Journalist Tom Junod: Why We Need Mr. Rogers’ Message of Kindness Now More Than Ever
…Well, the great message of the movie is that it doesn’t just show kindness, it shows how kindness is attainable and attained. Fred Rogers worked really hard to be the kind of person he was, the person that we all admired; it didn’t just come to him.
I think that Fred Rogers had talent and abilities that most people don’t have, but I also think that he had something in common with any person who is really kind-hearted and that he decided to be and he worked really hard at it, as though he were practicing you know a piano or a complex sonata.
Fred just kept at it and kept at it and kept at it. He woke up at 5 o’clock in the morning and prayed for people for an hour or so every day, and I happened to be lucky enough to be one of those people.
In a world where young children grappled with a growing array of difficult issues and often may have felt misunderstood, Fred Rogers took the time to listen, understand, and connect to them, earning his status as a cherished source of comfort for millions of American children and their families.
Now, at a time when all of us need positive thoughts during the global health crisis, we surely need to seek out the messages from A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, the movie that oozes with positivity and hope.
For generations, Mister Rogers Neighborhood brought children into a magical world that was captured in the charming 2019 movie, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, based on award-winning journalist Tom Junod’s 1998 Esquire cover story on the iconic Fred Rogers entitled “Can You Say…Hero?” and the actual friendship that developed between the two men.
The movie is about Lloyd Vogel, (Matthew Rhys), an investigative journalist who receives an assignment to profile noted children’s television host Fred Rogers, (Tom Hanks).
In Columbia Picture’s charming and often poignant movie, Vogel approaches the interview with skepticism, as he finds it hard to believe that anyone can actually have such a positive and nurturing nature.
But Roger’s empathy, kindness, and decency soon chip away at Vogel’s jaded outlook on life, forcing the reporter to reconcile with his own painful past.
Director Marielle Heller, (The Diary of a Teenage Girl and Melissa McCarthy’s Can You Ever Forgive Me?), says that she had a clear vision of how to tell the story of this beloved television hero who has touched countless lives.
From the moment Hanks put on the infamous red cardigan and stepped into the canvas tennis shoes to play Fred Rogers, we are transported back in time to the set of the long-running PBS show Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. The show ran for 31 seasons, from 1968 to 2001, and the movie was filmed on the same soundstage in Pittsburgh as the original TV show.
The movie gently reminds us of Mister Roger’s dedication to empathy, kindness, decency, tolerance, and acceptance; all qualities that may be even more pertinent today than they were some five decades ago.
A special edition of the classic advice book previously published as You Are Special includes Junod’s article that inspired the movie has been published in a new volume called A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.
Junod took some time to talk to Medium about this glorious movie that we need to watch during these difficult times in our lives during COVID-19, about his remarkable relationship with the late Fred Rogers and his enduring friendship with Fred’s beloved wife of 51 years, Joanne, what the movie means to him, and the many life lessons learned from in Fred’s legacy of the kindness that resonates with us now more than ever.
Since your story in Esquire was the basis for this movie, what is it like seeing the final film?
It’s a source of immense pride, I didn’t really quite know it at the time, but it seems to be the completion of something that started by mysterious forces 21 years ago. I could never ever have imagined this happening, and the fact that it has happened, makes me see friendship with Fred and my role in it differently than I first imagined. It makes me ask myself, “Did Fred sort of want this to happen?” and “What do I need to do now?” So, it’s something that made me ask a lot of questions of myself; and they are good questions for sure.
This is a lovely movie and not only did I weep several times so did many men in the theater. A male friend of mine began crying from the first moments, happy tears of walking down memory lane since he watched the show with his now 30-year-old daughter when she was a young child. For that and many other reasons, I believe the whole world needs to see this movie.
I saw this movie for the first time alone in the screening room during the summer, and it just rocked me, and I don’t know if that’s what I expected. But like you, I was deeply moved, and I’ve seen it five times now, and not only have I been deeply moved each time, but I see something different and understand the movie more and more; and it’s just been a remarkable experience.
How did Matthew (Rhys) do in portraying his film version of you?
I think he did the most remarkable job because he showed me to myself, which is also something I never could have expected. I was on the set during a few of the days when they were shooting, so I watched Matthew, and spent time with him. But back then I didn’t know that he was doing a version of me until I saw the final movie on the screen. I am extremely grateful to him and his spot-on portrayal.
Did you spend time with the iconic Tom Hanks, who plays Mr. Rogers?
I definitely spent time with Tom and the thing that struck me about watching Tom on the set was how hard he was working. He was an extremely kind-hearted, congenial, and all-around nice guy. He is like Fred, a good man who works hard and gives everything to his work, and what struck me was how hard Tom was working to achieve the likeness of Fred that he achieves on the screen.
I definitely spent time with Tom and the thing that struck me about watching Tom on the set was how hard he was working. He was an extremely kind-hearted, congenial, and all-around nice guy. He is like Fred, a good man who works hard and gives everything to his work, and what struck me was how hard Tom was working to achieve the likeness of Fred that he achieves on the screen.
I know that Fred’s wife, Joanne Rogers, had a major hand in this movie coming into being. I also loved that when the movie came out there was a nursery in his hometown of Pittsburgh and Joanne went to see all the babies that were dressed in adorable red cardigans and tiny sneakers in homage to Mr. Rogers.
I wasn’t there for that moment, but I recently did an interview with Joanne. I mean, I’ve been friends with Joanne (now age 91) since I met Fred, so I have been friends with her longer because unfortunately, Fred died 16 years ago. In real life, Fred never had the opportunity to meet my daughter, Nia, who my wife and I adopted a year after Fred died, but Joanne met Nia early on and recently had the opportunity to spend time with her again. Joanne has obviously played a really large part in this whole process, and also in my life. She’s an unbelievable person.
What did Joanne Rogers say to you about the finished movie?
Joanne loves the movie, and she’s really proud of it. She feels it captured Fred and she trusted the filmmaker and the process. So, I know she is extremely happy with it.
I was struck by the part in your story, and in the movie, where he says he weighed 143 pounds — which stood for the words I Love You. Can you talk about that for a second?
Some of those things you learn about Fred in the movie seemed impossible but true, and that was definitely one of those aspects of him. He swam and then he would step on this big scale with the kind of circular face and the needle, and boom it would just go right to 143. I know for me I probably weighed182 yesterday and 179 the day before so, I change all the time, like most people do, but Fred being Fred, was 143 pounds every time I saw him and all his adult life. It’s remarkable, as was so much else about him.
I think that Fred Rogers had talent and abilities that most people don’t have, but I also think that he had something in common with any person who is really kind-hearted and that he decided to be and he worked really hard at it, as though he were practicing you know a piano or a complex sonata.
Fred just kept at it and kept at it and kept at it. He woke up at 5 o’clock in the morning and prayed for people for an hour or so every day, and I happened to be lucky enough to be one of those people.
So, what was it like being on the set of this lovely movie?
Being on the set with my family, and with the people who worked on the Neighborhood and were the Neighborhood, had worked with Fred for a really long time, it was almost like a long-established a performing troupe or orchestra where everybody knew each other extraordinarily well.
So, what I remember most of all is that they knew Fred really well, and they knew his schedule and they knew his eccentricities you know, and that made it all possible. A lot of what we think of as Fred Rogers was done because he had this really close, emotionally-integrated, well-knit bunch of people on his crew.
What are you writing right now?
I am writing a book about my father, and then I am also writing about a three-generation tragedy that sort of has ended with a beautiful and unlikely and possibly redemptive apology. So, I am doing two sets of work that are not so far off from the work that I wanted to do after I met Fred.
What do you see as the big take-away for my readers and people in general who are seeing this movie?
Well, the great message of the movie is that it doesn’t just show kindness, it shows how kindness is attainable and attained. Fred Rogers worked really hard to be the kind of person he was, the person that we all admired; it didn’t just come to him.
I think that Fred Rogers had talent and abilities that most people don’t have, but I also think that he had something in common with any person who is really kind-hearted and that he decided to be and he worked really hard at it, as though he were practicing you know a piano or a complex sonata.
Fred just kept at it and kept at it and kept at it. He woke up at 5 o’clock in the morning and prayed for people for an hour or so every day, and I happened to be lucky enough to be one of those people.
I think there’s something very universal about his TV show, and his story that you captured in your Esquire article and also in the movie. There is a universality in his teachings that you’re okay the way you are, that you don’t have to be anybody else, and that you don’t have to change for anybody else. That is an important lesson for everyone, especially those of us who are struggling so much right now.
I agree. It is a really big deal, and the thing that so many people misunderstand is they think with this special message you are telling kids they are getting a pass, that they don’t have to work hard. But that’s completely getting it wrong. What he is saying is that his message of acceptance has an immense amount of power in it.
