Winners’ Press Conference interview with Tom McCarthy in the Original Screenplay category
Q. Congratulations.
TOM MCCARTHY: Thank you very much.
Q. This is your second BAFTA?
TOM MCCARTHY: It is, yes.
Q. How does it feel?
TOM MCCARTHY: It's very exciting. It's thrilling and I think specifically with this movie and the impact it's having, how it's playing out even in the news today and yesterday. It's just very exciting. We're very gratified and feel privileged to be able to tell this story.
Q. Where did this story originate for you?
TOM MCCARTHY: It was honestly brought to me by Nicole Rockman and (inaudible), There was something in this investigation. They had acquired the life rights to the reporters and they approached me and asked me to dig in.
Q. Was it a difficult screenplay to write?
TOM MCCARTHY: Yeah, they all are, quite honestly. This one specifically took a lot of research. There was no source material so Josh and I spent a lot of time up in Boston interviewing the reporters, editors and everyone involved in the story including the survivors of clerical abuse. There was a lot of work of course but it was incredibly exciting work, it felt very alive from the beginning. I think early on we felt we had something special, material wise special, on our hands, and it was just what we could do with it.
Q. Did you know at the beginning it was be a two-man job, the screenplay?
TOM MCCARTHY: I hired Josh initially to be the sole writer but I took the first trip up to Boston with him to sit with the reporters just so I could oversee, and we hit it off so well, Josh and I. We both were so excited from those initial interviews that I just dropped what I was doing and jumped on this with him, and thank goodness. I think it took two of us to wade through the amount of interviews and information. I can't say enough about Josh as a writer and as a person and I certainly couldn't have done it without him.
Q. I imagine there's so much information out there, this was probably a 180-page first draft, a long first draft?
TOM MCCARTHY: Yeah, something like that. In those first drafts you ignore the page count, you're trying to get the story down, we were trying to make some hard choices. It was a six month investigation to capture in two hours, so we had to remain as faithful to the spirit and word of the investigation, but as writers we had to make our choices.
Q. Absolutely. Let's take some questions now.
Q. Hello, congratulations.
TOM MCCARTHY: Thank you very much.
Q. I know that since you've made this film, more victims have come forward who were caught up in this? Can you share anything with us about anyone who has got in touch with you or stories you have heard about how this film has changed their lives?
TOM MCCARTHY: It's almost daily right now. Through people, through friends, through survivor groups, through snap, bishops' accountability, through Phil Saviano, through Joe Crowley, who were depicted in the movie, forwarding emails, forwarding testimonials.
Whenever we do a Q&A, someone stands up. It's incredibly gratifying, more than any award, it is just a great reward of story telling and we feel very fortunate and humbled by these stories and it's continuing. I mentioned Peter Saunders out there who you probably know is a UK citizen and a survivor who is put on the papal council for the protection of minors and he was removed because he was calling for more action and more transparency and I think everyone should follow and pick up that story. It's an amazing story. There needs to be action now. We can't move slowly on issues like this when our children's lives are at stake. I think that's a great example of the power ofthe story.
Q. I was going to say, did it feel in any way an intimidating story to take on because obviously the church is such a powerful authority. Have you had any backlash from that side of the community?
TOM MCCARTHY: No, we never really thought about that. Maybe because everything that we were writing about or investigating, felt like a story that was already on the record. It was nothing new, there was nothing really to argue with. In our country, I'm feeling now, as it opens up in Europe, from the Catholic community, has been very positive. As I mentioned, that council that met, the papal council that met, started that three-day seminar showing Spotlight. So it's obviously kind of starting to move the needle a little bit and our response from around the country, from laity, from priests, from parishes, from archdioceses has been very positive. I think that people are ready for this discussion and ready to really have definitive action on it.
Q. You obviously have a great deal of respect for the victims but you've also got to look after them. Is there a bit of a friction there when you're also making a film that you want people to go and see. It has to be exciting too?
TOM MCCARTHY: Exciting, say that again?
Q. It has to be a film that people want to go and see but you've also --
TOM MCCARTHY: You're right, I'm talking about the issue because it's first and foremost -- when we have these discussions sometimes, but as a film maker, my job is to entertain. I think this story had to be compelling and entertaining and I think that's why we approached it through the eyes of these reporters stumbling into this story, being urged on by their editor and having no sense of the scope or depravity quite frankly of this material and story. We felt that was a great entry point for our audience and in some ways this makes it a little bit more accessible. It allows people a way into the material and, you know, I think you're right, you can't -- that could be a documentary and there are some really great ones on the subject, we weren't setting out to do that.
Q. Did you decide from the beginning to make it an ensemble piece?
TOM MCCARTHY: Yes, as soon as we sat with the reporters for the first time, we couldn't conflate or condense any of those characters. The whole spirit of this was a sort of collaborative effort, a team effort and from very early on, almost that first day with Josh riding around Boston in the car with the interviews, we said we're going to include every reporter, every person that we meet. To some degree, there are some secondary and tertiary characters that we could not include but in terms of the reporters and editors, absolutely.
Q. I was just wondering, have you got new respect for journalists?
TOM MCCARTHY: Absolutely. I mean, that's a loaded question in this room. But absolutely. I mean, look, part of the reason I took on the project is because I had a respect for journalists and I had a respect for – ever since my role in The Wire and spending a lot of time with David Simon, who I think understands better than anybody what's happened to journalism in the past ten years, I think there's a public disconnect, because there's this Interweb with all this information, that replaces good journalism. We need good journalism, especially high level investigative journalism, specifically at local papers. This is the key here. This is a local story that's having a global impact today and I think that's really important. I can't say enough about that and it's one of the paramount reasons I took on this project.
Q. What do you think of Aaron Sorkin not being nominated?
TOM MCCARTHY: You know, it's Aaron Sorkin, he’s a phenomenal writer. There are so many other good writers. I think Aaron understands more than ever, he's had a great deal of success. I don't think it lessens anyone's respect for what he achieves. I think even Jobs, it is an incredibly courageous and original screenplay.
Q. Thank you once again. Tom McCarthy.
