Director Daniel Roher with stars Dustin Hoffman, Leo Woodall and Lior Raz dish on favorite moments working with each other while filming 'Tuner' at THR's TIFF suite at the 1 Hotel in Toronto. Raz and Woodall praise working with Hoffman and share their insights gained from the experience while Roher paints a portrait of the moment.
00:01Did you have any of these folks in mind when you started working on this movie?
00:07And or how did you convince Dustin to do this?
00:10Because I have to imagine maybe he was.
00:11I was his third choice.
00:13Al Pacino said no.
00:14Okay.
00:15Robert De Niro said no.
00:16Okay.
00:17Jeff Bridges said no.
00:18Oh, fourth choice.
00:19No.
00:20They say that you're not supposed to write movies for actors in mind because they'll always break your heart.
00:25That's like a screenwriting trope or convention.
00:27I ignored it.
00:28I wrote one role in this movie for one specific actor, and that was Dustin.
00:32I never thought in a million years he'd actually want to do it.
00:35Unbeknownst to me at the time, this man, when he was a little boy, grew up as a piano, jazz-loving little guy.
00:43So he read the screenplay, struck a chord, right?
00:46No pun intended.
00:47No pun intended.
00:49And he, you know, it resonated in that way.
00:53It only would for musical people.
00:55And he read it and he loved it.
00:56And I made an odyssey to London to go and have an audience with him.
01:01He flew.
01:02That's true.
01:03From L.A. to London.
01:06At my own expense, I might add.
01:08And is that how he won you over?
01:09Or were you already won over?
01:10Well, I knew it was a really well-written script by someone who had researched piano.
01:19It's called Tuner.
01:20And he talked about the art of tuning, which I didn't have a clue, even though I played all my life, in terms of the intricacies of it.
01:30And then when I met him, I realized that he wasn't fucking around.
01:37You can print that, right?
01:38I sure can.
01:38Were you too nervous to work with someone of Dustin's stature?
01:50And if so, did you tell him that you were?
01:55No.
01:55No, no, no, no.
01:56No.
01:56No.
01:57Yeah, I think we could both agree.
01:59As everyone on the cast would be all terrified, but also, you know, knew that it was kind of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work with.
02:09Especially at my age, it's once-in-a-lifetime.
02:11Yeah, yeah.
02:14If he waits 20 years, next time it's...
02:17I think you've got another 20 in you?
02:18That's the question.
02:21Yeah, I mean, look, day one of working with Dusty was really scary.
02:28It was in my head, but then after a while, you know, he's very sweet, he's very generous, and just incredibly fun to act with.
02:37And, you know, you only get the opportunity once, and so you don't want to waste it by getting in your own way.
02:46So it ended up just being a glorious, glorious experience.
02:51These are the kind of answers you get every time you have these.
02:54I'm reading it off the table.
02:55I've got a little cue card there.
02:57Did you pick up any tips or tricks or habits from him?
03:02Yes.
03:03Yes, many.
03:04It's the only...
03:05I now know a fact.
03:06A lot of them have to do with my age.
03:09In other words, wherever the scene is, the bathroom has to be within 10 seconds of walking.
03:14Essential.
03:15Essential.
03:17No, I would say, truthfully, you know, improvising, you know, you always do a bit of improvising, you know, unless you're doing Shakespeare or something.
03:27But, you know, we had a scene that was that long, you know, on the page, and we did a 20-minute take in the truck.
03:37And if you'd told me that that's what we were going to be doing, I would have, you know, I would have quit and not wanted to expose myself that way.
03:47It was the most fun to do.
03:47Yeah.
03:47It was the most fun I've ever, ever had acting.
03:53And so it gave me more confidence.
03:55Did you know before the take that you were going to roll that long?
03:57Or did it just keep going and you're like, whoa, we'll still...
03:59No, that's what he does.
04:00He just, he starts a story and then it...
04:02I come from documentary too, so it's...
04:04Yeah, and also, yeah, Daniel, you know, his field is...
04:08My vocation is making docs, so there's no cutting, there's no takes, it's just you keep going.
04:13And so I got them in the chair, to the finest actors of their generation, respectively.
04:18And thank you.
04:20Get a close-up on that.
04:22I'm just doing a little doodling.
04:22That's where you guys...
04:23There you go.
04:24He's an artist.
04:25So good.
04:26But, yeah, we just went and we went and we...
04:28And, you know, I'd shout stuff out and I'd say, Dustin, remember that thing you were telling me about yesterday about how it's not cholesterol we have to worry about, it's inflammation?
04:35And he remembered and, you know...
04:38I really like that kind of filmmaking where it's just, we're just coming up with it, we're riffing, we're seeing what the moment delivers to us.
04:44Dustin is, that's his forte, stressed the hell out of Leo, I think, right?
04:49At the beginning, yeah.
04:50Yeah, at the beginning.
04:51Yeah, 100%.
04:51But we were on DH time and we had to acclimate to the time difference, but we got there.
04:58The time difference?
04:59Yeah, we got there.
05:00There's two types of directors.
05:03One, they don't love actors.
05:09They can't wait to get in the cutting room where there are no more actors.
05:13Or there's this guy who splits the directing with the actor and wants more than anything to have a merge between us.
05:25And at that, I don't think I've ever worked with anybody better.
05:30And I say that.
05:32I want to say one thing.
05:34I got a compliment.
05:37My wife read me a line out of a review that I read.
05:42And they said I knocked it out of the park.
05:45He knocked it out of the park.
05:47I have never worked with anybody, especially on his first film, who knew how to cast, who knew how to direct, who knew, well, part of the, I'll share part of the reason it looks so good is I think his DP is a friend for years.
06:03And it just had an intuitive sense of what it's all about.
06:07I've not had this experience before.
06:10That's crazy.
06:11You're going to cry?
06:11That's crazy.
06:13No, no, no, no.
06:14Are you kidding?
06:15No, are you kidding?
06:15Really? First time?
06:17Never.
06:17Get out of here.
06:18I had the opportunity to improvise in my own language that the director don't understand.
06:24Yeah.
06:24So.
06:25Yeah.
06:25Sure, you guys were resting.
06:26That was great.
06:27Did you throw anything in there?
06:28Oh, yeah.
06:28A lot.
06:29A lot.
06:30Did you?
06:31Yeah, we had it all translated.
06:33I was like, wow, they're really on one.
06:34Later on.
06:35Do you agree that in terms of a first-time director, I've been amazing.
06:39Thanks, guys.
06:39Thanks, guys.
06:40I don't know.
06:41And also.
06:42No, I'm not.
06:42I'm not sorry.
06:43The atmosphere on set was amazing because it was, like, very family-style movie.
06:49His father, mother, every day went to the set with food and everything.
06:53It was, like, an amazing experience, I think, for all of us.
06:56This is from Israel, and I asked him, doing these junkets, is it similar to what this?
07:02He says, no, no, no.
07:02This is a whole thing.
07:03It's too fancy for Israel.
07:04He's really used to stand outside in the desert and ask his question, walk away.
07:09A theme from this movie, obviously, is, like, your character kind of wrestling with the
07:13thing he thought he was going to do, be a piano player, that's not available to him.
07:17Have you guys ever thought about what you would do if you weren't an actor?
07:20Or did you ever have, like, a backup gig in the back of your head?
07:25I would be a ranger, for sure.
07:28Yeah.
07:28You got the strangest tough guy.
07:30A ranger?
07:30A very tough guy.
07:31He's kind of a ranger.
07:32A ranger just to help people in the nature, you know, with my team.
07:35Like a park ranger.
07:36Park ranger.
07:36Yeah.
07:37For sure.
07:38Oh, I thought you were talking about music.
07:39Really?
07:40Yeah.
07:40I climbed a tree.
07:42Oh, and Bridget Jones.
07:43Climbed a tree.
07:44Bridget Jones.
07:44You were a sexy ranger.
07:46Yeah.
07:46I'd be a PE teacher.
07:49A what?
07:50I'd be a PE teacher.
07:52It means I'd play sport all day.
07:55What's her name?
07:57The woman who had that, she wrote a book years ago, had a great affinity with animals.
08:04Jane Goodall.
08:05Yes.
08:06Yes.
08:06I would like to be Jane Goodall.
08:08Very good.
08:09I mean, how can you have a job better than that?
08:12What is the most insane or extreme location in which you've filmed something?
08:18TV show, movie?
08:20I filmed a scene.
08:23I did a movie where we went around the world and we filmed in two different African tribes
08:32where we got to use their village.
08:35And, you know, the payment was a donkey or something.
08:43Yeah.
08:43We're in Africa.
08:44Tanzania, Botswana, and Namibia.
08:49That was quite literally wild.
08:52Yeah.
08:52And they paid you with a donkey?
08:54No, no, no.
08:55The production paid them to use their home.
08:57I was now in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan in a show for Netflix, a new one.
09:04It was an amazing experience because we were in a, it was off-road.
09:09So we're driving off-road, meet people.
09:10We were sleeping in their tents, in their yurts.
09:13It was an amazing experience.
09:15Do you have one, Dustin?
09:17It's got to be Ishtar.
09:20Ishtar?
09:20The most amazing place you've ever filmed.
09:22Well, I was going to say The Godfather, but then I, that was Al Pacino.
09:32We can rewrite history here.
09:33Hold on.
09:34I have one.
09:35What's yours?
09:35Very quickly.
09:36The northernmost community in North America, it's this town that's a thousand miles north
09:43of the Arctic Circle called Gris Fjord.
09:46Say that again?
09:47Gris Fjord.
09:47It's the northernmost town.
09:49Like a fjord.
09:49Fjord, yeah.
09:50And in September, when the seasons are changing, the sunsets and the sunrises last three and
09:56a half hours.
09:57So you're sitting there in golden light for like four hours and it's like you're looking
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