Tom Hanks "Exposé of Danger & Addiction: Toy Story 5!" No screen is powered by our own imagination

[00:00:00] Tom Hanks: Yet another expose of danger and addiction. Toy Story 5! [00:00:09] Speaker 2: Yeah! [00:00:12] Speaker 3: With me in the studio now is one of the most recognizable actors in the world. He's got one of the most loveliest faces. And since the 80s, he's given us countless iconic characters. I'm dropping the accent now. He's a two-time Oscar winner, has a clutch of golden globes. He's even had an asteroid named after him. [00:00:42] Tom Hanks: X513709, I think is what it's actually called. Can I call you Tom, though, because that's too complicated. [00:00:49] Speaker 3: Bring it on. Tom Hanks, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you. Yes, hello, Sari. How are you? Ooh, very good. Sari, you say? Not Sarah. What's the deal? [00:00:55] Tom Hanks: I don't know why. I have a number of people who work with me who have named Sarah, and I just can't get – hey, Sari, how are you doing? [00:01:01] Speaker 3: You're here to talk about Toy Story 5. Why not? It is a beautiful film. I absolutely loved it. We're going to chat about it, of course, in just a second. But first, it is extraordinary to meet you. This is my very first Radio 2. [00:01:14] Tom Hanks: Can we cue that Thus Make Zarathustra movie? Can you put it on again just for a moment? Ladies and gentlemen, I'm Tom Hanks, and for the first time ever, I am in a morning broadcast on BBC Radio 2 with perhaps the most popular young woman to be on the airwaves. And this, her premiere edition of Breakfast in the Morning with my friend Sari. [00:01:43] Speaker 3: Beautiful! How's that? [00:01:45] Tom Hanks: By the way, kudos to your production team to be able to pop that cart back into the air. [00:01:50] Speaker 3: I mean, Tom, I've been doing this, Lark, for a long time. I've been doing BBC Radio for 28 years now. But it's still a big deal. It's the Radio 2 breakfast show, so my knees are a little bit knocky. Do your knees still ever knock first day of a new movie? Are you ever, ever nervous? And if you are, how do you deal with it? [00:02:07] Tom Hanks: I'm going to tell you right now. No one knows what they are doing on a motion picture until the third day of shooting. Because the first day, you're just trying to get used to everything. You, you, you have a self consciousness that is actually the thing that makes it impossible for some people to do this job because they cannot show up and be themselves and transmogrify from the self-loathing creature that they wake up with every morning in the mirror and the one who has to show up on set pretending they know exactly where they are. The thing about a motion picture is you, what you are doing that day, can you cue the music one more time? All right, what you are doing that day on the very first day of shooting any motion picture, it's going to last forever. Yes. Whether it's, thank you, but thank you Stanley, whether it's Stanley Kubrick. [00:03:03] Speaker 3: Okay, so when you get the call for Toy Story 5, are you like, what's the plot? I need to see a script or are you like, where do I sign? [00:03:10] Tom Hanks: I will tell you, here's what happened, I'll walk you through the history of Toy Story. The first thing I ever saw of Toy Story 5, they took a line of outrage from Turner and Hooch, in which I was yelling at Hooch. [00:03:24] Speaker 2: Oh, no, no, no, you're eating the car. Don't eat the car, aren't that the car? Oh, what am I yelling at you for? You're a dog. [00:03:34] Tom Hanks: Are you still in touch with Hooch? You know, dogs pass away much sooner. But I will tell you that the two dogs that I worked with were magnificent creatures. And so they did that. And then I said, well, and it was Woody, but with my voice and with my anger and my angst and my Titan diaphragm. [00:03:54] Speaker 2: Oh, no, no, no, you're eating the car. Don't eat the car, aren't that the car? [00:04:01] Tom Hanks: And I said, and against just a basic blue background. So they were showing me the technology, the animation process. And I said, well, I've just never seen anything like that. Yeah. Never been done before. No, never been done before. And so literally I'm there for seven minutes and I say, great, let's do it. And then they proceeded to walk me through the entire motion picture frame by frame, storyboard by storyboard. I was there for two and a half hours and about every seven minutes I've got it, guys. I'm in. Let's do it. Well, we just want to show you this. Fine. Let's do it. So Tim Allen and I never really met because you walk into a recording studio and the doc, who is the engineer, he's on the other side of the glass. He's been there for every motion, toy story, motion picture we've ever recorded. We go into the same studio, the same team, the same microphones, I guess. Is Doc a bit of a ledge? Oh, my Lord. He is king of all he surveys. All right. So this was, okay. Can I have the music one more time? Here we go. And by the way, that first recording session was sometime in the late winter of 1991. [00:05:19] Speaker 3: Perfect. [00:05:20] Tom Hanks: Thank you. I know the music. I'm good with it. I'm good with the cue. I don't need the stripes or the beeps. Thank you. So that began this artistic liaison that I will speak for myself and maybe the other folks that were part of it. We did not know what we were. Starting. What we were contributing to. Because somewhere on the other side of this, at the time John Lasseter and all the geniuses at Pixar were just getting started. And by the time it was done and done about three and a half years later, because that's about how long it takes in order to do it all. There was just no question that some brand of new graphic art form by way of, it was as revolutionary as what Walt Disney himself did with a multi-plane camera on the animated features when they were at their absolute apex back in the day. And every time we have come back to do it again, it has been run through this gauntlet of geniuses, this escalator of excellence in which every moment of every instant, every frame has been tested again and again by a team of the best and the brightest. [00:06:42] Speaker 3: I mean, it's amazing, because it's the fifth one, but it just feels really fresh. [00:06:46] Speaker 2: And knife. Mwah! Who poisoned the maid of honour? Bleh! Bonnie! There's a package for you. Oh, thank you, thank you. Hi there, I'm Lilypad. [00:06:59] Speaker 3: It usually had all the magic in there. Toy Story 5 focuses on Jessie, played by the brilliant Joan Cusack. She's now running things, but she does call up Woody, and I've got to confess, there was that moment, like, "When's Woody coming? When's Woody coming?" Bless you, Sammy. But when he returns, he's battling issues that many men listening now will empathise with. Are you familiar, Tom, with the phrase "dad bod"? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Why are you wearing a dress, Woody? It's called a poncho, Forky. He's got a bit of a dad bod, also slightly follically challenged. [00:07:28] Tom Hanks: Well, now, I point that out to the fact that, actually, Woody is made of, essentially, cloth and thread. He's not like Buzz, that is hard-formed, vacu-sealed plastic, that the worst thing that can happen is it can crack, and it does not. Woody, however, is made of some toy version of, what, sinew and bone. You know, he ages. Yeah, yeah. Right down to, I like to say, the cradle cap of the baldness. [00:07:55] Speaker 3: Now, this Toy Story, it's fantastic, it's got everything that we love about Toy Story, it's got all the jokes, it's got the slapstick, it's got the punchy themes. Try to stay calm, Jesse. Well, as you know me, I'm the definition of calm. [00:08:04] Speaker 2: That's not going to work. It is ripped right out of today's social media and behavioural headlines. [00:08:08] Tom Hanks: Absolutely. It truly is. The threat of rejection. No, they are taking on, the toys are taking on their most formidable nemesis yet. [00:08:15] Speaker 3: The rise of tech. Hi. What the? Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. Sleep mode, you know? No? Eh, forget it. With Lillipad and the stars. It's got the punchy themes. Try to stay calm, Jesse. [00:08:25] Speaker 2: Well, as you know me, I'm the definition of calm. That's not going to work. It's not going to work. It is ripped right out of today's social media and behavioural headlines. [00:08:29] Speaker 3: With Lillipad and the little Bonnie. A screen. A screen. Bonnie gets her first device. [00:08:35] Tom Hanks: The screen that, it devours all attention and time. [00:08:40] Speaker 3: Now, Tom, parents don't like it to be pointed out when they've failed because there's a lot of guilt involved. I'm talking from first-hand experience here. That they've allowed their offspring to succumb to these devices. [00:08:50] Tom Hanks: And yet it gives you some, it gives you a half an hour at peace, doesn't it? Well, when they're little and little bit. Does it then? No, Sarah, I'm… [00:08:57] Speaker 3: I'll just say, it does it with such a beautiful light touch in the film. [00:09:00] Tom Hanks: It's an authentic struggle. Yes. That comes out because of a Toy Story movie, for crying out loud. Yet again, an aspect of our existence that Woody and Buzz and T-Rex and Bo Peep and… Slinky Dog. Slinky Dog. Slinky Dog. Slinky Dog. Slinky Dog. They all are able to touch on some aspect of presence and existence in a way because they are powered by our imagination. Which, dare I say it, no screen that we look at is powered by our own imagination. It actually tries to alter what we are imagining. Yes. [00:09:33] Speaker 3: And there lies the danger and the addiction. However, I left kind of… Danger and the addiction. [00:09:37] Tom Hanks: That's what… Can we have that? [00:09:39] Speaker 3: Do you want that for the poster? Yeah, I would like to have that. [00:09:42] Tom Hanks: Yet another expose of danger and addiction. Toy Story 5. Take the whole family. [00:09:47] Speaker 3: Now, typewriters and you, all the tech, you love them, don't you? [00:09:52] Tom Hanks: I have one back at the hotel right now. Really? I have a Corona silent that I brought with me that never ceases to produce a smile from the airport personnel. Well, that was my first question. [00:10:02] Speaker 3: It's got to be carry-on, obviously. Yeah, it's got to go through the scanner, all right? [00:10:06] Tom Hanks: It's got to go through the scanner and more… I can't tell you, almost every time the person monitoring the scan as it goes by calls, hey, oh, look at this, you know, what is this? And on an X-ray, a typewriter looks like one of the most… It looks like a diabolical device with rods and pistons in it. Of course. But all it is, all it is is a simple QWERTY keyboard. No one throws away a typewritten letter. There's… Everybody on the planet Earth will just delete an email or send it to some other netherworld where it's never be seen again. That letter, if I take care of it, will last as long as the stones of stone. Hinge. As long as you don't burn it and expose it to light, and the paper is a decent quality, what I wrote and what was written to me will be here for another 300 years, exactly as it was. And I view that as a work of art. And here's the other thing! Sarah, let's not discount the fact that there is no possibility for AI to use your typewriter to do anything. Anything that you type is coming out of that own sad brain of yours, powered by all those feelings of, you know, isolation and self-loathing. So… [00:11:22] Speaker 3: Back to Toy Story 5. You said it's the most demanding work you've done as an actor, and at the end of like a six-hour recording you have to do… Is it called the efforts? Ah, yeah, yes, they do. [00:11:31] Tom Hanks: The grunts, the moans, the climbing up the stairs, the falling off a bookcase. [00:11:36] Speaker 3: All right, are you allowed to give me woody falling off something? Are you ready? [00:11:39] Tom Hanks: Yeah, come on. Here you go. [00:11:41] Speaker 2: It goes like this. [00:11:42] Tom Hanks: Yeah, so you end up doing about, you're doing about 17 minutes of those. And then they'll pause for a little bit. And they'll say, "Could you do one where like you're trying to pull the lid off a paint can?" I know exactly when you… So here's me doing woody pulling the lid off a paint can. Ah! There, I just pulled the lid off a paint can. Can't you see that, though? I closed my eyes for a second. And that's the type of direction that they give you on the other side of the glass. [00:12:21] Speaker 3: Very quickly, because you have got to go, but I just couldn't… I guess. Do I have to go, crack staff? All right, all right. I couldn't not read this to you because it just really touched me. So, Drew has emailed, says, "Those who know our family will be aware that my little boys, Logan and Liam, didn't speak at all for the first five years. Logan's now 12 and Liam's 10. Both are bright as a button, but not that communicative. They know all the words, but a bit like Eric Markham, he's not always using them in the right order." I don't know if you know that reference. [00:12:52] Tom Hanks: Yeah, I do indeed. Yes, yes. [00:12:54] Speaker 3: Toy Story has been really important to them and their vocal and social development. Woody was one of Logan's first words and he watched the original trilogy so many times he can act out every scene. When, age five, Mummy starts to play some Randy Newman, as I said earlier, my little Logan doesn't say very much at all. He started to sing, "You've got a friend in me." Boy, you got a friend in me. And I lost it. I was in bits, in absolute floods. So, there you have it. Hundreds of viewings over three years later and neither of us are bored of any of these remarkable movies. Their ability to educate, to entertain and emote is something very, very special indeed. And that's from Drew. [00:13:40] Tom Hanks: Drew. Oh my. Look at the power of cinema on its own, but also look at what is garnered by the returning again and again to a feeling that perhaps you cannot verbalize. And literally, we don't know, we can't necessarily state the nirvana or the education or the curiosity or the wonder that we experience on a one-on-one basis watching any sort of movie that moves us deeply. But to have a magical story told by this fantastic art form of flickering images and sound, it almost does not matter what goes on in the rest of the world because when you are sitting there, invested in the contract between the storyteller and the audience, it's one of the most profound and powerful things in, I think, the history of mankind. [00:14:42] Speaker 3: So would you be able to say hello to Logan and Liam in your best woody, please, Tom? [00:14:48] Tom Hanks: Just wait a minute. Tom, could you just give us a greeting to Logan and Liam? Liam. Ask them. Sure. In three, two, one. Oh my gosh, it's Logan and Liam. Hey guys. Welcome to Andy's room. We have a special spot for visitors like you. You know, normally when you would walk in, we would all lay around like this with this toy. But because you're here, we want to play with you here. You sit here. Liam, you sit here. Logan, you sit here. I'll be here. Jessie will be here. Buzz. Buzz, why don't you go back and make an entrance a little bit later. Okay, guys. Stand by. Liam and Logan are going to play with us now. Let's all begin. All right, guys. We're all yours. Starting now. [00:15:35] Speaker 3: Oh my gosh. Tom Hanks. Thank you for being the first guest on the Sarah Cox Breakfast Show. [00:15:41] Tom Hanks: Can you play the music again? Just one more time. Yeah. Thank you. There's a time when all the stars align. Where the moon and the earth and the sun form a straight line of cosmic brilliance. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen regularly. Regularly like the Sarah Cox Morning Breakfast Show on the BBC. [00:16:11] Speaker 3: Can you say on BBC Radio 2? Oh, I meant to say BBC Radio 2. Big difference, eh?