In Plain Sight returned for an all new season. We recently had a chance to speak with Mary McCormack about the new season and her thoughts on the show.
There’s great chemistry between you and “Rafael” who is played by Cristian de la Fuente. How do the two of you continue to maintain such great chemistry between each other and how will you continue in season two?
M. McCormack: We really enjoy each other. I’m crazy about him. I’m really just crazy about him. He’s a great guy. I mean no one that pretty should be that nice as well and funny and smart. God went to town when he made him. He’s just fantastic. I get along well with his wife and my husband gets along well with both of them. Actually, his wife is guest starring in this episode now that we’re shooting right now and my husband is directing it.
Sometimes I call my husband and I’m in bed with Cristian. So, it’s all very odd. It’s a really odd relationship. But his lovely wife, Angelica, who’s a beautiful actress, is guest starring on this episode and my husband, Michael Morris, who directs many, many Brothers and Sisters and the producer of that show, is directing this episode of In Plain Sight. So, it’s all in the family with us.
She has obviously issues with her family relations. Are we going to see sort of a change in dynamic?
M. McCormack: Yes, quite a bit. I mean actually in the beginning of the season - honestly, I don’t know how much I’m allowed to say or not, so I’ll just say everything. In the beginning of the season, my mother - I forget which episode, but very near the beginning of the season she hits sort of a new low in her drinking, which is extraordinary to watch and you think it’s going to be funny and it’s not at all funny. And then, she decides to try to stop drinking and she goes to rehab.
“Mary Shannon’s” never known her mother without alcohol involved, so it changes the entire family dynamic, and my sister goes back to school and she decides to try to turn over a new leaf. Because it’s television, I don’t know how long these things will last or if they’ll make it or not, but the dynamic completely changes, and then the mystery of “Mary’s” father is still floating and looming and you get some more clues as to what happened to him.
Her partner Marshall is a very interesting dynamic as well. Are we going to see kind of a development in that more?
M. McCormack: Yes, it develops somewhat. I mean I think it’s probably a relationship that’s been that way for a long time. So, for it to develop too quickly or change too quickly would be sort of unrealistic because it seems like, at least when we meet them, even in the pilot you feel like they’ve been together for quite a long time and comfortable in their roles. They’ve sort of grown around each other. They sort of work as two parts of a whole. But you learn a little bit more about their feelings and my relationship with “Rafael” progresses more and sort of “Mary” decides to try to take some big chances that she’s never taken before. It is interesting and fun to watch Fred Weller’s reactions to all of that.
What’s your favorite scene you’ve filmed this season?
M. McCormack: … the other night where Fred Weller was playing drunken chess on his computer screen because in the episode I tell “Rafael” what I do for a living and it gets Fred Weller, “Marshall Mann” gets so angry about it and I think not just because someone knows what we do, but maybe even more because I’ve been intimate and shared this secret with another man. And so it’s like involving another man as closely as he’s involved maybe and I think that’s definitely a big part of it.
In the last scene of the episode I come back into the office and he’s sitting there playing chess with an 11-year-old Pakistani girl online and he’s just loaded. He’s really drunk and she’s beating him and it’s sort of a very sweet scene between my character and Fred Weller’s character. I think that might be one of the favorites. And then, there’s some good fun shoot-out stuff with season two and I always love doing that. I like all the action stuff.
Can you kind of run us through a typical day on the set?
M. McCormack: Oh, my goodness gracious. I get there super early. I mean a typical day for me is door-to-door somewhere around 15 hours or 15 to 20 hours usually. Hair and makeup is first and I spend an hour or so in hair and makeup and we all get ready for the work of the day and then we rehearse the first scene. Then, they light the first scene and we shoot it. We start shooting and we never leave the set and we just work all day. That’s it. That’s our day. We sort of rehearse and act all day long, move the camera and move the lights and do it again and again and again. We’ve been at it for seven months now. We have about two weeks left and we’re a tired group. If you came now, we’re almost punch drunk; we’re crazy.
You worked on the movie Full Frontal. What was it like to work with David Duchovny?
M. McCormack: Oh, I loved working with David Duchovny and I had a pretty crazy scene with David Duchovny. It was like a full body massage and there were dildos involved and it was insane. It was an insane scene, but he has a great sense of humor and my kind of sense of humor. I’ve always been a big fan of his work and he’s a terrific guy too. So, I loved it.
Essentially you have three different families. You have your pretty darn dysfunctional family with “Brandi” and your mother and then you have your work family where “Stan” is the father figure and “Marshall” is a brother figure, in my opinion and then you have “Raf,” which he kind of represents the potential for what could be in a highly functional normal family life. Is that how you view it, or do you see it differently?
M. McCormack: I’m pretty close, and I don’t know where this show is headed. So, I actually have no insight in terms of like if “Rafael” would be the—it certainly would be healthy because he’s kind and he’s gentle and he’s nice to her and he knows her well and he sort of forgives all of her rough edges and all that. I mean I don’t know where we’re headed, but I think you’re right. I do view it that way. I think her home family is more like the crazy cousins. I think her work family is probably her primary family. I mean I think “Stan” and “Marshall” are her actual family-family and the mother was never really a mother. I mean I think she raised “Brandi” and sort of took care of “Jinx” from when she was little.
But yes, that’s nice. I’ve never actually thought of it as broken up that way. We’ll have to see what happens with “Rafael” because it’s definitely an interesting—intimacy doesn’t come easy for “Mary Shannon.” In the second season, she certainly tries harder in that department, a lot harder.
We had the opportunity to interview with Cristian last week. He maybe spoiled something about a change in his marital status, so can you take that any further?
M. McCormack: I mean I don’t even know if it’s spoiling because who knows? No one ever tells me not to say anything, but we do end up engaged. So, who knows where that’ll go. I don’t know. We have two more episodes and then who knows what David has planned for next year. He’s crazy. I never know and I don’t even bother asking anymore because he never tells us. Actually, it’s kind of fun not knowing. It’s kind of like real life. You actually never know in real life what you’re going to end up doing, so it kind of works.
“Mary” is such an independent, career-driven woman and “Raf” is just very traditional. He’s a very traditional male. Do you actually think that “Mary” is good for “Raf” in the long run in terms of marriage and family, or do you think–?
M. McCormack: I think they are a mismatch. My guess is that they’re sort of mismatched. I mean he would probably ideally not want her to continue with this work and she’s never going to give this work up. So yes, that’s sort of a train wreck waiting to happen I imagine, but bless his heart, he’s so kind and keeps hoping she’ll change and she never changes.
Looking back over season one and we see that “Mary’s” the one taking care of everyone in all three of those families, she seems to be kind of the caretaker. And now, obviously with the season finale, she has - already had baggage, but now she has even more. Is that dynamic going to change? Is someone going to start taking care of “Mary?”
M. McCormack: Well, I think in some ways “Marshall” does. I mean I think at least she doesn’t have to look after him - that’s something. I guess that’s probably why it’s her best friend, because it’s the one person she doesn’t have to clean up after. I think “Rafael” in season two does- she allows him more of that role. In season two also, and I said this in interviews before because I don’t know if it’s spoiling anything, but my mother sobers up and goes into rehab and stuff and my sister goes back to school. So, there’s a little less of that- I mean a lot less of that sort of caretaking model, which actually is a little bit odd for her. I think we even touch on it in one episode. I think even “Marshall” says to her like, “Your whole identity has been about this. You’ve sort of defined yourself by their inability to look after themselves and now they’re doing it and you don’t really know who you are anymore.”
So, it’s interesting because it’s that whole thing of when you care-take, when that becomes your role, if people get better and they don’t need you anymore, who are you? I think it’s a pretty adult theme, but it’s a theme I think anyone who has ever done any of that in their life, either side of that coin, knows about.
It’s going to be kind of a big change for “Mary” as well.
M. McCormack: Yes, a big change. Yes, she likes to bitch about it, but at the same time her own addiction is sort of looking after people.
Is there a particular assignment that you would like to see “Mary” get?
M. McCormack: Oh, wow. Geez, Louise, I’ve never thought of that. Who would I like to protect? I don’t know. Golly. I don’t know. I’m trying to think of like some gorgeous man that I should– I’m trying to think of a clever answer. I don’t know. I have no idea. I’m out of cleverness. My kids are down for an hour nap, so I don’t know where my brain is.
What was it like initially meeting and working with Lesley Ann Warren?
M. McCormack: Initially meeting her was fantastic. So like, I was a big, big fan. It was daunting, but thrilling because I just love her work. We both worked with Steven Soderbergh. So, I remember our first conversation was about our mutual love of Steven Soderbergh. And so, I think once we had that out of the way, we knew we were going to work similarly because Steven works in a very specific way and not every actor would dig it. I mean a lot of actors obviously dig it a lot, but it’s just very specific and we were sort of having a lovefest gush session about how he works and how he is.
And so, I think from that moment on, we sort of knew we were going to work in a similar enough style that we could get along great and we have. We’re both really lucky actually. I’m crazy about her husband. She loves my husband. It’s all very comfortable. She lives down the street from me in LA. She comes over at Christmastime and spoils my girls. She’s great. She’s the best.
What’s been the most rewarding part about doing the show and getting to play somebody like “Mary”?
M. McCormack: Golly. I mean I love the way David writes. It just feels like a really, really comfortable fit for me and I like that she’s kind of grouchy. I mean I love the character so much. There’s one episode, and I reference this often because it just struck me when I read it as so unusual for a woman to say something like on TV, she sees a little baby and out of the blue, and pertinent of nothing else, she doesn’t sort of continue the thought, she goes, “What’s with babies? I don’t get them.” You never hear women say stuff like that on TV. I just think David has a really fresh approach to, I guess, writing this woman because it’s certainly not representative of any other woman. She’s a complex part and I like that she’s allowed to be sort of grouchy and a little bit angry, angular. I don’t know. It’s a comfortable fit for me. I’m not proud of that, but it is.
I get to work with great people and I like the stories and I think it’s also an interesting backdrop for a show. We’ve never seen witness protection and certainly the only thing I knew about witness protection before this was what I knew from Goodfellas, which isn’t a lot. I mean it’s a crazy world to think that people just up and leave. They do leave like food on the stove and walk out of their house and never call and never talk to their families again and never turn back. So, it’s a very dramatic world. It’s like high stakes and pretty emotional.
We have a technical advisor and one time I was grilling him about this because I just couldn’t believe that they didn’t get to say good-bye. He said once in a while if they felt the person would be like better, like if it was so emotional, they would stage a good-bye, like arrange a good-bye in a safe place. Can you imagine that scene? We have to do that scene. Can you imagine that scene? I mean what a scene. Often, they don’t even get to do that.
I said, “Well, how does the family know they’re not just dead?” What’s to stop the family just from having a funeral or mourning forever and ever or committing suicide or who knows what you’d do with that kind of grief? He said that they contact the family and let them know. They don’t say the exact words, but they’ll say like, “They’re not going to be back, but they’re safe” kind of thing. I mean what? It’s too much to think about. It’s crazy and all for testimony. But, I guess people, when faced with you’re going to die or starting over, the will to live rises up I guess.
Have you learned anything new about yourself over the course of doing this show, portraying her either personally or just in sort of the technical of working on a show like this?
M. McCormack: I’ve learned a lot. On that side of it, I’ve learned an enormous amount. I mean I’ve worked a lot over the years and I’ve done even a lot of TV, but I’ve never been in every scene almost. I have two kids under the age of four, so that and 15 to 20 hour days of work everyday, I certainly have learned a lot. I’ve learned a lot about stamina and rest and balance and forgiveness in terms of my own guilt about where I’m falling short in my life. Certainly, I’ve learned more than I ever thought I could learn about that stuff.
I guess I learn from the character too. I mean I have some similarities to “Mary Shannon” and so as I investigate things like codependence or what her abandonment issues are and her father leaving, and my father didn’t leave, but I mean just in terms of any kind of loss, how that affects how readily available you are for intimacy and stuff. I mean I definitely learn about myself through some of the storylines she’s dealing with.
How much will post-traumatic stress affect “Mary’s” job performance when the show returns on Sunday?
M. McCormack: I’m trying to think about– it’s interesting. I wonder how much of her job is affected by it. Certainly it is for a few episodes, which is spread over weeks and weeks. I wonder how much of that continues. I’m trying to think. I guess there’s a whole thing that happens in the end. We’re shooting the two-part season finale now. The first half is being directed by my husband and the second half is being directed by our show creator, David Maples. So, we’re in the thick of it right now. I know there’s a big even that happens that will be questioned and brought back to the finale of last year. I mean they’ll be linked to that meaning did that affect this kind of thing. It will be back. It will rear its ugly head again, whether I’ve put this thing behind me or not, this near death thing and the fact that I killed somebody for the first time.
How much would you like to see your character’s relationship with your mother and sister evolve? Is there a certain way that you’d like to see it go?
M. McCormack: I don’t know. I mean I think about that a lot actually because this year, my mother is sober. My sister is still drinking, but my mother has gone to rehab and it’s sort of 12-steppy. That’s interesting because there are all kinds of different tensions, but I liked it the other way too because there was a lot to play with that.
I can’t imagine that she doesn’t slip at some point. I think just in terms of being realistic and knowing “Jinx” at all, I can’t imagine that she doesn’t return to the dark side soon. But, we’ll see. I could be wrong. David Maples surprises me all the time.
How do you see the show as compared to other police dramas?
M. McCormack: I don’t know. I mean I think our show is pretty special for a number of reasons. One, I just think witness protection is pretty interesting and you don’t see it in many other police dramas. I mean it’s definitely a singular backdrop. But also tonally, I think our show is unusual. I mean it’s not strictly a drama. It’s also really funny and finding the balance is sometimes tricky for us. We have to really think about like when the scene changes. Sometimes it changes within the scene and sometimes it changes scene-to-scene, but I don’t know. It’s an odd tone, our show. And so, I think it’s different for that.
Also, a lot of cop shows are just procedurals. I mean we’re not CSI. We’re not what’s the Katherine Morrison show. There are procedural shows where every week you have a mystery and then by the end of the hour; all the Dick Wolf shows, in the end of the hour, the mystery is solved and next week you have another mystery. Ours has that, but we also have the ongoing story of my life and my relationships and my work relationships, my boyfriend relationship, my family relationship. So, I think our show is pretty special for doing all that within the hour and hopefully doing it well. I mean that challenge is making sure we do all of it well.
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