LOS ANGELES — As Tom Hanks researched his role as Walt Disney for “Saving Mr. Banks,” he found he was never at a loss for source material.
Richard Sherman, who with his late brother Robert wrote the Oscar- winning songs for the musical “Mary Poppins,” was “a never-ending, literally never-ending, fountain of stories, facts, anecdotes of everything that had happened,” Hanks said.
He already had picked up one story: “Walt’s cough —Walt smoked three packs a day. I was told, ‘You always knew when Walt was coming for a visit, you heard him coughing down by the elevator.’”
And “Diane Disney Miller” — Walt’s daughter who died just weeks ago — “gave me unlimited access to archives in San Francisco. I had a lot of video and audio.”
The filmmakers were keen on getting the Disney details right. That trademark mustache, for example: “The most discussed, diagrammed, analyzed mustache on the planet. I think we went to the U.S. government about the angle.”
And there was “a vocal cadence and rhythm that Mr. Disney had that took a while to figure out,” he said.
“Saving Mr. Banks” is a behind-the-scenes saga about the turmoil Disney endured trying to convince reluctant “Mary Poppins” creator P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson) to sell him the film rights in 1962.
“Banks” already has generated unexpected positive buzz in a crowded holiday field for its comedic clash of two titans, merry music-making and high spirits.
It was the heyday of Disney.
“Walt Disney at this time is already the accomplished artist-industrialist he was. Because he spent every Saturday with his two daughters, he ran out of things to do,” Hanks said.
“So he thought there really should be a place where dads can take their daughters on a Saturday. That’s where Disneyland came from.”
Disney didn’t lack for confidence, Hanks added.
“He believed everything he said about his projects, about the movies he was going to make as well as the rides he was going to build.”
“Saving Mr. Banks” opens Friday.
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