In “Tuner,” Leo Woodall plays Niki, an expert piano tuner with acutely sensitive hearing that is sometimes debilitating — in fact, it’s one reason Niki hasn’t chased his dreams of being a pianist. But it’s perfect for his profession and he finds out that it’s perfect for safecracking too. But Niki gets in too deep with a gang of thieves even as he becomes involved in a lovely relationship with gifted musician and composer Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu). Oscar-winning documentarian Daniel Roher (“Nalavany”) takes viewers on a thrill ride centered on a rare condition. Dustin Hoffman plays Niki’s humorously crusty mentor. The film screens Sept. 5 in Toronto after bowing in Telluride.
Woodall, who is in Toronto to support the film and is also shooting “Vladimir” there, spoke to Variety about “Tuner.”
What attracted you to this role?
It was one of those scripts where you kind of blitz through it — you have to know what’s on the next page. And you can see the film, you can really visualize the film. I loved the pacing of it. I loved Niki being someone who has a serious passion, talent and kind of purpose in playing the piano that is taken away from him because of his hearing condition. I think one of the questions that it raised in me was, if I couldn’t be an actor, what on Earth would I be? What would I do? Who would I be? And so that was kind of how I instantly related to Niki.
How did you approach the unusual condition of the character?
The first port of call for me was talking to someone with hyperacusis. And Daniel had already had conversations with a guy called Alex who’d had hyperacusis. I heard Alex’s story, how it affected his life, his relationships, his work, and he was just very, very open and honest with me, which I was incredibly grateful for. And I hadn’t heard of this condition until reading the script.
Niki looks more like a car mechanic than a man with say a refined background in music.
I think what really interested me about Nikki was that Daniel hadn’t written him as this typical concert pianist and at the end of the day, his passion is jazz. Maybe where the shift was in making him this kind of mechanic looking-type with tattoos and broody and, you know, a little bit of a fade, I thought that was interesting. It was maybe a risk — but maybe not — that Daniel took in writing him this way, and us developing the appearance of Nikki. But I think it’s a good one, and it’s an interesting one. It’s an original.
Did you learn to play the piano for this film?
I couldn’t play the piano before the movie. Havana and I did hours and hours and hours every single day for about two months before the movie started shooting. We would practice every single day. But ultimately, it was never going to be achievable to be a master at the instrument. So it was a combination of how a pianist holds their hands, how the instrument affects their body, where you sit, what it what it looks and feels like to be convincing as essentially a virtuoso.
Do you still play?
I love it. I now play less, which makes me sad, but a lot of that is due to just travel and not having a piano at my disposal. But I think it’s a gorgeous instrument. I find it very soothing, and I want to get better.
Talk about working with Dustin Hoffman and Tovah Feldshuh.
It’s kind of otherworldly. I mean, he’s on most people’s Mount Rushmore of actors. Tovah, I just want her to look after me forever. (Woodall laughs.) She’s just so warm wonderful. So it was a gift to be able to work with both of them.
Talk about your scenes with Hoffman — you two have great chemistry.
To be honest, I had crippling fear at the beginning, because you don’t want to be shit for someone like Dustin Hoffman. And you’re so much more insecure and self-conscious. You can overthink shit. And so the first couple of days, I threw myself into it, and we improvised a lot on the first day, too. But it took a few shooting days for me to kind of feel comfortable and confident and excited to really go at it with him for these 15-20 minute improvs. If you told me before we started shooting that I would be doing 20-minute improvs with Dustin Hoffman, I probably would have quit the movie. I would have been too scared, but it was the most fun I’ve ever had acting.
Can you tell us more about improvising with Hoffman?
We did a scene in the van one day that was an eighth of a page. It was maybe three lines of dialogue. And we did 20-minute takes. Dustin loves to improv and he loves to tell stories. And it’s magic. You know, you feel at times like he is just rambling, but then he brings it back, and he has a button, and you go, “Fuck, this is why you are who you are.”
There was a story that he told about sharks and mercury and tuna fish for 15 minutes. But he’s talking about how you shouldn’t eat too much shark. And I was like, ‘Why? When have you ever eaten shark?’ And he said, ‘You know, when I used to fish, I used to catch sharks.’ I said, ‘You’ve never caught a shark. When you catch sharks?’ ‘Yeah, I used to catch sharks, but you shouldn’t eat sharks.’ I was like, ‘What? When have you ever eaten a shark?’ And he said ‘Well I don’t anymore since I found out that 80% urine’ and that’s when the take ended, because I just burst out laughing. Because that wasn’t pointless but it also wasn’t planned. And I think that’s the genius of Dustin.
What was it like working with Daniel Roher, who is mostly known for documentaries?
It’s outrageous how clever Daniel is, for a 31-year-old, he’s so brilliant, and he’s very direct, and he knows what he what he likes and what he wants — we really bonded over that on that movie. And he’s a good friend of mine now, and he has said to me candidly that he just did not realize what it was going to be like working with actors. And I think he wishes that he’d been more prepared at the start. Maybe he was a little nervous about working with actors and directing them, because his job before that had always been to just kind of talk and capture, whereas now he has to direct, but I think he did it. He did it really well. And he is a natural storyteller. He’s a very curious man, too, and that really helps with character. He’s very collaborative. So it was a joy, sort of feeling like we were making this movie together.
