Jan 6, 2024 at 8:01 AM Update: an hour ago
Rick McCullough is stepping down as director Who is the mole?. After more than twenty years, the television maker is ready for a new challenge, he tells NU.nl.
Fourteen hundred nights abroad, over four thousand meals along the way, travel from here to Tokyo (literally), and a total of 3.5 years away from home: Who is the mole? (SPIRIT) has filled McCullough’s life with adventure. “A crazy journey,” he says. And now it’s done. The 24th season, which starts Saturday evening, is its last.
The American director traveled once more to a distant country with ten well-known Dutch people, including journalist Kees van der Spek, presenter Tooske Ragas, actor Jeroen Spitzenberger and illustrator Jip van den Toorn. Past Mexico City, Mérida and Bacalar, and through nature reserves and ruins. And all for the search for the mole.
After this season goes SPIRIT by producer IDTV, but without McCullough. He looks for new adventures. That feels like the right decision for both parties.
Did you still shoot ‘normally’ this season?
“Yes. My departure had not yet been determined, but a transition had started. Everyone knew: the day will come when this will be different. The day will come when I stop and the baton will be passed on.”
“It feels like a separation. It tears you apart. But that’s also because for the first time in twenty years I don’t know what I’m going to do next season. All thoughts in my head went to this program for 25 years. There was no time for something else. And I enjoyed that. Otherwise you wouldn’t last that long.”
Have you thought about quitting before?
“A few times, in recent years, but not really seriously. Traveling is tough and I am also getting older. But those were more mood swings. For example at the twenty-year anniversary. It was crazy with the former participants, but also tough. Let’s face it, Italy is not a punishment. But in combination with China… The whole team felt that.”
“It normally takes fourteen months to make one season. Now we made three seasons in two years. In addition, we were in the middle of the corona period. Almost immediately after China and Italy we went to the Czech Republic for season 21. Episode four , five, six and seven were planned in Prague. During the shooting of episode two, the city closed down. That meant we had three days to reimagine four episodes from scratch and find locations, while no one was allowed to notice. And something similar had already happened in Italy.”
“We worked very hard in those eighteen or nineteen months. It was grueling. That may have taken its toll.”
Rick McCullough with former moles Dennis Weening, Klaas van Kruistum and Patrick Stoof for season twenty. Photo: Rick McCullough
It creates enormous pressure.
“There is pressure anyway Who is the mole?. The expectations are enormous. But no one’s expectations were higher than mine. I didn’t want to make a program and be home at 6 o’clock in the evening. No, I wanted to Who is the mole? create an icon. A monument. Cultural heritage.”
“At first I was sure we could get to 2 million viewers. So I started looking at what we needed to do to get there. Once we did that, I thought, okay, how do I get to 2.5? In the end you get to 4 million. And at 4 I honestly also thought: I don’t know if you can get over this. I don’t think it is possible.”
SPIRIT has increased fivefold in viewers. Just under 800,000 people watched the first season, and 4 million watched last year’s. You also made that first season. How did it go?
“It was a drama, haha. And it was exciting, an adventure. We worked twenty hours a day, non-stop. Everything went very late, so executions had to be filmed with many lights. And we had no cell phones, so if anything “It was a huge puzzle. In addition, upon arrival it turned out that nothing had been arranged by our local people, so we had to produce the entire series in two weeks before we could shoot.”
“In the first season, everything was still new and we wanted to take care of everything. We even thought at the time that we needed a spare mole. The spare mole didn’t know that, it was purely for our own peace of mind. When we started shooting, That spare mole was removed in one of the first episodes, so that didn’t work at all, haha.”
Petra Knoth won the very first season, which was recorded in Australia. Photo: Rick McCullough
You’ve been away for a while, only to return as director in season five.
“The funny thing is that I didn’t actually know if I wanted that. I was a stay-at-home dad and happy. I then said: ‘I’ll come back if I can invent and direct things. But I’m not going to edit.’ I did it that way for five seasons. By season ten it was a problem. We wanted to evolve the program, so we wanted to change things. Part of that was that I started editing myself.”
Has it become more difficult? Who is the mole? to make?
“Not only the program has grown, but also the number of viewers. Especially the mollots (fans of the program, ed.). In the beginning it was fun to give secret clues. Such as through Inge Ipenburg in season seven, who held her hand letters and let it be known that she was the mole. But that is no longer possible.”
“In Japan, in season ten, a slogan was introduced: knowledge is power, KI M. And Kim Pieters was the mole. If we do that now, the entire season could be thrown away. Mollots have so much time, so much love, so much attention and especially so many incredible resources on the internet. In season eleven they managed to discover the location – El Salvador – through a tree. A tree. What the fuck. You want to give something, but when you give something, you run the risk of things going completely wrong. That makes it a fun, but complicated puzzle.”
In season sixteen it became clear early in the season that Klaas van Kruistum was the mole. A – not so – secret clue made the answer easy to find. In an interview you said you were considering quitting.
“It’s not that every assignment is golden or that every season is better than all the seasons before it. But we make entertainment so that people can enjoy ten hours a year. If you take away that pleasure because of a mistake like that… I I had to ask myself if I was fit to keep doing it. I spent eight years apologizing. I can’t do more than that. Anyone who has been on this program knows that the very, very, very last thing I want is to something is going wrong.”
Which season are you most proud of?
“Certainly season eleven, in Nicaragua and El Salvador. It may not have been the most beautiful season, but that was the first time that I was able to cram all my wishes into one season. There I managed to film the season ‘full circle’: it ends where it starts. That when you look back you think: I should have known.”
“There were more beautiful shots of locations, I wanted more time and space to show more of the countries. We started using different music, did the camera work differently. The editing style became completely different. And I dared to do things with a wink , to use humor.”
“We had a bus full of people and chickens, in which mole Patrick (Stoof, ed.) was hidden. The night before I suddenly wanted a goat to block the path to Patrick. The production assistant just said: ‘I’m going to look whether it will work.’ Not ‘why?’ or ‘how?’, but just ‘okay!’ The next morning we had a goat: Tien Tien. It was so hot in that bus, really 50 degrees. The first cameraman sat in the front and almost fainted. The moment he put the camera on the ground, the goat started to pee , against Pepijn (Gunneweg, participant, ed.). Hilarious television.”
Goat Ten Ten was put in the aisle of a van in season eleven. Photo: AVROTROS
Season eleven was also the last season with Pieter Jan Hagens. When the presenter walks by in the AVROTROS building, Rick calls him in. Hagens talks about a – according to Rick – ugly blouse, which was purchased especially for season ten. The two laugh. When the presenter has left, Rick whispers: “He was so good.”
“With Pieter Jan, it was more important what he did not say. He could leave silence. And silence often says so much more than words. I thought he was sublime. Rik (van de Westelaken, ed.) also has that in him.”
There have been quite a few changes over the years. Were there any changes that you actually wanted to refuse?
“I wasn’t happy when the final went live. I’m a huge control freak. If I edit it, it’s right. And if it’s live, I don’t know. But I lost that battle, haha.”
“They were just right. We gave the program back to the viewer. That denouement outside, in that sea of fans. Jan Versteegh who told them that he was the mole. Fucking electric.”
Has twenty years SPIRIT you changed?
“Oh, yes, certainly. I am very quiet in my private life. Those around me call it ‘Rick’s World’. I can’t say anything for days. It’s not that I’m not there, but there are a lot of things going on. in my head. But for SPIRIT I learned to be a ‘tour guide’.”
“Met Who is the mole? you have to learn to live. When you meet new people, be careful not to let it get the better of you. That it’s not just about that program. I don’t know what that’s like for all the other people I make this with, but it’s kind of become my identity. And that’s quite strange, haha.”
McCullough during the filming of season fourteen, in the Philippines. Photo: Rick McCullough
“I think this genre will only grow in the future. There are plenty of places where I can do this too. Maybe someone will say to me: ‘Do you want to help?’ And if that’s not the case, there will be a shed with an easel. Or maybe I’ll start sculpting, I don’t know. Now I’m still finding it difficult to think about. I’m in the middle of the assembly. I think January 19, my last day, wake up and think: okay, what now?”
“Sometimes I’m really happy that it ends here. Sometimes I think: fuck, I’ve lost my life. It’s still hopping back and forth. You can call that emotional, but I think it’s passion. I loved every minute of it, even the minutes I didn’t like.”
2024-01-06 07:01:28
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