Shedding light

Spotlight's Neal Huff on Phil Saviano: "He asked me to talk to Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

From Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom and The Grand Budapest Hotel, through Kimberly Levin's Runoff, hosted by Robert Kennedy Jr. and Philippe de Montebello, to starring with Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo, Brian d'Arcy James with Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, Billy Crudup, Stanley Tucci and Len Cariou, Neal Huff has a pivotal role in Tom McCarthy's Spotlight (co-written with Josh Singer).

Neal Huff as Phil Saviano in Spotlight

The opening scene at a police precinct, Boston, 1976, sets the tone for Tom McCarthy's astutely paced newsroom thriller, edited rigorously by longtime collaborator Tom McArdle. Fast forward to 2001 and The Boston Globe Spotlight team headed by Walter 'Robby' Robinson (Keaton) with Mike Rezendes (Ruffalo), Sacha Pfeiffer (McAdams) and Matt Carroll (d'Arcy James) are appointed by new executive editor Marty Baron (Schreiber) to move forward on tackling the intricate cover-up system in place to hide the child abuse committed by Catholic priests over many years and the eventual settlement payouts by the Church.

Sparked by activist Phil Saviano's (Huff) confrontation with the team, Sacha and Matt go door-to-door searching for victims who will come forward, while Mike literally runs and runs in order to keep up with the rapidly changing findings he uncovers. "If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to abuse one," says Robby, as his team's progress grows.

Just four days after the blizzard of 2016, the second largest snowfall recorded in New York City history, I met with Neal Huff in the East Village for a conversation as we ate delicious gluten-free avocado toast and drank coffee, while the snow melted outside.

Tom McCarthy, Brian d'Arcy James and Josh Singer at Circo Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Anne-Katrin Titze: Spotlight seems like a fantastic collaboration in filmmaking. Your scene, when you come in with that box is pivotal. I suppose you met with the real Phil Saviano?

Neal Huff: Since we met, Phil has become a really dear friend. It's interesting that you say collaboration in regards to Spotlight because it was a total collaboration on so many levels. Phil and I were in constant communication and spent a ton of time together. He had very strong opinions of what was in that scene. He asked me to talk to Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer.

AKT: I did speak to both of them and they told me about their extensive research.

NH: Oh you did? So Phil asked me to talk to them to include stuff. And they were so open. It was really mind-blowing.

AKT: Did the four of you meet?

NH: Josh was the liaison between me and Phil. Then we spent time together and Phil sent notes to those guys. And then I spoke with Tom, kind of in the eleventh hour.

Attorney Eric MacLeish (Billy Crudup)

AKT: What were some of the things that were discussed?

NH: One of the main ones was the idea that the priests were "grooming" these victims, these children.

AKT: That made it into the film, didn't it?

NH: Oh, yeah. The first day this priest came to Phil's school, the entire class was told to stand up as this nun was teaching. And he stood behind the nun's back and started making faces to make the kids laugh and to immediately establish a rapport. That element was added to the scene. The fact that there are as many girls, who are victims of clergy abuse - Phil wanted that point included in the scene.

AKT: I spoke with Tom and Josh about how much I liked that there weren't any flashbacks of abuse. Just hearing you talk about that scene, it's easy to visualise the priest behind the nun bonding with the children. All you need is language, really.

NH: The way Tom and Josh structured the film, you really had a sense that these events exist. They leave so much to the imagination and that's one of the great strengths of the film.

The Spotlight team Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo, Brian d'Arcy James and Michael Keaton with John Slattery, pondering Phil Saviano's evidence.

AKT: In a scene with you at The Boston Globe - the film walks a fine line for audiences. Is this person saying these outrageous things a madman or somebody who is so upset and frustrated because he has been trying in vain to tell the truth for so long? John Slattery's character [Ben Bradlee Jr.] asks that same question. How did you approach that moment as an actor?

NH: That was kind of the critical question for me in this portrayal because Phil is a man of extraordinary character. He is a real hero.

AKT: What does he do now?

NH: He has a business where he sells folk art from Mexico. He is also working on a book with his story.

AKT: About S.N.A.P. [Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests]?

NH: About his whole journey. Tom wanted the question to be open - who is this guy? Exactly what you are asking. One of the really amazing things he did in directing me in that scene was not the typical thing you would do - live it as if it just happened for the first time. Tom really wanted the sense that Phil had been at this for years. Phil Saviano is the only man never to sign a confidentiality agreement. He had a settlement. He was very sick at the time and indeed the Worcester [Massachusetts] diocese thought this guy will be dead in a few years. He was very sick with AIDS.

Spotlight US poster

Like the letters Mike Rezendes had at the end, Mark Ruffalo’s character, Phil had similar letters from the Worcester diocese in this box. Because he refused to sign that confidentiality agreement Phil was able to sue the Worcester diocese and he got these letters through discovery. But our story was about the Boston diocese and Cardinal Law. In that scene, I had the actual copies of these letters. Phil had gone to the man who reported on his story originally back in 1992. He was told that it was old news. I think he went to the Boston Phoenix as well and they never got back to him. Years later, Spotlight calls him, which is like the big boys. When they called him in, he wasn't sure what was going on and he didn't realise they didn't have that information at all. So he had that in that box.

AKT: It's a core moment. How long does it take for the world to catch up on what this one man knows is a crime? It opens up to the question of where else is this kind of abuse going on?

NH: That's the most amazing moment in the film for me when MacLeish, Billy Crudup's character turns to Michael Keaton's character Robby Robinson, and says "I sent you these names 20 years ago. I sent you 20 names. Check your records, Robby." It kind of puts the whole thing in the audience's lap. What else is happening? What else do you know that you don't speak out about? What are you complicit in in some way?

AKT: You are in a movie that is at Sundance right now?

NH: Yeah, oh boy. So Yong KIm and her husband Bradley Rust Gray - I've worked with them before. They work as a team. It's a film called Lovesong.

Coming up - Neal Huff on working with Wes Anderson on The Grand Budapest Hotel and Moonrise Kingdom with a thread of Bob Balaban to Kent Jones' documentary Hitchcock/Truffaut screening at this year's Glasgow Film Festival, a family connection to Kimberly Levin's Runoff and Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.

Spotlight opens today in the UK and is in theatres in the US.