A distraction itself was dangerous. [10], In 2011, Junod won the James Beard Award for his essay "My Mom Couldn't Cook", published in Esquire in September 2010. Further, he had a controversial article about Kevin Spacey for Esquire that more or less outed the actor in 1997. Tom and his wife have been together for over 35 years. ESQ: So its like we dont knowwith the popular mediums we have nowhow to show kindness or come up to each other. ESQ: I mean, you said that if he grew up in the age of Twitter, you can expect what he would have done. It is true that Isler, who was the president of Rogers company, Family Communications, had tried to quash the interview. But the movie is not a biopic about the beloved TV-show host. Are you happily married? It was the first time I had read the story in a really long time. . No. As it turned out, he found that question just as thrilling as investigating what made other subjects bad. Below, we break it all down. Theres not a whole lot of information about Junods wife, Janet, in either of his pieces. Marquee narrative writer Tom Junod delivers a Stephen King-esque mystery with "The Hero of Goodall Park," and rejects one-size-fits-all detachment. Vituperative is how Junod describes the media backlash. But theres a lot of different ways to do it. I mean, one of the great surprises of my life is doing this. The new Mr. Rogers biopic A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, directed by Marielle Heller (Diary of a Teenage Girl, Can You Ever Forgive Me?) ), It was at that juncture that an editor at Esquire thought giving Junod a chance to interview Rogerswidely considered the nicest guy in the worldcould be the key to redeeming himself. Tom Junod and Fred Rogers really did become that close. He joined the station in July 2016. He is the son of Lou Junod, who was an eccentric, boozy philanderer. Yeah. You don't want to, but you do. ESQ: Have the past two months been fulfilling for you? He joined the station after following David Granger from GQ. 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? "It is a truism by now that there was no difference between Fred Rogers and Mister Rogers," says Tom Junod, the real-life journalist who loosely inspired Matthew Rhys character (The Atlantic). Fred moved in mysterious ways, he really did.. He pursued a bachelors degree in English graduating in 1980. I think Tom plays Fred as a person to be reckoned with, and I think Fred was a person to be reckoned with.. 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. It wasnt like Fred was just a kind man who worked at the local food bank. And you don't say what can't be unsaid. By the early 80s, Rogers was being regularly lampooned on Saturday Night Live. I was really struggling with that. He is hitched to his amazing wife Janet Junod. It is your happiness and your love that make the fights so painful. No. He wanted us to pray. He made himself into a superhero with his utility belt and all his training, Junod says. TJ: Yeah, they have been. And Rogers wast shy about switching the roles of interviewer and interviewee, asking questions and trying to learn more about his new friend. While researching the A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood true story, we discovered that the real-life journalist and his wife did not have a newborn child. While it seems like a nice movie moment that's hard to believe happened in real life, it actually comes straight from Tom Junod's article. You fight because of things she does that you don't like, and things you do that she doesn't like. In addition, he is the recipient of two National Magazine Awards from the American Society of Magazine Editors. One part of Jerrys story arc is accurate, though. Cast your vote in the reader poll. That story had the reek of bad faith to it, to be quite honest with you, Junod now admits, calling from the Toronto International Film Festival, where A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood premiered in September. The writer had developed a reputation as a mens-magazine bad boy by penning controversial articles like his 1997 Esquire profile of Kevin Spacey that more or less outed the actor. And I was really quite moved by it.. 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). 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. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. Copyright 2023 HistoryvsHollywood.com, CTF Media. [1] Early life [ edit] In 1980, Junod graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the State University of New York at Albany. 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. On a personal front, Junod says Rogers has made him and his wife, Janet, better parents to their 16-year-old daughter, Nia, whom they adopted in 2004. Write to Rachel E. Greenspan at rachel.greenspan@time.com. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our, Digital As of now, he serves as a Senior Writer at ESPN. The movie introduces us to the journalist in 1998, the year after he won the National Magazine Award. In 1985 he and his first wife . And I called Joanne [Rogers] after that and said, What do you think about that? And she was like, You know, Fred would never represent that. That seems so obvious, but I think to a lot of people its not obvious because I think that the temptation of being able to think that yelling at somebody on the street, youre somehow striking a blow. ", 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. 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]. ("My wife gave me the idea."), what the writing process was like ("The first draft was 30,000 words and an impressive act of overkill"), why that first draft was so long ("I got lost . Tom Junod does credit Fred Rogers with giving his wife Janet and him the courage to adopt their daughter. "I did not get into a fistfight with my father at my sister's wedding," said Tom Junod, the real-life journalist who loosely inspired Matthew Rhys character. I think that that was a lesson that stood me in good stead for the rest of my time as a journalist, says Junod. I was okay with Lloyd Vogel with bunny ears. Fidelity matters to a marriage. This story is around 1,400 words.) This content is imported from youTube. ", "Writer Comes Clean On Fake Stipe Profile", "How Mister Rogers changed the life of Atlanta writer Tom Junod", "Mr. Rogers doc 'Wont You Be My Neighbor?' Of course you do. TJ: I mean, the tents great, but the tents intentional. The writer has no idea whether these were meant as pieces of advice, lessons or notes Rogers perhaps learned from Junod himself. TJ: I grew up Roman Catholic too. But the only certainty we have is the certainty we had at the start: At fifteen seconds after 9:41 a.m., on September 11, 2001, a photographer named . Junod also appeared in the critically acclaimed documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor? For the most part, yes. Tom wrote an article, on a celebrity profile, but the celebrity is the man in the gold cardigan who showed you how to tie your shoes. A fact check reveals this to be accurate. Or do you take elements of what you see of the best men in your life, and try and put it together into one person? Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. 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. Mister Rogers' Neighborhood did this regularly with children, using puppetry, songs and straightforward talk to help children understand their feelings. After all, Rogers woke up daily at 5 a.m. to pray and read and swim; he famously even ensured that he weight the same exact amount143 poundswithout fluctuation. [2] Career [ edit] He woke up in the morning and prayed, and wrote, and prayed for people. Rogers became a vegetarian in the 1970s, even taking a co-ownership in and appearing on the cover of the Vegetarian Times. Tom has published some notable works for several magazines including The Falling Man, a controversial 2001 piece on R.E.M, The Abortionist, and The Rapist Says Hes Sorry. We recommend you to check the . He did eventually go to the Pittsburgh set as well as Rogers childhood home in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. At the end, Rogers asks the dying man to pray for him. A family affair! Tom Junod Education Upon graduating with his high school diploma, Tom enrolled at the State University of New York at Albany in 1978. Im just wondering on your end, where has your relationship with prayer landed now, and do you think it will continue to change? While we represen, Major spoilers ahead. Upon realizing the answer, he stopped to appreciate how he had come to take Rogers lessons with him. I mean, if that was Tom Junod with bunny ears, I dont know how I would have responded. And the fact that Im talking to you at a fashion show with a turtleneck on, you know, the irony is not lost on me. We were looking to make a splash. (Spacey came out as gay in 2017, after actor Anthony Rapp accused him of assaulting him when Rapp was 14, in 1986. Mister Rogers' widow talks about her husband's life of faith, love of routine and view on death By Adelle M. Banks November 22, 2019 at 5:47 p.m. EST Gift Article At "91 and a half," Joanne. Ive had people say, I know a lot of people who are really kind, but theyre just not media people, so no one knows about their kindness. I mean, the point is that Fred was a media person, and he did have a platform, and he spoke to an extremely large audience that he made into an even larger audience. ESQ: And the tent scene [where Mister Rogers struggles to put together a camping tent for a Mister Rogers' Neighborhood segment], was kind of. Who should be TIMEs Person of the Year for 2019? Just as in the movie, he did often say he wouldnt eat anything that had a mother, though it doesnt seem like he ever used that line with Junod. He even became a co-owner of Vegetarian Times magazine and appeared on the cover. Junod had a file. The first time that Vogel visits Rogers New York apartment, they take the train. 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. Joanne Rogers, Fred's wife, and Bill Isler, former president and CEO of The. Photo illustration by Slate. When Junod first read the script for the movie, he believed that the writers had made him out to be a jerk, though he had a much more colorful term for that. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The 28-year-old last posted in August . ESQUIRE: In your Atlantic piece, you talk about how theres no true successor to Mister Rogers. "They just sang," wrote Junod. As we spoke by cellphone, he walked the family's dog, Dexter, a pit bull rescue, around the neighborhood. He had given up meat in 1970 when his father died, and had often stated, as he does in the movie, that he wouldn't "eat anything that had a mother." Within the first few mom, My expectations for this years Oscar Awards were low. Last week, Junod was in New York to walk in a charity fashion show for his alma mater, SUNY Albany, so I tried to get a hold of him for an interview about his Esquire story and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. (Which, in journalism these days, is quite long. In the cinematic version, Vogel lives in New York City with his wife and newborn son. Hes not like Supermanhe isnt otherworldly. Fred Rogers isnt even the central figure. It is no surprise that so many fights turn into sex, and inevitable that the most destructive ones are fought on the level of sex. You think that because they don't understand sex, they don't understand fighting, but there is one thing that they understand even better than you do: You think that some fights are trivial, because they are over trivial matters. He died at the age of 74 years old on February 27, 2003, from stomach cancer. And I just think that its a trap; I think its false. Im at my best as a father when I try to think what Fred Rogers would do, and Im probably at my worst when I think what my own father would do.. Lloyd Vogel (based loosely on the real life journalist Tom Junod) is the anti-heroic protagonist of the 2019 drama film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. And that always struck me as perverse. And its all in there. All rights reserved. Moreover, he has also served for Atlanta magazine, Life, and Sports Illustrated. So when he was first assigned this profile, Junod wasnt sure how to proceed. Junod has published award-winning pieces for several magazines. Matthew McConaughey and his wife, Camila Alves, stepped out at his annual Mack, Jack & McConaughey Gala alongside their son Levi. 2023 TIME USA, LLC. He has been nominated for an Emmy for his work on "The . Mr Rogers Changed Tom Junod's Life. Thats as far as I want to go, you know? -The Atlantic. February 14, 2014. Mr Rogers is an American television host, author, producer, and Presbyterian minister. But I mean, Fred and my dad could not have been more different. Photos by TriStar Pictures and Cindy Ord/Getty Images for SCAD. [1], In 1980, Junod graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the State University of New York at Albany.[2]. Tom Junod on fighting with your wife, part of Hitched, a man's guide to getting and being married 73% of African Americans said they did not have emergency funds to cover three months of expenses. The thing that damaged me about the Kevin Spacey story was not that we revealed that Kevin was gayit was that we revealed Kevin was gay for a purpose that was not worth the revelation, Junod says. TJ: I dont know. This is one Mr. Rogers story you dont have to take on my authority, or Junods, because you can watch it yourself. TJ: I think the mediums themselves sort of make us prejudiced against that. Im at my best as a father when I try to think what Fred Rogers would do, and Im probably at my worst when I think what my own father would do., He looks back at 2015, when his article was optioned for the big screen, with nostalgia, referring to it as the age of relative innocence., I certainly did not know that Donald Trump would be elected in 2016 and that, all of a sudden, the example of Fred would come to matter so much more, he said. I n early 1998, Tom Junod received an assignment that was outside his wheelhouse. Though of all races, the schoolchildren were mostly black and Latino, and they didnt even approach Mister Rogers and ask him for his autograph. There are many people who follow the legacy of kindness, but I dont know of anybody who follows his legacy of kindness in media. I said sure, hung up, and realized I didnt exactly catch where in Bryant Parkanother New York capital of constant, nightmarish pedestrian overflow. "He trusted me when I thought I was untrustworthy," says Junod, not long before the movie's release. Matthew Rhys' character, the cynical Lloyd Vogel, is only loosely inspired by real-life journalist Tom Junod, hence the name change. I mean, I find prayer somewhat problematic. Junod, who stayed friends with Rogers until his death in 2003, credits their relationship with making him a better writer. You know that they shot it with like the original cameras. The protagonist attempts to interview Rogers on the set of the TV show in Pittsburgh and in his modest pied-a-terre in New York, but Rogers always manages to turn the interview around on Vogel. So far, its worked pretty well. Infidelity is the final measure of victory and defeat; it is the logical consequence of keeping score, and the ultimate extension of the dictum that if you have found a fight worth winning, you have found a marriage worth losing. It was an "enduring" friendship that lasted from the moment they met in 1998 until Rogers death in 2003. I have read his old emails, and I can see that he was very clear about what he wanted from me and everybody else. Since 1961, Atlanta magazine, the citys premier general interest publication, has served as the authority on Atlanta, providing its readers with a mix of long-form nonfiction, lively lifestyle coverage, in-depth service journalism, and literary essays, columns, and profiles. That's because over the course of married life, people supply their spouses with precisely what's required to finish them off. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. But really, you are fighting because you are married, and fighting is as intrinsic to marriage as sex. [7] The event is the premise of the 2019 feature film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. The problem with this approach is that the answer has already been well established. An exploration of the life, lessons, and legacy of iconic children's television host Fred Rogers.
Personal Training For Seniors Near Me,
Katv News Anchors Suspended,
Articles T