Tom McCarthy, San Francisco, CA March 10, 201
Tom McCarthy returned to his hometown of Provinctown, N.J., for WIN WIN, his third film as a writer/director. The story of a lawyer on the verge of a financial meltdown who makes a rash and unethical choice also gave him the opportunity to revist his favorite high school sport: wrestling. A working actor with a variety of credits to his name, he started the our talk on March 10, 2011, by explaining why he doesn’t write parts for himself and then went on to descibe the unexpected rewards of reconnecting with his best friend from high school, Joe Tiboni, after the lawyer came up with the idea for the film and went on to earn a co-story credit. He also discussed how much trust he puts in his cast, finding a teenage wrestler who can also act, and why Bobby Canavale may be the hardest working man in show business.
WIN WIN is a film that explores the ethics of motives, the magical properties of second chances given and received, the many shades of meaning that a speaker can bring to a scatological expletive, and the indefinable but undeniable power of pancakes. The film stars Paul Giamatti as Mike Flaherty, a lawyer desperate to save his floundering law practice who takes a chance on a questionable act of malfeasance that, naturally, causes all sorts of complications. Oddly enough, most of them with a decidedly positive effect. The film co-stars Amy Smart, Bobby Canavale, Jeffrey Tambor, Bert Young, Melanie Lynskey, David Thompson, and Alex Shaffer.
McCarthy’s day job is as an actor and as such he has appeared in such films as GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK, SYRIANA, and 2012. As a writer/director he has gifted us with both THE STATION AGENT and THE VISITOR.
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