SEATTLE — Tom Hanks is giving his fans a gift on Christmas: the release of his latest film, News of the World.
Though he’s been acting for 40 years, this movie marks Hanks’ first western.
Based on a novel, it’s set in Texas shortly after the Civil War. The nation is still deeply divided, politically and otherwise.
Hanks plays Captain Joseph Kyle Kidd, a war veteran who ekes out a living by traveling from small town to small town, reading newspaper articles to audiences.
Hanks talked to entertainment reporter Kim Holcomb about the role.
HANKS (looking at Holcomb’s graphic sweater): "’Speak the truth,’ oh my lord that's a News of the World thematic sweater right there, I love that!”
HOLCOMB: “It felt like the most apropos day to wear my favorite sweater."
HANKS: “Yes!”
HOLCOMB: "Sorry, I just need to give myself a minute. Of all the surreal things that have happened this past year, talking to you in my living room ranks right up there.”
HANKS: (laughs) “You have a beautiful tree in the back, oh my lord."
HOLCOMB: "I was reading one article where the person referred to Captain Kidd as 'Anderson Cooper circa 1870.' I don't know if you'd agree with that or not, but I am curious - did you use a news anchor, living or past, to help inspire Captain Kidd?"
HANKS: "This is going to age me Kim, so forgive me, but I was actually thinking of like John Chancellor or Eric Sevareid. When I was growing up, there was a sense that everything important could be encapsulated in a half hour of very serious and sober reporting. Inside that half hour was time for thought. For not editorializing, but literally a perspective. And Captain Kidd, and what he does in places - incredibly small towns - is report on things large and small. Things that are important. Who has cholera today? How fast is the fever spreading? Is that new train spur actually going to be built or not? Captain Kidd was enlightening an audience. He was engaging them, he was educating, but more than anything else he was enlightening an audience by saying, 'Here's what you've got to be careful of, isn't the world quite amazing, and oh here's this other thing - we're all in this together, folks.' You know, everybody chooses - I'm going to watch KING-TV versus one of the other channels, I'm going to watch MSNBC as opposed to one of the other channels - we can all now, filter our own kind of input in a way. And that, I think, Captain Kidd and the news readers of the day were against."
HOLCOMB: "I'm always dazzled by the small details in movies, like in this one - the newspapers that were wrapped in the oilcloth to be transported. Did you fall in love with any specific props in this film, and how does that help you bring your performance out?"
HANKS: "It all becomes very tactile. I wanted to have a magnifying glass, because even though he knew the stories, there were moments he wanted to specifically (read out loud,) and that newsprint is really, really tiny - and it really was. So I had a magnifying glass, and I brought out the watch. The watch was the most important thing. He didn't want to spend too much time on any individual story, he wanted to get as many stories in as was good for that audience, and he didn't want to go over that time when suddenly he was going to be boring them. At ten cents a read, you don't want to go 100 minutes, that's too much. But you don't want to be up there for just 35. He had to make sure they got 10 cents of story, 10 cents of transportation, 10 cents of a show, in order to feel they got their money's worth.”
HOLCOMB: “I feel like I just got $1 million worth of opportunity getting to talk to you.”
HANKS: “Speak the truth Kim Holcomb, speak the truth!"
News of the World is rated PG-13 and releases on Blu-ray and DVD on March 23.
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