Secret Agent Man
After the overwhelming success of The Station Agent,
writer-director-actor Tom McCarthy gets ready to
release another surefire indie hit
by Chelsea Bain

Take one look at Tom McCarthy, and somewhere in between a glance at his inviting smile and horn-rimmed eyeglasses, you’re bound to think, “I know this guy.” Well, with shows like Boston Public and The Wire or even the award-winning gems Good Night, and Good Luck and Syriana under his belt, chances are you do. Over the past sixteen years the versatile actor has racked up one fantastic body of work after another, churning out great performances and lending his thespian talents to some of the most respectable projects to grace the pages of IMDB.

What you might surprise you is that McCarthy kicked off his writing and directing debut with the 2003 smash surprise The Station Agent, and doesn’t seem to be slowing down. His second film, The Visitor, is due out this month, a sullen, inspiring and multi-ethnic story about an aging professor (played by Richard Jenkins of Six Feet Under fame) who rediscovers himself after befriending an illegal immigrant. McCarthy sat down with us to discuss his newest work and his thought process.

How long have you been taking the movie around for?
About 3 weeks. The first premier was in Toronto in September and then we kind of had a second premier at Sundance, and they invited us to come down and screen the movie. But the last two or three weeks have been very intense, going from city to city.

How do you get your ideas?
It’s a slow process, you always have to start with characters. I start with characters, and I try to live with them for a while and decide where they would meet, how they would meet, what that relationship would be like, who else would be involved in their lives, and try to do that as honestly as possible without overly-manipulating plot.

Was it hard to get made – as in financing?
It wasn’t actually. I think I had some capital from The Station Agent, because the movie did well. I don’t mean capital as my own money, I mean trust and faith in that I could take a little unconventional or original story and deliver a movie that people want to watch, so that helped quite a bit. We started this movie with Richard[Jenkins] attached and Hiam [Abbass] attached, and that’s not always a slam dunk for financing, but the two companies who stepped up stepped up very quickly, didn’t flinch, loved the idea of Richard in the lead role, and we were kind of off and running.

I was curious about your decision to make the main character somebody older who is stuck in his life, rather that someone younger who needed a jolt.
Yeah, I don’t know why I think I’m always attracted to characters who might fall through the cracks and who haven’t been explored enough. With someone who’s Richard’s type and age, you haven’t seen it before. I felt like I was curious about these guys, we all have these professors, right? Where we’re kind of like “What does this guy do when he’s not here?”

Did you have a professor like that?
No one that I based it on, no. I think when I initially set out to make this character I was more compelled by the idea of a guy who lost his passion for his vocation. Then through research - I have a friend who teaches at NYU - I started getting interested in the idea of academics. I think the only reason that you get into academia is because you have this real passion for a certain subject or discipline, so what happens when that wanes over years and time takes its toll? How do you rekindle that or reinvent yourself? That to me is always an interesting topic.

This film seemed almost like a love-letter to New York. Do you have a certain passion for the city?
Yes, I lived there and I do love it very much. I do think that one thing we set out to do was not to try romanticize or overly sensationalize or sentimentalize the city, but really show the everyday beauty of it. Whether it’s a newsstand or Washington Square park, or wherever it is – a lot of that was shot within walking distance of my house. The scene where he takes Mouna out to dinner, I can see that from my window. A lot of it helps me create the world intimately.

Was it more difficult to direct this movie than The Station Agent, which was filmed in rural New Jersey?
Much, much more. It’s kind of like living there – there’s so much energy that just goes into surviving. Just getting through the day, sometimes you get back to your apartment and you’re like, “I did it!” I think filming is like that. Granted, you have those moments where you’re in Central Park with a drum circle on a kind of Indian summer day in the fall and you think, “Man, it doesn’t get any better than this.” And then you have days where you’re on the subway at five in the morning fighting everything from drunks to angry MTA guys and you think, “This is a nightmare.”

How are you combining your acting and directing and your appearance on The Wire this season?
The Wire I shot when we were editing The Visitor. So that was a busy couple of months, it just came up and I love the show, and David Simon offered me this role, he said it would be fun and I trusted him. It was maybe one of those times that I overextended myself – my ex-girlfriend would probably agree with that! (Laughs)