Sunday November 9, 2008
A Sight to behold
Mary McCormack provides a personal view of the witness protection programme – the TV show, not the real thing under the US Justice Department! – she’s currently on.
MARY McCormack, the lead star of In Plain Sight, takes time out to answer some questions about the new drama series that offers insights into the covert US witness protection programme.
In the show that premiered in Malaysia on Star World last month, McCormack, 39, plays a marshal who is tasked with protecting witnesses who face threats in the course of a trial. And her job entails anything from entertaining the whims of her charges, nabbing the mobs on their trail and babysitting them to getting them cable television. It’s certainly anything but easy work.
Mary Shannon usually works alone but occasionally, she partners with a fellow colleague whose name happens to be Marshall Mann (Frederick Weller). They both answer to Stan McQueen (Paul Ben-Victor). But really, having such a tough and driven personality working for him, Shannon’s boss has no reason not to let her operate independently.
In Plain Sight is filmed and set in Albuquerque, the largest city in the south-western state of New Mexico, to where the witnesses in the show are relocated.
At the time of this recent telephone interview, McCormack, who is based in Los Angeles with her husband and their two daughters, was getting ready to fly back to Albuquerque to start shooting the second season of In Plain Sight.
Her co-stars also include Nichole Hiltz and Lesley Ann Warren, who play Shannon’s younger sister Brandi and mother Jinx respectively.
Given the secretive nature of the Witness Protection Program, how did you research for your role?
The weird part about telling the story of the Witness Protection Program is that there isn’t a lot written about it because they (the participants) are not allowed to talk about it. The inspectors who work there take the oath to never ever talk about it ... they take everything they know to the grave. It is an unusual thing because for most shows, the actors would call people up or go on Google and start researching. We were really lucky that the Witness Protection Program in America has sort of backed the show and they liked it. They saw the pilot and got behind it. They gave special permission to one of the retired inspectors to be our technical adviser. It was great because we were able to tell the story in a more realistic way, otherwise there were just no other ways to get information on it.
How good are you at keeping secrets?
I’m a good keeper of secrets!
Why Albuquerque?
The series creator David Maples wanted to set the show outside of the city; he didn’t want it to be in New York or LA. He was shopping around for cities that could tell the story well. New Mexico turned out to be a great place to shoot it because there’s a lot of land and it’s where people might disappear. It’s big and has a lot of open space. I’ve also been told by our technical adviser that there’s a huge place where tons of witnesses were relocated to. It was a coincidence but it turned out to be great for our storytelling.
Did you and the crew attract the locals’ attention during filming?
Sometimes they just went: “Please don’t close off the street, we want to shop here.” I don’t think they looked at us with admiration; I think they were annoyed. A lot of shows shoot there but the stories aren’t set there while ours is. So I think we are more welcome because they enjoy seeing their city on TV.
Some of the best bits of the show come from your interaction with co-star Fred Weller. Did you two know each other before you signed on to the show?
We knew each other a little before, though not very well. It’s unusual but we are just very similar to our characters. Even our relationship is very similar because we give each other a really hard time (laughs). It’s a very brother-and-sister relationship and I tease him mercilessly ... he puts on these retainers between takes, and he’s constantly checking himself on the mirror. He’s really the girl, and I am the boy. But we have a nice friendship and I have become the godmother to his baby girl.
What can the audience look forward to in the first season?
There’re a lot of great witness storylines. For most people when they hear of the Witness Protection Program they think of the mafia. It’s certainly part of the story but there are different kinds of people that go into the programme, from con artists to unlucky secretaries who know too much. So we are talking about a really wide array of witnesses. All of those stories are just really fun and involve action. There’s also my personal life, which is also fun to watch – my relationship with my on-off boyfriend as well as with my nutty family. And at the end of the season, you will learn a little about my father too, whose character will be explored in season two. – Compiled by MUMTAJ BEGUM
‘In Plain Sight’ airs every Thursday on Star World (Astro Channel 711) at 9pm, Friday (11am) and Saturday (7am & 5pm).
RSS
