Owner of an impressive career both in front of and behind the cameras and still holding the record of having been the last to receive two Oscars for best actor in a row, Tom Hanks knows very well how to use his position as a global star to bring to the screen the stories that fascinate you. And when back in 2015 he saw a Swedish film, A Man Called Ove, which received two Oscar nominations including best foreign film, he knew that the character played there by Rolf Lassgard, a grumpy retiree who seemed to hate everyone, could work very well for him.
Based on the first novel by Fredrik Backman, which became a great worldwide success, it was made into a film by producer Fredrick Wilkström, who saw enormous potential in the manuscript. But it was Rita Wilson, Hanks's wife, who decided to rush to acquire the rights for a Hollywood remake. The actress and producer pointed out, in a meeting with the press at the Academy Museum in Hollywood, that her decision had to do with an old desire of the couple: "With Tom we usually talk about how it is very difficult to make good comedies that deal with about something deep, and I thought he was going to be very good playing that part," he recalled in front of an audience made up of grand prix voters.
Wilson admitted that he saw the film on a DVD that was sent to him as a member of the Academy, and the next day he contacted Backman to propose that Playtone, the company he owns with Hanks, do the remake. When the moderator commented to Hanks that he was lucky to have a producer by his side who was always watching over her career, the actor jokingly commented: "I sleep 365 days a year with her to make sure she gives me the good parts."
In The World's Worst Neighbor, which hits the Spanish billboard today, the star plays a constantly grumpy widower who has just retired and who only thinks about ending his life. However, the arrival of a couple of Mexican immigrants who move with their children to an apartment on the other side of the street changes everything, especially due to the insistence of Marisol –played by the wonderful Mariana Treviño– in bringing them mole and other delights of your country.
Hanks says that, although he is known for his great sense of humor and his permanent smile, in private he has elements in common with this man who always criticizes everything and everyone: “You have not seen me in a bad mood. They wouldn't want to be in a car with me when someone about to turn a corner doesn't turn on their blinker,” he pointed out as if he were doing a stand-up act, then stood up and made a public demonstration of just how aggressive he can be. put yourself in such a situation.
Sitting next to him was Truman, the couple's youngest son, who makes his acting debut playing Otto as a young man and who, until this film, had no plans to follow in his father's footsteps: “It was Mark Forster's idea, the director, he said. I am apparently the younger version of the man who plays Otto when he grows up,” he added. “Initially I was also going to work as a camera assistant, but then I decided to limit myself to acting,” he revealed.
His character makeup aligns with his father's. Tom explained that they never looked at what the other was doing: "We were filming simultaneously," he stated and clarified: "I come from Gary Cooper's school, which says that you first have to study the script and then pay attention to when you get days off . Although we talked about some gestures that we had to share, because we are the same guy, I never saw what Truman was doing. The good thing is that he looks like me when I was 26 years old. The bad thing is that he will be like me today when he is 66, ”he joked.
And Treviño received a special applause when she spoke, still excited to have seen the finished film for the first time: "I loved the way in which all the characters in the neighborhood help Otto, showing that together we are stronger," she emphasized. . Hanks admitted that when Rita showed him the test that the Mexican actress had done on her iPhone, freely improvising the scene she had been given and incorporating phrases in Spanish, he agreed with her wife that she was perfect for the role. “Thanks to Mariana, I think the message of this movie is that all Americans should get a Mexican couple to move in across the street from them,” she theorized shrewdly.
