The Hollywood Reporter - 06.11.2019

PLAYBOOK

AWARDS SEASON

2019

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 88 NOVEMBER 6, 2019

ASK AND THEY

SHALL RECEIVE

Whether it was convincing Paul McCartney to approve a Beatles song in a movie with
Hitler, finding an NBA player who could act or earning the trust of Fred Rogers’ family,
12 producers reveal how they made their directors’ biggest requests come true

protective. There were many

times when I thought we weren’t

going to get the rights and that

we weren’t going to be able to tell

this story that we were deter-

mined to tell, but it was also one

of the most gratifying challenges.

Because out of the process of

earning that trust, we learned

so much about that community

and the work that Fred did and

the work that all these people did.

We made lasting relationships

that certainly changed me for the

better, and many other people

who worked on the movie, too.

— SHARAREH DRURY

Something that we

all needed — which

I wasn’t sure that we were ever

going to get because it took years

— were the rights to the show

[Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood] and

the music. We developed this

project for seven years because it

took that long to earn the trust

of the people who worked with

Fred [Rogers] and his family

and the people who are charged

with protecting his legacy,

and they are, rightly so, very

The biggest challenge in

China was that [producer]

Dani [Melia] and I didn’t

speak the language, so it was a challenge

to make sure we provided [director] Lulu

[Wang] with anything she needed. We

had an assistant who was our assistant/

translator, but I felt bad not speaking

the language. And in China, there’s less

paperwork, so it requires trust. You had to

just trust that you’d get something, be it a

location or a piece of equipment — and I

will say it was always there. But we weren’t

used to that. They’d say, “We promise it’ll

get done,” and it did, but it made us a little

nervous. — REBECCA FORD

PETER SARAF

ANDREW MIANO

A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN

THE NEIGHBORHOOD

THE FAREWELL

BEAUTIFUL

: LACEY TERRELL/SONY.

BOOKSMART

: FRANCOIS DUHAMEL/ANNAPURNA PICTURES.

FAREWELL

: COURTESY OF

A24.

RABBIT

: KIMBERLEY FRENCH/TWENTIETH CENTRY FOX. MIANO: DIA DIPASUPIL/GETTY IMAGES. ELBAUM: MIKE

COPPOLA/GETTY IMAGES. NEAL: LARS NIKI/GETTY IMAGES FOR THE ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURES ARTS & SCIENCES. ROSENTHAL: JEFF SPICER/GETTY IMAGES. SARAF: JIM SPELLMAN/WIREIMAGE.

IRISHMAN

: COURTESY OF NETFLIX.

BEST PICTURE