Tom McCarthy directed this movie called The Visitor. It stars Richard Jenkins.

Note: This interview was conducted in a room at the Ritz
Carlton in Boston. There were four or
five people from the press along with Tom and Richard. One lady was really old. Before the interview started she was talking
about how she didn’t know how to use the internet and how she still wrote all
her reviews on a typewriter.

Enter Richard Jenkins.

Question One: Would you like a Jelly bean?

Richard Jenkins politely refuse. He raises his hands to his chest and shakes
his head.

Question Two: They’re
individually wrapped?

Richard Jenkins: We
spare nothing.

Question Three: There’s
the American genius for you. If they’re
individually wrapped then it must be high class. And even worse now it looks like I’ve had a
lot.

Richard doesn’t
respond.

Enter Tom.

Tom McCarthy: How
is everyone?

People mumble that
they are well.

Question Four: Welcome
back to Boston.

TM: It’s good to
be back in Boston.

Tom opens a bottle of
coke. It is one of those miniature glass
bottles. You hear the seal crack and
then the fizz. Then he pours it into the
glass. You can hear the ice shift
against the glass. Richard drinks a diet
coke straight from the bottle.

Question Five: So
Richard and Tom, the two of you on the road, are you selling some Callahan
Brake pads?

Tommy: It short
of feels like it.

Richard: But good
ones.

There is a little
chuckling. Not a lot, but enough to
please the one who asked the question. He is very proud of himself.

Question Six: How
long have you been taking the movie around for?

TM: For about a
year.

This is sarcasm.

TM: No, about
three weeks. The first premiere was in
Toronto. There was a second premiere at
Sundance. They invited us down. So we
did.

Richard pours some ice
into a glass. He is sick of drinking his
warm diet coke.

Question Seven: How
do you pick your subjects or your projects? How do you decide what to write about next?

TM: It’s a slow
process. It’s not like I thought Richard
needed a vehicle.

RJ: Richard did.

There are some more
chuckles. People sometimes chuckle when
they are nervous and sometimes they do it because they want a person to like
them which is also derived from nervousness. I don’t know what kind of chuckling this was.

Question Eight: Was
it tough to get this movie made.

RJ: With me it
was.

TM: Yeah, with
Richard on board it was. No, we had
capital, movie capital, from The Station
Agent. I don’t mean capital as in
money. I mean trust. I could take an unconventional story and
deliver a movie that people would want to watch. But you never know. I finished this script, with Richard attached
and as you know that isn’t a slam dunk for financing, but the two companies who
ended up stepping up, stepped up very quickly. They loved Richard in the lead role and we were off and running. I know a lot of filmmakers would read that
and maybe tell you it’s not that easy, but in this case it did come together
that easy.

Question Nine: Richard, I heard you never took drum lessons?

RJ: I used to
play the drums when I was younger.

Question ten: Oh?

RJ: Yeah…

Question eleven: So
you weren’t nervous about playing the drums.

TM: I was.

RJ: No, I talk to
a guy and we kind of figured out what we were going to do.

Question twelve: How
did you prepare for this role?

RJ: Drank.

TM: Very
medicated.

RJ: Actually, I
prepared in the rehearsal.

Question thirteen: How
are you combining your acting and your directing, like your role on The Wire?

TM: I shot The Wire while we were editing this
movie. It was a busy couple of months
because it just came up and I loved the show. David Simon said it would be fun and I trusted him. It was one of those times when I overextended
myself, as my ex-girlfriend would probably agree.

There are more
chuckles. Tom laughs at himself
too. It is unclear whether he is still
hurt from it.

RJ: The operative
word being ‘ex’.

TM: It
was basically like, “Take care of the dog. I’ll see you Thursday for about ten minutes,” but yeah. That’s the nature of the business.