Simon Mayo

So you're a piano tuner.

It's what I loved about the film is that I don't, I can't remember seeing a movie where piano tuning is at the heart of it.

And you've mentioned that he's ended up as a piano tuner because he can't be a fantastic pianist, but he still has an incredible ear.

How did you, or to what extent did you learn the art of piano tuning?

So you went to piano tuning school, basically.

Yeah.

Which I imagine is one thing.

Learning to play the piano is another thing.

I mean, you have to have a few basics there.

What did you know before you started this movie about playing the piano?

And I imagine when you're being shot for a movie, a lot of it is, because obviously stuff can be created afterwards, but the way you sit, the position of your hands, your whole posture is the thing that makes us believe that Nicky is playing the piano.

um were very intricate but really essential um details so you're working with um dustin hoffman um extraordinarily so dustin plays harry horowitz it's his piano tuning business and nikki is like his you know his apprentice but the key thing is you are doing all these scenes particularly in the first half of the film with one of

the great movie stars of all time.

Did you, was it always Dustin?

Did you know when you signed on for the movie that it would be Dustin Hoffman?

Okay.

And you've played with some very big stars.

Is it more scary to act with Dustin or with Russell Crowe?

I got the impression that he was in charge of every scene and that he also could have gone off and got... In fact, maybe he did go off on tangents and you just had to follow the tangent.

So when you're doing scenes like in the van or in his house, are you on your metal all the time?