But those things were just on the surface.
Thats kind of the central question I get all the time.
Is this guy for real?
Credit: John Beale/Focus Features
Is he really that way?
And my answer is, yes, Neville says.
Hes not only who he is on television, hes actually even better in real life.
Jim Judkis/Focus Features
Here are some of the items that tell the story of Americas favorite neighbor.
I mean, it almost doesnt seem possible or real, Neville says.
It makes you kind of stop and think, Is that something people can do?
Lynn Johnson/Focus Features
But its a window into his incredible willpower.
I mean, he was a man of incredible routine.
Hed wake up at 5 a.m. and read the Bible every morning, often in Hebrew or Greek.
Focus Features
He would go to the Pittsburgh Athletic Club and swim a mile every morning.
He just had this very kind of almost monkish lifestyle.
Its easy to fly off the handle.
Robert Lerner/Library of Congress
then it cant control you.
In the film, theres a sepia-toned image of the childrens TV star as a heavyset young boy.
And he also never gave in to the urge to aggrandize himself by bullying others.
The Erlanger Family
THE DANIEL STRIPED TIGER PUPPET
It was a lonely childhood, Neville says of Fred Rogers upbringing.
I think he made friends with himself as much as he could.
That the director says is what inspired the famed puppets in the Land of Make Believe.
And shed given him this puppet and he named it after her, Daniel.
But it was a commercially purchased puppet.
Later, whenMister Rogers Neighborhoodbecame a phenomenon, that toymaker took issue with the furry costar.
When he started to get known, that company said, You cant use that.
You have to make your own.
In one such letter, he expressed deep doubts about his skills as a writer.
Am I kidding myself that Im able to write a script again?
… After all these years, its just as bad as ever.
I wonder if every creative artist goes through the tortures of the damned trying to create.
It was a memo, Neville says.
It was in 1979, and hes a tortured artist at this point.
I mean, its extraordinary that he had that level of doubt.
He had been on television for 25 years.
The point of writing it to himself was just to get the thought out.
How often do doubts and anxiety linger simply because we are afraid to confront them?
I think he really tried to be in touch with his own feelings, Neville says.
When he did this to the boss, Rogers never reacted.
Never said a word, almost as if it didnt happen.
I think the film actually gets a PG-13 rating because of that, Neville says.
He could enjoy an R-rated joke, too.
But he couldnt tell them.
Johnny was a really salty character, hard-drinking, off-color, and Fred loved him.
Hed say, Johnny, tell them that joke.
Fred would never repeat anything.
Fred often said that was his favorite moment of the show.
He looked at people as humans first and our physical condition second.
Erlanger died in 2007 at age 36 due to complications from his lifelong health issues.
He outlived Mister Rogers by only four years.
It is so odd that theyre…sitting around singing songs to each other.
But its so emblematic of what Fred did, Neville says.
Thats why the film is so oddly touching in this day and age.
And those things are the things that feel under threat.
Wont You Be My Neighbor?is in theaters nationwide this weekend.
