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Tom McCarthy Welcomes The Visitor
(Page 2)
MM: When you were writing the script, was there a part of you thinking: I have to be careful not to get polemic here?
TM: You mean, to avoid getting on a soapbox and just screaming the message out: ‘Immigration policies must be reformed right now!’ (laughs) It’s certainly there, but the intent was always to focus on these four disparate individuals and how they eventually make a connection. That was my “A” storyline, you might say. Tarek’s predicament is the engine that drives the story, though I always found myself burying that aspect of the narrative when it started moving to the forefront too much.
MM: This is the second film you’ve written and directed that revolves around a group who is displaced—either geographically or socially—and ends up forming its own makeshift, misfit community. What is it about that particular set-up that fascinates you so much?
TM: I’m starting my third script now, actually, and I have to keep fighting the impulse to go back to that exact scenario. ‘No, Tom, no… These people have to have known each other for at least a year. And they all have to be emotionally stable!’ (laughs) Seriously, I don’t know. I think it was Renoir who said that filmmakers essentially make one movie over and over again, and every movie they make is just part of a larger picture of themselves. There must be something about that concept that plays into who I am. Maybe once I figure that part out, I’ll be able to do something else.
It’s funny, there was a day when I was working with my editor on a scene. I remember he turned to me and said, “You’re so good in these social situations, you seem like such a happy guy, you’ve got a good family and friends all around you. Why the hell do you keep writing these movies about lonely people? Is it some sort of cry for help?” (laughs) But someone else also brought up the fact that these stories are all optimistic at their core, that they speak to a belief that people really can connect with each other.
MM: You filmed The Visitor in New York City. How hard is it to film there these days?
TM: We were there in the fall, and it was the busiest fall on record for film production. I Am Legend was shooting all around the city, so whenever we’d get ready to shoot at a location, their crew would already be setting up shop. I remember we needed to grab a couple of pick-up shots at Washington Square Park and I Am Legend had just shut the entire thing down. There were plenty of days when we were trying to do scenes in Central Park or down in the subway tunnels, and I just kept thinking, ‘Why am I doing this? What did I get myself into?’ But there’s an authenticity you get when you shoot in actual New York locations that makes the hassle worth it.
MM: Do you think it’s harder to get films like this financed now, as opposed to when you were looking to get The Station Agent off the ground?
TM: I’m not sure, but I do know that it was personally easier for me this time because I’d already done The Station Agent. I took that script around to everybody, and nobody wanted to do it. I was an inexperienced filmmaker who just had some acting credits to my name. Besides, my writing is very spare and it’s hard to see the humor on the page. Finally, this guy Robert May read it and said, “It’s great, let’s do it!” Once people saw the finished product, they said, “Oh, I see. Yeah, you can do this.” It’s an execution-dependent business. But this time, since people knew I could execute…
MM: …the coffers just opened up.
TM: Ha! Right.
The Visitor, an Overture Films production, is in theaters today.
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This story was published in the Spring 2008 MovieMaker Magazine. The headline was:
Tom McCarthy's Immigrant Song
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