Vanessa McMahon

Actor/writer/director Tim Guinee, who has starred in Homeland, Revolution and The Good Wife recently made his directorial debut with short film One Armed Man (2014) by writer Horton Foote. The short film was the Grand Jury Winner for Best Short Film at the USA Film Festival and was a Grand Jury Nominee at SXSW, amongst others. The film was executive produced by Tim's close friend Philip Seymour Hoffman and is dedicated to his memory.

One Armed Man is the story of CW Rowe, wealthiest man in town and a successful cotton gin owner, and Ned, the man who lost his arm in it. While set in Harrison, Texas during the 1950's, the film's underlying themes of the iniquities of capitalism and the great divides between the rich and the poor prove a haunting echo to modern times showing us that while technology has advanced in throes, this human situation has not. Ned lost his arm while working on CW Rowe's cotton mill and one day he comes to meet with Rowe face to face; he wants his arm back. The film stars Charles Haid, John Magaro and Terry Kinney.

One Armed Man has yet received praise from the likes of Gus Van Sant, Ellen Burstyn, Matt Damon, Ed Harris, Edward Zwick, Richard Dreyfuss, Charlie Kaufman, Robert Duvall, Mandy Patinkin and more. View the film's official site at: http://onearmedmanmovie.com.

I recently interviewed Tim Guinee about his directorial debut. Here is what he had to say:

Me: How did you and the writer Horton Foote meet?

TIM: I did a movie based on a play called Lily Dale that Horton Foote wrote. I was on that movie and we were moving from one location to another when the writer's daughter, who was once of the producers on the film, said her sister was going to come visit that day. And I thought, "Oh that's the girl I'm going to marry”. A sort of calm voice said this to me inside. I wasn't looking to marry at the time but we did marry and we recently celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary. I did a few more plays of his including One Armed Man, which was also a play that I acted in in NY and the story just stuck with me. There are things about the inequality between how much money top CEOs get and people on the factory floor get. Things like that that I think are incredibly topical today.

ME: Your story is so current in such a wildly scary way. In our age of materialism, money is king and seemingly anything and anyone can be bought. What do you think the characters say about about this in the film?

TIM: This speaks to the genius of the three actors I worked with but we all sort of agreed on this approach that these aren't bad people. Like the boss guy thinks he's doing the right thing through the whole thing. He thinks he's a fountain of generosity and he's helping everyone by giving all this advice that none of us wants, but In his mind I think he thinks he's a great person. In my experience most people think they're being good people most of the time and were justifying terrible things.

ME: How did you get to know Philip Seymour Hoffman?

TIM: We were old long time pals. I met him seeing him in a play and talked to him. Then we collaborated over time on five different projects. He was just a dear. I miss him and it crushes me that he's gone.

ME: The film is very high quality. It feels like part of a feature. What is your ultimate plan for it, or what do you want the journey of this film to be?

TIM: I don't know. It's funny because I've had two offers for distribution for it but I'm thinking possibly of trying to take two other pieces by Horton Foote and making a feature to include this short. I've sort of worked out how to fold this one into the other two so it would sort of be a triptych. The three would be placed in the same town, which is Harrison, Texas. Based on the town Horton Foote lived in. One takes place in 1958, the other takes place in 1983. They all swim around the same thematic material. It's also a way to go to finance people but say a third of the film is already completed and you know what you're getting into already having part of it already made.

ME: Will you continue to act now that you are directing?

TIM: Yes, I will continue acting. I had a great time directing and I want to continue with that. I've also started writing and I love that but I really love acting. My past is very sorted. You have to hold onto your craft because it's the only thing you can control. In my experience the vicissitudes a constantly changing in terms of what people want to make and what they want to finance and all of that craziness. You never know what people want so the only thing you can do is try and manage your own work and at the end of the day you have to be proud of your own work within the circumstances which you can't control. But that's hard to remember sometimes. As far as the directing goes, I'm sure there are people who are extraordinary geniuses but I also feel like there's a lot of self-aggrandizement. Only speaking about my situation the movie was constantly made better by the expertise of people who know a lot more than I do about these kinds of things.

ME: In your future as director will you be writing your own scripts or continue working with other writers?

TIM:I hope I get to just direct. There's a lot of different stuff that's interesting to me so we'll see. We have a website too that might be interesting...http://onearmedmanmovie.com/

ME: What do you love most about filmmaking?

TIM: On my movie, actor Terry Kinney's mom passed three weeks before we started shooting and my dad passed two days before the shoot. I couldn't go to the funeral, but the thing that hit me was we all have this tiny brief little window together. And when we choose to be with other people and when we choose to work with other people, we are more than anything sharing the limited gift of our lives, that limited time, and it's the most sacred gift we can give. It's a terrible thing my father died but there was also a sweetness on the set somehow. It was a great relief he had passed because he had suffered a lot from Parkinson's. I don't think anyone knows how to go through that stuff. We all go through it for the first time and no one does it perfectly. The only thing I think we do perfectly is come together in our imperfection. The gift of being there for whatever you're capable of and whatever he's capable of.. That output of energy is gorgeous.

View the film's trailer here:

Interview by Vanessa McMahon