SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
"Here" is a film that follows life - as it's lived - sometimes lost on a single plot of land, from creation through revolution, the invention of aviation and recliner lounges, wounded warriors, Native American families and farewells, frank talk, dreams delayed, recoveries made and lives going on together. It stars Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Paul Bettany and Kelly Reilly. "Here" is also a reunion of Tom Hanks, Robin Wright and Bob Zemeckis, the director, 30 years after they made "Forrest Gump" together. Tom Hanks and Bob Zemeckis join us now from our studios at NPR West. Thank you both so much for being with us.
TOM HANKS: Great to be here.
BOB ZEMECKIS: Good to be here.
SIMON: "Here" is drawn, if you please, from 2014 graphic novel by Richard McGuire. And let me ask you both, what moved you to tell this story? Mr. Zemeckis?
ZEMECKIS: I immediately fell in love with the idea of making it into a movie because when I first looked at the graphic novel, it was something that I thought would be pretty poignant. And also, it was, you know, something that was very cinematic.
SIMON: And Tom Hanks?
HANKS: I had to read the graphic novel, like, four times before I could figure out the narrative of it. It is a visual story that is told. And once I got the hint of it, the back of my head sort of exploded. It sort of snuck up on me how this story that takes place over a number of families' lives, but also hundreds of years, 'cause it does go back - and I ran into this dilemma when people would say, hey, what are you working on Tom? I'd say, well, Bob and I are doing this movie called "Here." And I realized I had to say, that is here, spelled H-E-R-E. The theme is life happens right here.
SIMON: Bob Zemeckis, am I right? The camera almost never moves.
ZEMECKIS: Never. Yeah. No, doesn't move.
HANKS: Everything else does.
ZEMECKIS: But life and time and the characters move past us, past this one singular view that we have, this one perspective that we have on the world, all through different times.
HANKS: We say, like, you know, is this thing ever going to hold? And I say, hey, don't worry. If it gets boring, Bob'll just have a mastodon walk by the window.
(LAUGHTER)
HANKS: And then the walls will fall away, and we'll be in some other era of humanity.
SIMON: Yeah. Tell us about the character you play from boy to man, Richard Young.
HANKS: OK, on one hand, you could look at this fellow and just say, this is the ideal way to live and grow up. He lives in the same house he was born in. He pursues a life, but once he gets married and has kids, he needs to provide for them, and he's able to do it. And they end up staying in this house. So in one way, he is surrounded by security. But along with that, then, comes the legitimate giving away of one's dreams...
SIMON: Yeah.
HANKS: ...Even to the point of one's freedom. He cannot wander the world.
SIMON: And, of course, Robin Wright's character, Margaret, who marries Richard - she puts a lot of dreams on hold, too, doesn't she?
ZEMECKIS: Yeah. The character that Robin plays is very much a character who - again, life is happening, and she's a bit stifled. And she chafes under that a bit because she doesn't have her own home.
SIMON: And they - of course, they have a child.
ZEMECKIS: Right. And so all the responsibilities of life get in the way of possible dreams that they both have. And I think that's what the main conflict of the film is. But then along the way, there are these magnificent moments. And there's these moments of life that are always happening, and that's what I find really interesting about the film that we made, is because they can only happen in this one place.
SIMON: Forgive me. Did nobody ever say to you, oh, come on now; you got to mix up the scene? I mean...
ZEMECKIS: Oh, endlessly.
SIMON: Yeah.
ZEMECKIS: I mean, it was a constant beratement of this is never going to work, but you can understand that because whenever you're trying something different, there's always a fear element that it isn't going to work.
SIMON: You worked together on "Cast Away," "The Polar Express." What's it like to work with each other?
HANKS: Takes a while, I'll tell you that.
ZEMECKIS: Well, I remember saying to a crew member in the middle of "Forrest Gump," or my agent or somebody, I said, I'd be happy to do all my movies from now on with Tom Hanks. He's as professional as it gets.
HANKS: I show up on time.
ZEMECKIS: Shows up on time. You know that. And you know all your lines.
HANKS: I try to. Yes.
ZEMECKIS: You try - you know all your lines. But what's wonderful about Tom is he knows how movies are made, and he knows what's important when he presents his performance. And then we have a shorthand, you know? I mean - you know, you said to me, I can always tell by the way you say cut that we're doing another one.
HANKS: And I always think, good, we get another shot at this. But in all of our films, in every single one, including this, there comes a moment when we have this thing that we know, this is what I need to do in this scene. And then on Bob's side, it's like, we have to do this in a way that is going to test the cinematic principle. We can't just do this the way somebody else has. And all of us have learned to trust each other 100%. And then maybe, if it all is working out, when Bob says, cut - (impersonating Zemeckis) cut, thing of beauty - then we can be done. But if he just says cut, that means we're doing it again.
SIMON: I have to ask you about this new process called Metaphysic Live that reportedly de-ages actors in real time.
HANKS: Can I go first?
SIMON: Yeah.
ZEMECKIS: Go first. Go first.
HANKS: Because from an actor's perspective, all it is is a tool, because we still had extensive makeup tests. We sat in a hair and makeup chair for hours for each one of our looks. So that was coupled with the big-time wingding fandango that is a magnificent tool of how to do the rest of it in order to make it motion picture quality.
ZEMECKIS: Well, I just think it's makeup. That's the way I look at it.
HANKS: Digital makeup?
ZEMECKIS: Digital makeup.
SIMON: Now, Tom, you're an actor. This kind of technology was around when Coppola was making the "Godfather" films. You would have gotten rid of either Robert De Niro or Marlon Brando because you wouldn't have De Niro playing the young Vito Corleone, Brando playing the older one.
HANKS: Yeah. That's true.
SIMON: Oh, well. I guess I'm the only who'd miss it.
HANKS: Well - no. Well, I think - my philosophical point of that is, exactly. That was then. This is now. And the demands are absolutely completely different. All it is is a big-a** tool in the cinematic toolbox.
SIMON: This film takes place on a parcel of land, and it takes us through centuries of human stories. Yet it's not the palace at Versailles or Stonehenge. Should this film leave us with the idea that almost any plot of land on this earth holds centuries of stories?
ZEMECKIS: Well, I mean, they have to. Every place that we are right now - I'm looking at a corner of a wall in the studio with soundboard on it, and centuries ago, something was there. It might have been a Native American tribe or something, or a dinosaur, at some point. Isn't that true about everything?
HANKS: I go to Greece a lot. Periodically, I find myself standing on a collection of pebble stones on a beach, and I'm looking at an island across a stretch of water, and I see absolutely no sign of modernity. All I see is sky, sea and land. And I know that I am standing in a place where somebody else stood at some point, herding sheep, drinking wine, making love, killing somebody in a battle. And that view that I have right then and there, it has not changed in 15,000 years. And I am always filled with that cosmic moment of, I'm standing here now as someone stood here, and all they're thinking perhaps is, what am I going to do tomorrow? And that is true with every square inch of this planet Earth of ours.
SIMON: Tom Hanks and Bob Zemeckis, so nice to talk to you. Thank you.
ZEMECKIS: Thank you.
HANKS: Pleasure, Scott.
SIMON: Let me just add, their latest film, in which they are reunited with Robin Wright, is here, and it's "Here," in theaters now. Thank you both so much.
ZEMECKIS: Thank you.
HANKS: (Impersonating Zemeckis) Beautiful.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "OUR HOUSE")
CROSBY, STILLS, NASH AND YOUNG: (Singing) Our house... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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