Awards season is truly underway now, and few performances are generating as much buzz, as much praise, and as much unfettered joy as Tom Hanks’ performance as the iconic children’s television star, Fred Rogers, known for his long-running series Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. In A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Hanks plays Rogers as though it were the role he was born to play, embodying the man known as kindness personified as though he truly was Rogers himself.
There are many similarities between Rogers, and Hanks’ persona of the all around nice guy and beloved Hollywood star. But even a veritable Hollywood icon like Tom Hanks, known for kindness and compassion as he is, found that he had much to learn about Rogers during his preparation for the role.
It’s not just a children’s show
The target audience of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood is often thought of as preschool or kindergarten aged children, given the sweet messages and adorable puppets that the series uses. But even nearly 60 years after the series first began, the legacy of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood endures well past childhood, touching the lives of adults of all ages, too.
That was something that particularly resonated with Hanks, who had not been part of the age demographic of viewers when the series first started: “Doesn’t matter who you are. That’s what I think Fred was able to make people feel — not necessarily better, not necessarily stronger, but Fred made people feel worthwhile.”
Kindness and compassion as ministry
As an ordained minister, Fred Rogers always had a particular manner of speaking and delivering his message. But rather than preaching on any religion, or using any sort of methodology to instill a certain syllabus of conventional learning into children, Mr. Rogers instead made kindness and inclusion his ministry.
As Hanks recently recollected, “Fred Rogers was an ordained minister, and his principal was such that everything that guided him through his daily behavior and his creative output was based on making people feel safe and part of something bigger than they actually were - in his case, two- and three-year-old kids. But he never, ever said the word God.”
To spread joy is the natural order of things
It’s clear to anyone who has even seen the merest second of the series Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood that the message of the series is imparting kindness and making people feel valuable, safe, and loved. But more than that, more than just sharing those messages of kindness and safety with children, the world of Mr. Rogers created a new concept of a new world order.
For Hanks, that can be summarized as follows: “Why not have a good time? Why not bring a little bit of joy from anything from a long plane ride, to a short elevator ride, to an exchange over an extra-large, venti-sized latte in line at your local coffee place? To me, it’s the natural order of things, the natural state of things.”
Embrace the good and true, over the easy and cynical
In this day and age in particular, even more so than when Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood was originally airing, it’s hard to find television aimed at children that isn’t jaded or sarcastic and even sometimes cruel. But that applies to more than just children’s television - it applies to daily life, and the experiences of those we live with.
What Hanks learned from Rogers’ methodical approach to producing genuine and kind children’s entertainment, then, was this: “That’s a cynical treatment of an audience, and we have become so inured to that that when we are met with as simple a message as hey, you know what, it’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood, [it’s a reminder] that we are allowed…to start off feeling good.”
The sweater is the key
As a certain popular saying goes, not all heroes wear capes. In some cases, the greatest heroes of them all wear cozy red cardigan sweaters and tennis shoes. It may seem overly simple, to think that a casual uniform of a cardigan could make all the difference in understanding and embracing Rogers’ way of life.
But for Hanks, the act of putting the sweater on was really what made things feel real to him: “It’s kind of like a suit of armor. I mean, Batman looks like Batman when he puts on that cape and cowl.” Rogers may not have a cape and cowl, but the cardigan is more than iconic enough.
Even now, keep looking for the helpers
The news is often hard for children to understand and cope with, and even more and more these days. But it’s not just children who need reassurance in times of darkness and struggle. One of Fred Rogers’ most enduring pieces of advice is the fact that, in times of crisis, you always have to look for the helpers - the people who are willing to go above and beyond even when they haven’t been called to be.
And in Hanks’ mind, that advice is beyond necessary, especially now: “You can’t go back in time, but you can help those who have been touched or exposed or traumatized by the tragedy. And from that is the step of hope that I think keeps us all going somehow.”
Be the message, don’t preach the message
Given Rogers’ ministerial presence, and his seemingly endless font of kindness and compassion, it’s not hard to understand why certain cynics in the world have questioned his authenticity over time. But for Hanks, Rogers’ authenticity was never once in question, for one simple reason.
“He was performing in the same way a great Sunday orator performs from a pulpit. He was performing the same way a great essayist is trying to communicate and examine a theme without becoming didactic,” Hanks explained. “If he wanted to proselytize a very specific philosophy, he could have done it. And he never did. That is the performance, I think. He was going to be his message as opposed to speak his message.”
The slow, reflective nature of Mr. Rogers’ kindness
We’ve already touched on Mr. Rogers’ distinctive manner of speaking and communicating a few times so far, but we haven’t quite touched on one of the most crucial parts of his delivery: the conscious slowness and precision of each and every word.
“When you get over that there is some point where you just go, oh dear lord, this just has to be slower, and it’s not dumber. It’s a combination of procedure and behavior that was singularly Fred Rogers,” Hanks explained, highlighting the careful craft and artistry that went into every moment Rogers was on screen.
Every single person you’re talking to should feel like they’re the only person in the world who matters
Given the number of lives that Rogers touched and changed for the better, it would have been easy for it to begin to feel like a rote process, a formula, a repetitive pattern in which he was expected to perform on command for anyone who was present. But Rogers never once was that way, regardless of who he was meeting with.
As Hanks explained, Mr. Rogers was “always talking to a single kid, a single person two feet on the other side of the camera screen. They said when you were talking to Fred, you felt as though you were the only person in the world that mattered to him.”
Be kind, be kind, and be kind
Hanks encountered many of Rogers’ words of wisdom and famous quotes during his hundreds of hours of preparation and research for the role. But the one quote that touched him more than anything else was this: “The three secrets of happiness are be kind, be kind and be kind.”
Expanding on his appreciation of that sentiment, Hanks explained, “And you think, ‘Well, that’s namby-pamby, that’s goody two shoes.’ No matter what your bent is, being kind means you give everybody a fair shake. Being kind is just being open to a possibility of making a simple choice that makes a day a little bit better.”
