Profiles of Late Style: Tom McCarthy
“If you want the job bad enough… you make sure you learn.”
As a kid growing up in the Overbrook section of Philadelphia, Tom McCarthy never dreamed of being an actor. He explains, “I never saw a theater piece until I was 30! If I told friends on the corner that I was going into the theater someday they’d thought I was crazy. I went to high school there and went to college just for a year, then I come out and I got married. My wife was pregnant with our second child and I was a bartender. I was bored so I decided to take some acting lessons. My wife thought I was nuts. I took nine months of classes at the Hedgerow Theater and was lucky enough to get a good teacher…if you were faking the acting she let you know. She was terrific for me.”
When McCarthy decided to pursue acting full-time, he brought his previous life and job experience with him. “I treated acting as more of a business. I went after it and marketed myself and they started to remember me. You get a reputation that you can do the work and they give you a shot… One thing leads to another.”
Early in his career, it was advice from Bob Hope that helped set the tone for how he works: “You get out and take every damn job you can get and sooner or later the business will tell you if you have it or not.” And that is exactly what McCarthy did: big theater productions, community theater, sitcoms, movies, commercials, voice overs — he wasn’t picky. And he still isn’t. In fact, he welcomes this diverse range of experience as a chance to keep learning. He explains, “you should pick up something from everything you do.”
Growing the Philadelphia Theater Scene
Previously, Philadelphia was seen as a less-than-viable source of home-grown talent prompting many actors to move to New York or California. But McCarthy felt committed to staying local and wanted to see the arts grow and develop. “I have no regrets about the decision to stay in the Philadelphia market because over the years our talent pool has gotten deeper…slowly the acting market has changed.”
McCarthy explains, “little by little we convinced producers to give smaller contracts so the equity [union] actors in Philadelphia could get work. Finally, it turned around. Now there are over 20 some equity theaters in Philadelphia…almost all of the theaters now trust Philadelphia acting.”
Drawing from a Deep Well of Experience
Now in his 80’s, McCarthy is able to reflect back on the successes of his prolific career and look forward to see the potential for more creative growth. He wants to do more film work, and is always on the lookout for “good people and good scripts.” He values the opportunity to have worked with some well-known names and credits them with making him better. “Working with people who have more talent that you… your game will be raised a little bit.”
McCarthy continues, “You learn early that yes, it’s a business, but secondly it’s a craft and you have to learn your craft to be good enough. It takes damn close to ten years to become really comfortable doing what you do and to be good enough to be hired by certain people.” McCarthy continues, “if you want the job bad enough, you make sure you learn.”
It is the commitment to keep learning, along with a commitment to “be truthful with yourself,” that are hallmarks of McCarthy’s late style. He explains, “there is an old saying, ‘You can’t shit a shitter.’ In other words if you’re going to fake at acting then sooner or later you’re found out. You got to speak from the heart and the soul and be true, natural…be believable.”
McCarthy explains that life maturity is what brings a believability and naturalness to his work. He also draws on his mistakes as another opportunity to learn. “Trust your gut because most of the time you’re going to be right…but everybody should make mistakes because that’s how you learn. You can’t make too many mistakes when they’re shooting film because it’s expensive. But you learn from it and correct it or you don’t work.”
The Best Is Yet To Come
McCarthy remembers a quote from the legendary George Burns, “You have to have something that gets you out of bed in the morning.” McCarthy agrees, “Burns still had an interest to do work in his 90s. I’m the same way. I still have an interest to do work and I still feel that my best work could be in front of me.”
McCarthy concludes, “I don’t mind going out and auditioning for it. You give me enough auditions and I’ll get a certain percentage, that’s what I always felt. Sometimes the business gets slow, but I still feel whatever is ahead of me is still out there.”
The Profiles of Late Style blog series is part of the Departure and Discovery Project led by the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society which is supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. Over the next few months, we will be featuring weekly stories that explore a whole range of perspectives on late style and its impact as an altogether universal human experience.
