For IFC News, Stephen Saito sat down with character actor Richard Jenkins at SXSW 2008 when his film The Visitor screened. Jenkins is great in the film, the latest of many memorable performances in his long career. Writer/director Thomas McCarthy's new drama will open in theaters on April 11. From Saito's one-on-one chat with Jenkins at SXSW 2008:

IFC: Have you ever faced a moment, like Walter does at the beginning of the film, where you became uninterested in your career?

Richard Jenkins: Well, yeah. Everyone has those moments where it's just like nothing seems to make any sense. There's a lot of self-loathing in there, a lot of embarrassment about how he's lived his life the last few years. We've all had that. Being an actor, it's not like a hard job, a lot of work, but it is filled with uncertainty, and you get to the point sometimes where you think this is... I give up. I give up.

Too bad I missed the first screening of it; I did catch the last, and it was one of my top three favorites of SXSW this year.