(PCM Update - April 2009) - PCM's writer/blogger Joe sat in on a great media phoner with actress Mary McCormack. PCM spoke to McCormack almost a year ago about her successful USA series, In Plain Sight (scroll below). Check out some recent Q&A and get filled in on the latest news about McCormack and this great show!
(Fred Weller Interview, Nicole Hiltz Interview)

Q: What about your role on this show continues to challenge you?

M. McCormack: Well, a number of things. I mean one of the weird things about TV and one of the things that some actors don't like but I kind of dig is that you never know where you're headed, I mean you never know what the writer might think of next. So, unlike a film or a play where you know the entire story and you know where you have to end up, with In Plain Sight and with "Mary Shannon" I never really know what he's cooking up. For example, my relationship with "Rafael" and my intimacy issues and all the push and pull of that; this season is completely different than it was last season. Then, there's more development with me and with the mystery of where is my father and what happened to him. I mean there's just so many kinds of question marks with "Mary Shannon" that that's always a challenge, just sort of trying to figure that out.

But I'm trying to think of what else in the role is challenging. I mean trying to make her vulnerable, trying to balance the vulnerability because I don't want it ever to be two dimensional and I don't want her to seem, I mean even though she has sort of bad ass qualities and she's a tomboy and all that, she doesn't really take a lot of garbage, you have to sort of see how she ended up that way and why she ended up that way and where sheis weak and where she's frail and where she's girly. So, trying to make her three dimensional and complex, that's always challenging.

Q: Why do you think people continue to tune in to see the show? What is it about the program that continues to draw the viewer in?

M. McCormack: Well, I don't know. I mean I hope it's the same thing that draws me in. Every week I get the script and I'm excited to read it. It's great writing. David Maples is a great writer and he writes interesting stories. Every week, you sort of meet a new witness and I always think there's an interesting story there, but you also have this ongoing storyline of "Mary Shannon's" family and her personal life. I don't know, I think both things are sort of appealing.

It's also a nice combination of really dramatic and action-y and sort of some mystery elements and then it's really funny. I mean David is a funny writer. I mean I remember when I read the pilot; part of the thing that attracted me was I laughed out loud three or four times, and I never do that reading a script, even when I know the scene is funny. I rarely sort of chuckle out loud when I'm sitting reading a script alone, and I always do with David's writing. I don't know, hopefully, it's just a fun show to watch. I hope we keep doing it.

Q: 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.

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(June 6, 2008) - PCM's Ashley asked Mary McCormack a few questions about her new USA Network series, In Plain Sight. On the show, she plays U.S. Marshal Mary Shannon, who is successful in her job with the Federal Witness Protection Program. Unfortunately, Mary Shannon's personal life isn't going as well as her career. The show also co-stars Fred Weller , Nichole Hiltz and Lesley Ann Warren.

Mary McCormack has numerous acting experiences under her belt, including multiple Broadway shows. In fact, she was recently nominated for a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress for her role as Gretchen in the revival of Boeing Boeing. McCormack has also been in films and on several television shows, including The West Wing. She discussed the different mediums and the similarities and differences between them.

"Well, you know the acting is the same," McCormack said. "I mean acting is always sort of the same - like you want to be - you know you're pretending and you want to make it as real as you can."

She said that is really the only similarity, as the mediums differ in most other respects.

"... You know with camera work you're doing really small, detailed work, and you know if you do anything too big you've sort of failed," she added. "And with stage, especially with the play I'm doing right now, I'm doing a farce, and it's so over the top that you can't actually be too big."

McCormack said she hadn't done a play in seven or eight years before she was in Boeing Boeing.

"So for me to remind myself to be enormous and to be brave enough to be big, it was actually a real challenge," she added.

On In Plain Sight, Mary Shannon and her partner Marshall Mann aid people entering the Federal Witness Protection Program. The show is based in Albuquerque/Santa Fe and, as evidenced in the third episode, individuals are not able to choose where they relocate. In fact, they are purposely sent to live in a place where they have no ties and have probably never even visited.

Mary McCormack said that if she were, in fact, allowed to choose where she could relocate if she was in the Witness Protection Program, she would move to London.

"Well, my husband is from there," she said. "I mean you can't go where your family is, but my husband is English and we spend a lot of time in London, so I know it and like it.

She can be seen in USA Network's original series, In Plain Sight, on Sundays 10/9C.

Other In Plain Sight Interviews:
Nichole Hiltz - Brandi Shannon
Fred Weller - Marshall Mann