Writer-director Paul Greengrass’ latest masterpiece is the Western, News of the World, which arrives in theaters on December 25. The film, adapted from a novel of the same name, follows a Civil War veteran (Tom Hanks) on his quest to return a young girl (Helena Zengel) to her family.
Greengrass spoke to Screen Rant about the rare and perfect chemistry between his stars, and why they were each the right choice for their respective parts.
You can never go wrong when you're working with Tom Hanks, but why was he suited to play Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd?
Paul Greengrass: Captain Kidd is a news reader, and he wanders around Texas in 1870 in the shadow of the Civil War, and he carries a sack full on newspapers. And he goes from small community to small community. For anybody who's got a nickel, he'll read the news: local stories in an old barn, federal stories in a dusty Town Square, stories from far, far away.
It's just a great character, because he's got a broken heart, and he's got a mystery to him. He meets this mysterious young girl, Johanna, and he has to try and take her home to her surviving family. This odyssey through the landscape of Texas in 1870 is really a journey in search of belonging. How do we escape division? How do we find our way beyond bitterness, beyond pandemic, beyond all the difficulties that assailed those characters then, but feel very familiar to us today.
And in the end, it's about the healing power of storytelling, and the the healing power of belonging. When I read the novel, Paulette Jiles' News of the World, I knew I wanted to make a film of it. And Tom was just literally perfect for the part. Truly, literally perfect.
Somebody else that was perfect for their role was Helena Zengel. It can be difficult to work with children, and that script is a daunting task for anybody. Can you talk to me about why she was the right choice?
Paul Greengrass: Absolutely. It's funny, when you start on a film, you always have a sense of what your big challenges and your big difficulties are. What the big rocks are ahead of you. And obviously in this one, I remember saying, "Where are we going to find this 11 year old girl who can act as well as Tom Hanks, who can convey this incredibly difficult part?" As you say, she has to convey it all in her eyes. And that's a heck of a challenge.
I knew she had to be German, because the child would have been German in the novel. There were a lot of Germans who came to Texas in search of cheap land or free land. I thought, "This is going to take months and months and months." As it turned out, it was the easiest decision of the entire film. Gail Mutrux, one of the producers, said to me, "Have you seen the film System Crasher that won the prize at Berlin the other week?" "No, I'm really looking forward to seeing it." She said, "I've got a copy. I'll send it to you."
I watched it that night. Helena is magnificent in that film; absolutely magnificent. I said I must meet her. She came over with her mother the next week, and we spent the day together. Her mother filmed her, and we did some workshopping and played some scenes. I said, literally after about six hours, "Well, she's Johanna." In fact, it's very strange, because after we spent four or five hours, I said, "By the way, do you ride horses? Are you comfortable around horses." "I love horses," she said. "I love horses! I've got my own horse." This is just absolutely made.
She got the part, but you never know with a young child. She's 11 years old, how is she going to be when you turn over? When you're on set, when it's difficult, when we're doing all this stuff. The first day, we shot the scene where they meet in the woods at the beginning of the movie. I felt very stressed inside, and I was trying not to convey it, of course, because you never know how it's really going to be. We turned over, and in the first tak or two, Tom came up to tell us, "She is magnificent."
It was just strange; after about an hour, all the anxiety just fell away. I literally never thought about Helena from that moment, as a potential, "Could she, would she, might she?" She was just brilliant, and they had a rare chemistry. They told the story effortlessly. It was just a very rare thing, and a privilege to watch it him.
