Leo Woodall and Havana Rose Liu Interview: Tuner Cast React To Dustin Hoffman’s Bobblehead

Añadido: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]It's the eternal question. It was not without difficulty. Yeah, I cried.

[00:00:04]>> [laughter] >> First of all, Leo, I got to know, um, was it weird having a Dustin Hoffman bobblehead staring at you for a good portion of the film?

[00:00:15]>> [laughter] >> Uh, it was weird having weird having the real life Dustin Hoffman, you know, looking at me. I think that was that was very surreal thing. I tried to I think I tried to steal that bobblehead, but I think Dustin Dustin got first dibs. Damn it.

[00:00:28]>> Unfair.

[00:00:29]They should have made extras. They should have made extras.

[00:00:32]So, the character Nikki, you know, silence brings him peace and focus.

[00:00:36]What's a sound that brings each of you some peace and calmness? Ocean. Um.

[00:00:41]Like Yeah. I I If I if I got to sleep with with sleep sounds, it's like either sort of running water.

[00:00:48]>> sleep sounds? Sometimes, yeah. Maybe.

[00:00:51]>> [snorts] >> Um, I feel like No, like like >> [laughter] >> like nursery rhymes or something.

[00:00:57]No, I think it's actually a beautiful thing. The idea of you going to sleep with the ocean sound.

[00:01:02]>> [laughter] >> Um, just imagining whales.

[00:01:06]Yes, I love the ocean and I love bird song. I think it's like being in nature listening to birds. I think there's like someone said there was an actual um, chemical thing of like feeling like your environment is healthy because you can hear birds and so it makes you feel peaceful. And that that that that's peaceful in the morning. When you wake up, you hear the birds chirping.

[00:01:26]And like um, tree leaves, like wind in tree Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's it, rustling. It's when when you feel like you're part of nature, right? I feel like that's what it is.

[00:01:34]That's true. Both of you spent a lot of time, obviously, around pianos, uh, you know, different aspects, playing, taking them apart. What's one thing that you learned about pianos that maybe you didn't know before? They are far more I knew that I knew that it was a complicated instrument, but they're far more intricate and complicated and there are so many and this is I mean I learned this from trying to learn how to play piano, but from the from the tuning part as well.

[00:02:01]There's just you open it up. It's just so much going on.

[00:02:05]Yeah.

[00:02:06]>> So much going on. It's a salad in there.

[00:02:08]Mhm. But it sort of looks like a giant harp as well, which I didn't expect.

[00:02:12]Like there's so much Yeah, it's it's a lot harder than I thought is one thing I learned. Also, we had amazing teachers who I think really gave us a lot of the poetry of loving that instrument. Like the fact that it feels like a giant harp inside or feels like um there's so many different ways to play the instrument. I think it just there was a lot of learning to do. Big learning curve. Mhm.

[00:02:33]Well, you you both learned how to play the piano and and certain motifs and songs, but how difficult was it to not only play that, but also focus on, "Okay, I'm being filmed in a scene doing this. I also need to worry about blocking and all these other things."

[00:02:49]How difficult was that to not only focus on the actual playing, but all the other elements?

[00:02:55]Yes, it is.

[00:02:55]>> Like the eternal question. It was without difficulty. Yeah, I cried.

[00:03:00]>> [laughter] >> End of end of the answer. No, >> [laughter] >> I cried. I cried. I mean, it was so scary. It was so scary, and it's such a it's such an important part of the film, and if it doesn't work, that key element, then I think it you lose the thing that they're most passionate about. So, it felt like a big responsibility, I think, for both of us to hold that tightly and and give it a lot of care and and make sure that we were doing it as honestly as possible.

[00:03:26]I couldn't say it any better than that.

[00:03:28]I mean, outside the piano playing, though, a lot of the relationship between you two is is is yes, based on music, but was there a scene that you felt connected to each other or your characters felt connected to each other maybe outside of music?

[00:03:42]I uh I think that they both connected in a way that um through through different circumstances and reasons they they both have been kind of rejecting getting too close with people romantically. Um and something about that kind of opposites attracting or something something something something I think was was a kind of instant click with them and made them pretty similar.

[00:04:21]Mhm. See, this is why you should have gone first.

[00:04:23]>> No, I like that. That was basically what I was going to say. They're both very lonely, I think, in a deep way because of >> their own reasons of self-isolation, but I also think they also have a really strong relationship to the older people in their life.

[00:04:36]Um Ruthie has a strong relationship with her grandmother who has just passed, and you have such a strong relationship with Dustin Hoffman characters in To All the Boys, so I feel like they have this sort of like grandparent energy. Yeah. Um a timelessness to the way that they relate to the world that I think makes them very compatible. What was a note that Daniel gave each of you that either changed the way you saw a scene, changed the way you saw your character? Was there anything that maybe he said in between takes that that changed something?

[00:05:01]No, cuz I remember him saying um Okay, Leo, now I need sad boy.

[00:05:07]>> [laughter] >> But we I think what was what was beautiful about working with Daniel was that there was a a shorthand that was discovered pretty early.

[00:05:19]Um and I I'll I'll only speak for myself. I feel like that we we we knew what we wanted from each other, and um it just it felt like >> [clears throat] >> Yeah, it just felt like something had clicked with with with us.

[00:05:39]I think he is so smart and so good and knows knows what he wants, um isn't afraid to say it and and and you know, will you know, really chop that jungle down to kind of get get to where he needs to be and get a scene where it needs to be.

[00:06:02]Um and it was it was very collaborative and and and special. And Anna, what about you? Was there anything that Daniel said to you that that changed the way you saw something? All the time. I mean, the coolest thing about, I think, in my perspective, one of the coolest things about working with Daniel was that he had such an acceptance of like a beginner's mindset because he had never done narrative filmmaking before in this way. And so I remember from day one, you know, I've told the story, but he he we walked onto set and um I just had come to do offlines for a scene that was all Nikki based and um they call out, "Okay, blocking rehearsal."

[00:06:40]And Daniel like looked around very confused and then turned to us and goes, "What's blocking?"

[00:06:45]What's [snorts] happening? What's blocking? What's happening? What's blocking? And >> [laughter] >> and and then we explained it. He like, "Oh, okay, this is interesting. This is going to be really interesting." And I feel like that kind of mindset of we don't know what any day is going to be like. We don't know actually what the scene needs to be and we'll figure it out and he'll just throw random sprinkles on in order to figure out what we need. And that that sort of freedom of not having to know all the answers in that way, I think, was really a kind of like a constant process of discovery. Mhm.

[00:07:15]Uh Leo, I was when I when I asked what makes, you know, what sound makes you calm, I'm surprised you didn't say the roar of Stamford Bridge.

[00:07:22]Um [laughter] Honestly though, I did think about it while Anna was talking about birds. I was thinking, "Maybe like some it would be >> [laughter] >> sound of a crowd of football." Well, cuz as you said, I got uh my Liverpool sign behind me. I know we play you guys on on Saturday.

[00:07:39]Big match for Champions League qualification.

[00:07:41]>> We have uh We have I think it's we've lost eight straight games without scoring a goal.

[00:07:46]So, well, we scored one goal. So, maybe it's not like the most peaceful set for you right now.

[00:07:51]>> not right now. It's a pretty pretty sad set. But before I go, I I I do need to know when you walk on set, what was the vibe like? What are you seeing? What are you hearing? Take Take me behind the scenes a bit about what the set of Tuners like.

[00:08:07]I mean, >> [clears throat] >> it was honestly it was different in in a lot of in in three ways. There was the you know, the days where it was Havana and me.

[00:08:19]Um and that was always you know, we would it would be sort of filled with giggles and and just like laughter and fun. And you know, maybe some stress sometimes, but a lot a lot of it was just sort of sweet. And then there would be the the wild sets with Leo and Gil and and Eson doing all the high stuff.

[00:08:42]That was really fun. And then there was just the the days where Dustin Hoffman was on set. And that was like a very surreal kind of special different environment.

[00:08:54]So, yeah, it depends who's there really, but the Dustin days were were yeah, some of my favorite. Chef's kiss.

[00:09:02]Yeah.

[00:09:02]>> Ah, amazing. Well, thank you both so much for your time. Such a pleasure meeting you both and I'm I'm really excited for people to to see this film, laugh, cry, you know, everything. So, thank you both so much for your time.

[00:09:12]Thank you both.

[00:09:16]>> [music] [music]