Daily Times

Actor and filmmaker Tom Hanks joked that the shoot of his latest film, ‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood’, in which he portrays the late children’s television star Fred Rogers, was a “living hell” due to the main character’s complexity.

Hanks told a summary of the filming experience at a private press conference that the star and the rest of the production team held in Toronto, one day after the movie’s world premiere at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival, reports Efe.

The film focuses on the relationship between the mysterious icon of American kids’ TV, Mister Rogers (Hanks), and Lloyd Vogel, a reporter for the magazine “Esquire” played by American actor Matthew Rhys.

For one of the movie’s opening scenes, Hanks had to perform a complicated choreography in which he sings, takes off his jacket, puts on a sweater, takes off his shoes and ties his shoelaces while looking straight into the camera.

Hanks said it was a difficult scene that needed multiple takes until he succeeded in performing it correctly.

The film’s director, Marielle Heller said to the laughter of Hanks and the rest of the cast that they filmed exactly 22 takes.

Hanks’ laughter turned into surprise when Heller said she had made Hanks’ work much more difficult than necessary because in the original TV show, Rogers already had his sneaker laces virtually tied up to facilitate the choreography, something that did not happen in “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.”

Upon learning of Heller’s “carelessness,” Hanks said: “This movie is a living hell!”

Hanks said that he never liked Rogers’ show while growing up.

He added that “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” was a black-and-white programme that he never tuned into and the fact that the dolls that Rogers played with did not move their mouths when they spoke did not look believable to him.

However, Hanks explained that after seeing “a million” hours of Rogers’ tapes, he stopped questioning him.

The actor acknowledged that many years later when he was an adult and someone showed him a clip on the internet of Rogers chatting with a child in a wheelchair, he changed his perspective.

He added that those were the reasons why he needed to be in this movie.