Janet, Junod's wife of 35 years, said perhaps Junod learned from the encounter: "I can still be a writer and be a journalist and in Tom's word not be an (expletive) about it." ESQ: Another interesting thing in your piece is how you talk about how theres still a hunger for spreading goodness in the world. : Directed by Morgan Neville. In the cinematic version, Vogel lives in New York City with his wife and newborn son. But, in that same way, do you think he could have became what he did with social media instead of TV? 2023 This was a deeply disciplined man. However, that encouragement came during his last conversation with Fred Rogers (after the events in the movie), at which time he and his wife began the adoption process. At a pivotal moment in Vogels journey from skeptic to believer, Rogers asks Vogel to sit with him in silence in a crowded restaurant for a full minute to think of the people who have loved us into being.* Similar to the train scene, this actually happened but in a different and perhaps even more surprising context. Mr Rogers Changed Tom Junod's Life. He is a man of average stature. No. He joined the station after following David Granger from GQ. The documentary offers a much more comprehensive look at the life of Fred Rogers. And yet, here I am. Its Lloyd Vogel, a fictionalized character based on Atlanta writer Tom Junod. But I mean, Fred and my dad could not have been more different. Tom Junod indeed found himself opening up to Fred Rogers, asking him his "deepest and most troubling questions." Marquee narrative writer Tom Junod delivers a Stephen King-esque mystery with "The Hero of Goodall Park," and rejects one-size-fits-all detachment. ESQ: So its like we dont knowwith the popular mediums we have nowhow to show kindness or come up to each other. Obviously he has a lesson to teach about kindness, but I think that he also has a lesson to teach about the attainment of kindness, that kindness is a practice., Junod continues, He practiced it like he practiced a musical instrument. Theyre polar opposites. I bring up the Pam Bondi thing in the The Atlantic piecewhere they actually use Fred to hound somebody. ESQ: And then by Mister Rogers. I think that that was a lesson that stood me in good stead for the rest of my time as a journalist, says Junod. Really, I think its just that Tom Junod is a guy who stands out in a crowd. While he still doesnt know whether Rogers had read the Spacey article, Junod believes Rogers recognized that he was going through a moment of transformation after losing trust in himself. ESQ: And the tent scene [where Mister Rogers struggles to put together a camping tent for a Mister Rogers' Neighborhood segment], was kind of. Moreover, he has also served for Atlanta magazine, Life, and Sports Illustrated. -The Atlantic, Yes. Mr Rogers is an American television host, author, producer, and Presbyterian minister. And heres this extremely soft-spoken man calling upon you to be a child again, and thats exactly what you dont want to hear, he said. In the moments that followed, as Rogers watched the time on his watch, the crowd settled from nervous laughter into a hush, and then, for many, into being moved to tears. What kind of fight is that? Still, the rest of the scene is virtually identical: Once upon a time, Mister Rogers went to New York City and got caught in the rain. He was a kind man who made it a point to practice kindness to a vast audience, person by person. Fred moved in mysterious ways, he really did.. When Lloyd asks Rogers why, he responds, Someone who is suffering that much must be very close to God. While Rogers never said this about Junods father, in the original profile, he does ask a boy with cerebral palsy he visited in California to pray for him, saying, I asked him because I think that anyone who has gone through challenges like that must be very close to God.. While Junod says that Fred Rogers did see something in him that he didn't see in himself (namely that he was a good person), he wasn't the cynical journalist consumed by anger who Matthew Rhys portrays onscreen. But when I did my first draft for the The Atlantic, I wrote that I still dont know what Fred wants from me, or wants from us. He made connections everywhere he wentwith a young fan with cerebral palsy, with the famed gorilla Koko (also an ardent fan). ESQ: Thats where Im at right now. Does it mean anything? Now a senior writer at ESPN, Junod is working on a 10,000-word story. [Isler] protected Fred, and he did not want Fred to do this story, Junod says. But do you think there will be one? Mass shooting survivor Wilson Garcia sheds a tear as he talks about his wife and son, who were killed in Friday's shooting, Sunday, April 30, 2023, at a vigil for his son in Cleveland, Texas. You can't separate the two. Rogers team was hesitant, too. At first, I chalked this up to some Neighborhood of Make-Believe voodoo energy, but now I have a legit answer. Before ESPN, he spent over 19 years as a Writer At Large at Esquire magazine. For Junod, theres always been a bit of a misconception about Rogers. There, Lloyd confronts his father, who we later find out cheated on his dying wife before abandoning her and their children, and father and son get into a fistfight. I have actually tried, since that moment, Ive tried to pray. He has been nominated for an Emmy for his work on "The . The answer to: What did Fred want? This content is imported from youTube. The story led to a tailspin of controversy and many in Hollywood refusing to cooperate with the magazine and the journalist himself. As it turned out, he found that question just as thrilling as investigating what made other subjects bad. feels right for our less-than-neighborly times", "The Missouri Association of Publications 5th Anniversary Publishing Summit Will Be Held March 5 and 6 in Columbia", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tom_Junod&oldid=1119579430, This page was last edited on 2 November 2022, at 09:19. Anyone who has seen Mister Rogers' Neighborhood will also recognize Hanks' accurate wardrobe, including the blue sports coat and the red cardigan. His son John said that his dad had probably seenForrest Gump100 times. Well, you don't go to sleep angry, as the old saying goes. In 1985 he and his first wife . As the film points out, it's not hard to imagine that having Mister Rogers as your father could be both a blessing and a burden. Rhys answers, "Broken people." Yet, it's all but absent from the movie. Junod, who consulted on the film, believes that renewed interest in Rogers, evident by the recent spate of books and movies about him, is no coincidence. The real journalist, Tom Junod, says that his father, Lou Junod, was in fact an eccentric, boozy philanderer, but he "had never rejected him or his message." Batman didnt have any superpowers. This is not true, though it was Fred Rogers' optimism and unshakeable encouragement that led to Junod and Janet adopting their daughter later on in life. The movie, in theaters nationwide on Friday, is not a play-by-play of either mans lifefor one thing, Junod never got into a fight with his father at his sisters wedding, as Lloyd doesbut Junod says that while Lloyds on-screen circumstances are fictionalized, the depiction of their friendship is as close to reality as he could have hoped. Upon learning the news, Hanks told Access Hollywood, "It all just comes together, you see. And then my editor, Denise Wills said, Could you try to think of an answer to that question? And I thought about it, then I had to read the story again for the audiobook of this collection of Freds writings and sayings. They are, in other words, what sex should be, what you want it to be, because they're so dangerous. In the film, Andrea meets Rogers and develops a friendship with the TV. Yeah. And hes still going even, Junod is currently a senior writer at ESPN, where hes written about his, When he met Mr. Rogers, he was married, but had no children. The movie, which opens November 22, casts Rogers as an agent of change in the life of a cynical journalist played by Matthew Rhys, just as Rogers was a catalyst in the real life of Junod, who is now at ESPN The Magazine, with previous stints at Esquire, GQ, and Atlanta magazine. He clearly believed in prayer as a way of life. When you were contemplating asking your wife to marry you, you asked yourself the same question that most men in your position ask themselves: Can I have sex with this woman, and only this woman, for the rest of my life? I mean, Fred wasnt just a reformer when it comes in terms of message. Working with Mister Rogers wasnt easy for Junod. Folks at Disneyland got extra Saturday night, as they watched parts of Tom Sawyer Island go up in flames. However, in 2019 Tom portrayed as Rogers in the drama film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. 0. Group, a Graham Holdings Company. The question is who can abstain from winning, who can resist the temptation of winning, which. With the emotional adventure of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever closing out the controversial fourth, Joseph Bologne Could Have Been As Big As Beethoven In, Angela Bassett Doesnt Owe The Oscars A Thing Not Even A Smile, Tessa Thompson Talks Going To Couples Therapy With Michael B. Jordan, now, Mr. Rogers' journalist friend Tom Junod, Mr. Rogers didnt just serve as an interview. But it might mean something to me, so thats why Ive been doing it. "My sister didn't have a wedding. You know that they shot it with like the original cameras. and featuring Tom Hanks cutting that familiar cardiganed form, strikes the same chords as last years documentary except with a cynical, broken journalist serving as a surrogate for our cynical, broken times. You may say you are fighting about her habits, and she may say she is fighting about yours that you are fighting over the nearly daily discovery that habits are inextinguishable. Matthew Rhys' character, the cynical Lloyd Vogel, is only loosely inspired by real-life journalist Tom Junod, hence the name change. Except for people who are on the new-age end of it. [5] As of November 2019, he is a writer for ESPN The Magazine. I mean, he was in favor of thatmedia should be human. He never asked this of the real-life journalist, Tom Junod. I n early 1998, Tom Junod received an assignment that was outside his wheelhouse. The real-life piece, titled Can You SayHero?, was published in Esquire in November 1998 and is included in the book A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood: Neighborly Words of Wisdom from Mister Rogers. ", Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, 1997 acceptance speech when he received the Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award, 1969 speech before congress asking for funding for public television. These are only escalated when the small family attends Lloyds sisters wedding. Lloyds father, Jerry, is almost entirely an invention of the movie, which also means most of the films narrative drama is entirely fictionalized, including the scene where Lloyd faints on set and one where Rogers visits Jerry on his deathbed, pie in hand. Thats where I was when I first met Fred.. In the movie, Andrea is a lawyer and recent mother of a son who eventually becomes good enough. Its like if you dont do it, maybe it wont happen. Playing Andrea Vogel, (but really Janet Junod, Tom Junod's wife), is This Is Us breakout star Susan Kelechi Watson. and turned the clattering train into a single soft, runaway choir. In addition, he is a two-time National Magazine Awards winner. But really, you are fighting because you are married, and fighting is as intrinsic to marriage as sex. Of course you do. When Creed first premiered in 2015, the world had no idea how big it would become; after all, it was just, Rocky Balboas iconic ascent up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art out of breath and in gray joggers as Eye of the Tiger blares in the, Spoilers ahead. Fred Rogers, whose gentle nature Tom Hanks wears as comfortably as his red cardigan, begins by introducing the viewer to a story about his friend, journalist Lloyd Vogel (The Americans Matthew Rhys). He did eventually go to the Pittsburgh set as well as Rogers childhood home in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Like in the movie, the subway car was crowded with schoolchildren, none of whom approached Mister Rogers. Not exactly. TJ: I think you try to put it together in one person. Rogers mostly wrote about faith, closing each email by telling Junod that he kept him in his thoughts and prayers. He wanted to make a sacred space out of what he regarded as a rich but toxic medium, which is television. At first, I chalked this up to some Neighborhood of . They are arguments that enter a dimension different from the one in which they started. And I wasnt entirely convinced that he was an American hero, says Junod. In fact, Rogers helped give them the. In the article, headlined Can You Say Hero?, journalist Tom Junodthe basis for the fictionalized Lloydconveys Rogers astonishing goodness through a series of anecdotes: Rogers, a Presbyterian minister, prayed for people by name every day. A family affair! The son of Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise took to Instagram over the weekend to share a new photo of himself golfing with a pal at Pelican Golf Club in Florida. They told him, "Yeah, but it's not good for the fish. He was born on April 9, 1958, in Wantagh, New York, in the United States of America. Moreover, he holds an American nationality. So far, its worked pretty well. But in answer to your question, I mean there are all sorts of ways to be helpful and be of service. Consider childhood ruined: Mr. Rogers gets sexy in booty . The Slate Group LLC. Tom stands at a height of 5 ft 7 in (Approx 1.74 m). It wasnt just a profile that was dusted off, he said about his articles second life. Junod, who had just turned 40, was at a low point when an editor assigned him the story for a November issue celebrating heroes. If somebody had said five years ago, that I was going to be spending the months in October and November 2019 sort of speaking for Fred Rogersyeah, right. In an October 1997 cover story titled Kevin Spacey Has a Secret, he coyly outed the actor, though Spacey refused at the time to confirm or deny any speculation about his sexuality. Yes, at least much more accurately than any of the other main characters. "Fred Rogers was a HUGE fan of Tom Hanks," says Fred's widow Joanne. Further, he had a controversial article about Kevin Spacey for Esquire that more or less outed the actor in 1997. Instead, the film focuses much of its time on the skeptical Lloyd (Matthew Rhys) trying to figure out if Fred Rogers is the real deal. [8], Among his controversial articles, Junod came to regret the tone of his 1997 profile of Kevin Spacey for Esquire that "more or less outed the actor". Tom Junod does credit Fred Rogers with giving his wife Janet and him the courage to adopt their daughter. They exchanged no fewer than 70 emails during the first year of their friendship alone. In Atlanta, new indie outlets are finding ways to make it workand bringing in important voices, Jonathan Majors and Michael B. Jordan talk about Atlanta-filmed Creed III, How young trans peopleand their families and medical providersare contending with a wave of animus, Junkmans Daughter owner to open Virginia-Highland coffee shop this summer, Warren Doyle and the life-changing magic of the Appalachian Trail, The scent of water: Searching for hidden springs in downtown Atlanta, Hell and high water: A harrowing journey from Myanmar to Clarkston, Georgia. The things themselves are not important; what's important is that you both always do them. Upon graduating with his high school diploma, Tom enrolled at the State University of New York at Albany in 1978. As of now, he serves as a Senior Writer at ESPN. ESQ: I wanted to ask you about that nightmare scene [where Lloyd Vogel, the character loosely based on Junod, dreams that he's a character in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe]. He prayed every day of his life. Aside from a fictional subplot involving the writers father, the films narrative hews to the Esquire story. Within the first few mom, My expectations for this years Oscar Awards were low. Tom Junod (born April 9, 1958) is an American journalist. The real-life journalist, Tom Junod, admits that he was broken back then, but he says, "I had never uttered those words to Fred in my life." When he saw the movie for the first time, in a screening room in New York City over the summer, he asked himself: What would Mister Rogers think of my work? Cast your vote in the reader poll. There is a quiet rage simmering throughout A Thousand And One, threatening to spill out onto the changing streets of Harlem, from the, If you were expecting to escape the Oscars with dry eyes, were sorry to say that you definitely didnt make it out unscathed. But what do you fight for, if you can't fight to win? In, I keep telling myself that I dont know how to answer Theresas question, that I dont know what to do next, because Fred never asked anything of me, Junod wrote. And I just think that its a trap; I think its false. And that always struck me as perverse. It wasnt like Fred was just a kind man who worked at the local food bank. [10], In 2011, Junod won the James Beard Award for his essay "My Mom Couldn't Cook", published in Esquire in September 2010. He was leading me to that moment of prayer that whole time that I was with him. You fight because of things she does that you don't like, and things you do that she doesn't like. "How accurate is the Tom Hanks Mister Rogers movie?" Tom Junod was born on 9 April, 1958 in United States, is an American journalist. It went down as park-goers were enjoying the Fantasmic light show on Tom Sawyer Island .
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