- [Interviewer] What would Fred Rogers
think about all of this?
- He would probably say
"Oh my, it's wonderful."
(laughter)
- I think he would say this
"It must be a lot of pressure for you
"to do this all day long
with people like us.
"You probably have to come up
"with an awful lot of subject matters
"that might even be uncomfortable for you.
"Is that the case?
"You can answer the question.
"We'll be happy to listen.
"You can't say anything wrong.
"It's good to talk.
"So just go ahead and share
the way you would feel about
"and all of you are such
hard-working individuals
"that it's really quite uncanny
"but it must be hard sometimes.
"Is it hard sometimes?"
That's what Mr. Rogers would do.
(laughter)
- I want to cry.
- It's so true.
(upbeat music)
- We filmed in Pittsburgh and his family
and the people who worked
on the show for years
were all around us and
supporting us an on our side
but we wanted to do right by them.
So I feel fairly certain
when his wife Joanne
called me and had seen the movie
and she thought that he
would be really proud
and he would be really
happy with the movie,
that made me feel good.
- He would say, "Tom Hanks
does not weight 143 pounds."
(laughter)
He would say that.
- But a little known fact,
Tom Hanks was Fred Roger's favorite actor.
Which is something that Joanne told us,
just to add pressure to the fire,
when we arrived in
Pittsburgh we had dinner.
- And I'd heard it just
when it was most helpful.
(laughter)
Right about three o'clock in the morning
when I was up chucking in the
bathroom worried about it.
- Yeah, I think it was a few
days before we started filming
and we had dinner with her, with Joanne,
who's just the most wonderful woman
and she just said, "You
know, I think that Fred saw
"was it Forrest Gump in the
movie theater 40 times."
She said, "Tom Hanks
was my favorite actor,
"was his favorite actor.
"He loved him so much and
it had all come from Big.
"He had loved Big."
And thought you got the
essence of childhood right.
And anyway, so yes, added pressure
but also it makes it perfect.
- Pittsburgh is a great town
and everybody knew that we were there.
We were going up,
I was going up in the
elevator from the gym
and trying to get down to 143 pounds.
I know I missed it by like 30.
(laughter)
But a fellow came in, a Pittsburghian,
and he said, "Oh Mr. Hanks,
you're in town filming?"
I said, "Yes, yes, I am."
"Well, welcome to Pittsburgh.
"It was really wonderful
to have you here."
I said, "Oh, thank you very much."
And then he said, "You know,
"we take Mr. Rogers very
seriously here in Pittsburgh."
I said, "Oh man, I can't get a break."
So I went upstairs and
upchucked in the bathroom
and then I got back to work.
- It is true.
The Pittsburghers are
serious about Mr. Rogers.
- Boss lady.
- Oh, okay, this is one
we each have to answer.
What is the last film or TV show
you watched that made you cry?
Mine was "Eighth Grade"
and I loved it so much
and it made me cry so much.
- Of course I'm blanking.
What is Ellen Forante's,
the two little girls?
- In Naples?
- Yeah.
- [Tom] I can't remember
what the name of it is.
- [Susan] Was it recent?
- Well, it was the last
eight or nine months or so.
- I just saw the documentary "Buck"
which is about the horse whisperer.
There's a horse that
is (laughs) excuse me,
I might get into this.
There's a horse that is so damaged
that even he knows it has to be put down
which is a loss and a giving up
for everything that he
stood for because he himself
was so abused as a young boy
that he could have been that horse.
That was a powerful moment.
- Mine was the last episode.
I want to call it an installation,
it was so powerful, of "When They See Us."
It hit me that night and then
I woke up the next morning
and I was like bawling and
I'm not normally a crier.
I just kind of, from a time I was young
so it's not like I'm trying not to cry
but it was just so deeply powerful
and so open and available
to be honest with us,
just and say however you receive it,
but this is the honest thing
that we're going to tell here
and that tore me up.
Yeah.
(upbeat music)
