Mrs. Joanne Rogers and the Cast of A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood Reflect on Mister Rogers’ Legacy
Being from Wales, Matthew Rhys was unfamiliar with Mister Rogers when he first got the script for “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.” In America it seems unheard of to not know of the calm, sweater-clad man who spoke to us through the TV every day. Mister Rogers has become so ingrained in childhood memories, even though the program is over and Mister Rogers is gone, his life lessons have remained.
At a recent press junket Matthew Rhys, Susan Kelechi Watson, Mrs. Joanne Rogers, and journalist Tom Junod, came together to talk about the new film and the impact of Mister Rogers, himself.
“A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” follows the story of journalist Lloyd Vogel whose life is changed forever after being assigned to write a story about children’s television host, Fred Rogers (Tom Hanks). After spending time together, Vogel finds a deeper understanding of his own family and learns to forgive his past to look towards the future.
While Rhys didn’t watch the original run of the show, he instead learned about Mister Rogers’ teachings from watching Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood with his 2-½ year old. This neutrality ended up being helpful in Rhys’ undertaking of the part of Lloyd Vogel. “This project more than any other was very easy to access,” explained Rhys. “It’s very universal. We all have a parent/parenting story. There were a number of moments that were just so easy to go into because so many of us have experienced them.”
During the 50th anniversary of Mister Rogers Neighborhood musician Yo Yo Ma credited Mister Rogers for teaching him life lessons. Rogers’ wife Joanne spoke about the special friendship between the host and the musician. She recalled how Ma said that Mister Rogers had a way of getting right up in one’s face when talking, and it even though it “Scared the hell out of him,” Ma realized that was how you talk to a child. Which was one of the ways Mister Rogers kept children so engaged.
Susan Kelechi Watson portrays Lloyd Vogel’s wife Andrea, and being able to shoot on the mock set of the Neighborhood of Make Believe was a dream come true, “We were in WQED—on the same soundstage, in the same room, with the same cameras, with a complete exact replica, people who made the original sets—everybody was there that created Mister Rogers, and the only thing missing was him. And I got to be a part of that, and that was really cool.”
“You are special. What does that mean?” Journalist Tom Junod, whose Esquire Magazine article, “Can You Say…Hero?” inspired the film, believes that Mister Rogers sayings are lessons that should be taken to heart by everyone, “All of his sayings that people think are so simple are things I’d like people to think about again—You are special, you were a child once too, I like you just as you are—those are challenging ideas that sound simple but are not.”
See the impact of Mister Rogers’ legacy for yourself when “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” opens in theaters November 22nd.
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