Marc Forster Reveals How To Make Tom Hanks A Believable Grump In ‘A Man Called Otto’

A Man Called Otto has been quietly making its mark at the box office over the first two phases of its domestic release in theaters.

Fuelled by decent reviews and strong word of mouth in limited release, the acclaimed dramedy pulled in a terrific $6,593 per location average during the second weekend of the three-step release. Otto’s total gross now stands at $5.8 million. It has grossed over $8.4 million internationally. Now, in the final phase, the adaptation goes wide domestically.

Tom Hanks, Hollywood’s Mr. Nice Guy, plays Otto, a widowed curmudgeon whose life is turned upside down by a young family who moves into his cul-de-sac. It’s a remake of a 2015 Swedish movie, A Man Called Ove, based on the similarly titled 2012 novel.

A Man Called Otto is directed by Marc Forster. I caught up with him to discuss the film, getting Hanks to flex his comedic muscles again and finding the perfect location on Google Earth.

Simon Thompson: Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson saw the original and read the book, so they came to this very aware of the material. How much of that had you consumed?

Marc Forster: I read the book initially and really loved it. That made me cry and laugh. I saw the original movie, and it had the same effect and said to myself that the film needed to be told on a greater, more universal platform. The great thing about Otto is that it has this almost Shakespearean figure you can do in every country and language, and the story has a similar quality. It would work everywhere because, as cliched as it sounds, everybody knows an Otto and has one in their life.

Thompson: American versions of European or foreign language movies and texts aren’t always successful. There’s often something in the DNA that is lost in translation. When you came into this, what did you see as the potential pitfalls and hurdles in that respect?

Forster: (Laughs) That is true. It was very important for me to stick closely to the book’s source material. It was so successful and had so many fans that it was essential to ensure we captured that. This version also takes some inspiration from the Swedish movie but Americanizing it was actually very organic in this story. A life-affirming film of a community coming together feels familiar to any culture because we are social beings. The adaptation was a bit more tricky for me at the beginning because medicine is socialized in Europe, and in America, that is different. That’s where the real estate part of the story came in, and we had to ensure it was messaged correctly. All the characters jumped off the page organically.

Thompson: It occurred to me that the rest of the world has experienced this Swedish story with subtitles on the big screen, but now it is the time for Sweden to get a version of this story with the subtitles. That’s a unique experience as a filmmaker.

Forster: (Laughs) Yes, it is. That’s funny. I haven’t even thought about that. I like that idea, though. Sometimes you see these films dubbed, but that is funny, yes.

Thompson: Tom Hanks returns to his comedy roots with this but it’s a lot darker and drier. How did you work with Tom to find that balance? How easy was it for him to adjust his comedy muscles to this tone?

Forster: Tom Hanks is the greatest actor I’ve ever worked with. He’s one of the greatest actors alive today. Tom did a lot of comedy in the 80s with Splash and Big and all those movies and then became a very serious dramatic actor. He last did comedy, especially physical comedy, a long time ago, and this is a combination of his dramatic and comedic chops. Combining them is just a delight. Everybody says He’s a nice man in Hollywood, and he truly is. He comes to set in the morning, he sits there in a meditational state, and then you start shooting. I like to explore things, and he’s always open and ready to have fun in a very focused way. It’s like working with a great violinist where you listen to their notes, and then I say, ‘Oh, can we play the concerto a little bit upbeat or downbeat.’ It’s beautiful to experience, and it doesn’t get any better than that.

Thompson: What was the creative language you and Tom shared that brought it all together for you?

Forster: We had this very similar set of sensibilities. I like everything to be real and underplayed and not too slapsticky, but in this case, because we go to a darker place, we can go a little bit down that slapstick road too. A lot of it is him massaging the movie. You have this play between the dark and the light, and then you have the same between the present and flashbacks. We had to weave flashbacks into the present day so that it doesn’t disconnect, especially as we used Truman Hanks, Tom’s son, to play a younger version of Otto. The reason we used him, someone who is not an actor, was to make sure that that it felt embedded and you’re not taken out of the movie.

Thompson: You mention Truman not being an actor. He’s more comfortable on the other side of the camera, so what were the conversations you had with him to persuade him to step in front of it?

Forster: Yeah, his parents thought he wouldn’t want to do it, but I said, ‘Why don’t you sit down with him and talk to him?’ We had a good conversation, and he felt very comfortable and then said yes. For me, it was essential to make him feel warm and welcome. Rachel Keller, who plays Sonya opposite him, relaxed him and said, ‘You can just be yourself in front of the camera. It’s nothing to worry about. It just can be.’

Thompson: Tom played Mr. Rogers a few years ago, someone who wants to help everybody. Now he’s playing Otto, who initially doesn’t want to help anyone. He wants to be left alone and for people to do as they’re told. Did you discuss how those characters are the yin to each other’s yang?

Forster: (Laughs) We didn’t, but that’s a great observation. I hadn’t thought about that before. The funny thing is that there were moments when I said, ‘Tom, you’re playing that slightly too nice. We need to grump it up a little bit.’ Otto also has a sound, a growl, when he disapproves of something, and Tom came up with that. I fell in love with it and ran with it. In ADR, I said, ‘Look, we need some more of these growls.’ he doesn’t even need to say that he thinks everyone is an idiot; he makes this sound. I felt that because Tom is so liked by everyone and comes across as so sympathetic, it was important to me to ensure he was grumpy enough.

Thompson: How much of this was filmed on location versus being created on soundstages? How difficult was it to find that perfect street? Because it works in the flashbacks as well as it works in the modern day.

Forster: We filmed in Pittsburgh. Our location manager showed us a couple of locations, and then Barbara Ling, our production designer, said to me, ‘I don’t think these locations work,’ and I agreed with her. The location is another character of the movie, so she started looking at Google Earth, checking out cul de sacs locations, and found this one. The next day, just from an aerial view, she found this street, so we went there, and it was perfect. We can put a gate at the end to close it up and paint the street, and the person who had purchased that street three months before, his wife’s favorite actor, is Tom Hanks, so that helped negotiations. We shot most of it there, but some interiors were built on stages.

Thompson: Was anybody living on that street at the time? How did they feel about a Hollywood movie landing in their quiet neighborhood?

Forster: They loved it because also Tom was talking to everybody. He seemed so lovely and respectful that they didn’t mind at all. They really enjoyed us being there.

Thompson: I loved the evolution of Otto, where he grew more warm-hearted. The pace of that is really important in this movie. How did you stagger that through the performance, or was it something you found in post from the takes?

Forster: I think we got it absolutely right in the edit. We massaged it and went back and forth to get the rhythm right. With this character, with all the flashbacks, the comedy, and the drama, getting the tone right in this movie looks very easy, but it’s like when you watch Roger Federer play tennis, and he wins Wimbledon. That looks easy, but it takes a lot of work.

Thompson: You were saying that Tom is one of the favorite people you’ve ever worked with. As a piece of work, and your oeuvre is very wide-ranging, where does this fit for you as a thing that you are either most proud of or gave you the most as a filmmaker?

Forster: I loved that I’ve brought my skill set together as a filmmaker here, from a dramatic and a comedic standpoint. I loved making movies like Stranger Than Fiction and The Kite Runner; we blend the humor and drama here. It’s really who I am, and that’s why I enjoyed making this movie so much.

Thompson: Talking about your other work, Quantum of Solace has been getting more appreciation and respect in the last few years as people have revisited it. It’s taken longer than it should have, but how does that feel?

Forster: For me, that movie was always very special. It was hard to follow Casino Royale because it was based on Ian Fleming’s best book and had a fantastic script. It was fun. Finally, Bond got emotional and went into a straight sequel, starting on Lake Garda into Quantum of Solace with no book, and it was truly about revenge. It was more like a 70s action movie, with very fast pacing, and I had this idea about the water because I thought there would be an issue of the future. I thought it would be a great thing to have a villain who pretends to be green but isn’t. Looking back at it, you know, there are some things I would have changed and some things I would have added storywise, but overall, I’m still pretty pleased with the movie.

Thompson: Are you and Tom talking about working together again? You obviously clicked on Otto.

Forster: I would love that, and I believe he would as well, but we haven’t spoken about it yet. I would love that.

A Man Called Otto lands in theaters nationwide on Friday, January 13, 2023