JEFFREY BROWN: ... and 
glacially paced Mister Rogers.

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And, as it turns out, so 
was the Welsh actor Rhys.

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So did you know Mister 
Rogers growing up in Wales?

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MATTHEW RHYS, Actor: Not a jot.

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JEFFREY BROWN: Not a jot.

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MATTHEW RHYS: Nothing.

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I dived into YouTube and 
thought, what's going on?

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I had no idea.

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It seemed bizarre to me 
that this -- I was like, 
has he forgotten his lines?

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Is that why speak so slow?

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This is -- what's happening?

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(LAUGHTER)

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MATTHEW RHYS: What's 
been incredible was 
having a 3-year-old son.

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JEFFREY BROWN: Yes, 
you have young kids.

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MATTHEW RHYS: Yes.

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And for him to be the 
conduit of what it truly 
is has been eye-opening and 
equal part groundbreaking.

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JEFFREY BROWN: Rhys would 
come to see what millions had: 
Fred Rogers was utterly unique

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in the history of television, 
an ordained minister on a 
mission to reach, teach and

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help children be themselves.

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He didn't shy from serious 
subjects, including 
divorce, death and racism.

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And every child felt he was 
speaking directly to him or her.

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I asked the two actors 
about their experience in 
Mister Rogers' neighborhood.

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For Hanks, as for many of 
us, one question lingered: 
Was this guy for real?

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TOM HANKS: What is 
he trying to sell?

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Well, he wasn't trying 
to sell anything.

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He was trying to make 
little kids feel safe.

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So, for me as an actor, it's 
like, what are my myriad natural 
tendencies as a human being

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that are going to have to be 
whipped into submission, so 
that I'm not falling into that

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same brand of 
cynical presentation?

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There is a DNA that you sort 
of have to inject into yourself 
at the same time that you put

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on that version of Batman's 
cape and cowl, except it's a 
red cardigan sweater and blue

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deck shoes.

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The individual scenes between 
the two of us, of which there's 
five or six, of course, were

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exhausting.

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They were as physically 
exhausting and physiologically 
exhausting as any scenes 
I have ever played.

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MATTHEW RHYS: Do you 
consider yourself a hero?

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TOM HANKS: I don't 
think of myself as a 
hero, no, not at all.

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MATTHEW RHYS: What 
about Mister Rogers?

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Is he a hero?

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TOM HANKS: I don't 
understand the question.

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MATTHEW RHYS: Well, there's 
you, Fred, and then there's 
the character you play, Mister

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Rogers.

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These two men kind of 
circle each other with 
different intentions, 
but also -- but seemingly

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the same tactics of waiting 
and questioning, until one 
either broke or opened up.

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JEFFREY BROWN: Rhys' character, 
here called Lloyd Vogel, visits 
the set to interview Fred

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Rogers.

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But Rogers wants only to know 
Vogel, to understand him and his 
struggles, especially his anger

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at a father who abandoned the 
family long ago and now seeks 
reconciliation and forgiveness.

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TOM HANKS: If I was going to 
show you, admit to you what 
the first day of shooting was,

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you -- I would point out to you 
how I'm talking too fast, I'm 
not being as specific as I need

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to, I'm not waiting for -- I'm 
not really listening, because 
I'm kind of, like, petrified.

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And think about all the people 
who loved us into being.

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MATTHEW RHYS: My perspective 
of you on that day is 
completely different.

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And you kind of came 
in with this -- it was 
like -- it was like what 
they said about Rogers.

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Everything slowed down, because 
you didn't dictate a tempo.

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You actually just listened.

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And that, in itself, 
dictates a tempo.

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There is this moment I kind of 
had that, oh, God, he's got it.

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He's got it.

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JEFFREY BROWN: With Fred 
Rogers, there's another element, 
because the question was, was he

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acting?

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So are you acting as 
Fred Rogers, who's 
acting as Mister Rogers?

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TOM HANKS: Absolutely.

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There is a performance 
that he was giving.

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There was -- there was 
rules that he was following 
that were based on his 
philosophy on how to

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do this.

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JEFFREY BROWN: So, who was 
the real Fred Rogers or who 
was the real Mister Rogers?

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TOM HANKS: I heard an audiotape.

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There was a child psychologist 
who is one of his great mentors 
that he -- that he discussed

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everything with in front of 
-- and they were talking about 
trying to come up with an opera

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for children.

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And this lady had this kind of 
-- what I think what we could 
do is, is the thematic element

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of the chorus here with the frog 
could actually be a bridge to 
the original theme of the first

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act.

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Pause, pause, pause, pause.

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And this is Mister Rogers now.

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If the frog could have a 
worry that he brings - - and 
these are just people talking.

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These are people at work 
trying to figure out how to...

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(LAUGHTER)

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TOM HANKS: This is like 
a production meeting 
that he's going on.

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And he's still put that 
brand of thought to it.

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MATTHEW RHYS: I think, to me, 
what seemingly the performance 
element is only to succeed

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in a greater communication 
to that audience at 
which it is aimed.

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JEFFREY BROWN: Fred Rogers 
believed in the power of 
television, right, as a tool for

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change, a tool for 
reaching people.

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Television hasn't really 
worked out that way.

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TOM HANKS: Well, he 
didn't change television 
on as a technology as 
an art form, but look

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what he created for a half-hour 
at a time, extraordinarily 
wise, smart things that made

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children understand the 
world a little bit better.

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If you only get a half-hour 
out of that once a day, I think 
you're still a half-hour ahead

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of the curve.

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JEFFREY BROWN: What 
about in the general 
culture, a film like this?

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Do you think there is a 
craving, a need for Fred Rogers?

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TOM HANKS: Don't you think 
there's some, like, marketing 
executive, you know what we got

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here?

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(LAUGHTER)

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TOM HANKS: What we have 
here is counterprogramming.

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MATTHEW RHYS: Yes.

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TOM HANKS: You see 
what I'm saying?

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MATTHEW RHYS: I like it.

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TOM HANKS: What we're going 
to do is, we're going to 
have a guy with the puppets.

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MATTHEW RHYS: Yes.

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Oh, that's good.

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That's good.

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TOM HANKS: We will 
shoot it in Pittsburgh.

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No, I think it can 
work, if we hit it.

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(LAUGHTER)

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TOM HANKS: If we hit the 
counterprogramming situation.

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MATTHEW RHYS: It is like 
this -- there's an incredible 
symphony going on at all times.

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And it's in the pause 
that sometimes the 
greatest potency is found.

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And I think, if we do that for 
a small number of people for 
a brief moment, so much so the

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better.

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JEFFREY BROWN: "Mister Rogers' 
Neighborhood" ended its 
television run on PBS in 2001.

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Fred Rogers died two 
years later at age 74.

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The new film, "A Beautiful Day 
in the Neighborhood," opens 
today around the country.

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For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm 
Jeffrey Brown in New York.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: A reminder 
we could sure use 
Fred Rogers right now.

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I can't wait to see this film.