The movie follows Finbar McBride (Peter Dinklage), a lover of trains whose only desire is to be left alone. Moving into a train depot he inherited, Fin finds himself yanked into the world of not-stop-talker Joe (Bobby Cannavale), and Olivia (Patricia Clarkson), a painter haunted by the death of her young son and the break-up of her marriage.
BOBBY CANNAVALE INTERVIEW:
How comfortable were you working with first-time writer/director, Tom McCarthy?
It was really weird; it was a great combination. It took us three years to make this movie and in those three years, we’d never put it down. Tom and I live right across the park from each other so we’d get together all the time in the middle of the park. In those three years, we’d do things like he had a little video camera and Dink (Peter Dinklage) and I would get together with Tom and we’d shoot scenes. I don’t know if Tom realizes it or not but he basically replicated those scenes that we shot three years earlier on a stoop on video [in the movie] – the same exact shot.
I’ll tell you, I’ve worked with some directors that were just out of their minds, just screaming at everybody with the pressure. That never happened on this film. That was amazing because we shot it in 20 days. [We were] all friends – the [Director of Photography] was involved from the very beginning. The D.P., Oliver Bokelberg, was from Germany. You should have seen it the first time we brought him to New Jersey. He’s like, “I don’t get it, bro.” He couldn’t believe it because it was so not his thing. And then he got it.
Tom grew up in that part of town so he knew exactly where he wanted to shoot. We’d have five locations in one day and we’d only have one or two takes. We all really knew what the movie was about. It was great because most of the scenes are the three of us. Because we knew it so well, we didn’t have any wasted time in indulging in stuff that didn’t have anything to do with the film. We’d pretty much get it on the first or second take.
Did you do a lot of rehearsing beforehand?
I was there from the beginning. Tom wrote the parts for Patricia Clarkson, Peter and myself. We’d get together every few months and do readings and workshops. The script was longer and having all that time, it was like a double-edged sword. We wanted to make the movie and nobody was giving us the money. At the same time, it was really helpful. I don’t think the movie would have been the same movie if we’d gotten the money right off the bat. In the end, the movie comes in at 88 minutes. I think in the beginning, the first draft was easily over 2 hours. Over time, and [after] really getting to know these characters, Tom was great as a writer in taking away exposition.
In the beginning, Tom hadn’t thought about Peter playing that part. He just knew he wanted these three people and a guy who was into trains who had sort of chosen to isolate himself. Then he wrote a play called “The Killing Act” and he cast Peter in it - and Peter was amazing. I remember Tom telling the story of walking down the street with Peter and just noticing all these people would look back at him. Tom said an interesting thing, which I hadn’t thought about. He said it gave him the idea to cast Peter in it because that way he didn’t have to write all this backstory. You kind of know instantly when you see Peter that you don’t have to do too much set up. Just by seeing his size, we get it. You know why he’s chosen to isolate himself.
Bobby Cannavale on Relating to His Character and the Target Audience
