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"It's turned into a pretty lovely party for me," Macy says of the Emmys ceremony.
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00:00Hi, this is Mariah Gullow from The Hollywood Reporter and this is Meet Your Emmy nominee
00:04and I have William H. Macy with me today.
00:06I like that.
00:07How are you?
00:08I'm swell.
00:09You're nominated for Best Actor in a Comedy Series for Shameless?
00:13Yes.
00:1413th nomination?
00:15We were just playing the ukulele for a long time, about half an hour.
00:19We were playing the ukulele for a while.
00:21She's a fellow uke player.
00:23And I know you play from the round tables.
00:27Yes.
00:28That's right.
00:29Okay.
00:30So what were we talking about?
00:31Oh, Shameless.
00:32Yeah.
00:33What about it?
00:34Yes.
00:35So let's talk about that show.
00:36So, well, before we talk about Shameless, I just want to talk about your Emmy nomination.
00:38How did it feel to be nominated for the 13th time?
00:41Really?
00:42Well, you are a two-time winner.
00:46I got to say, it's a very complicated thing.
00:54Certainly, the whole awards thing has worn a little thin and it's not like the first time
01:01I got an Emmy nomination.
01:03And it's better to win.
01:05It's a lot more fun when you win.
01:07But it's settled into I'm honored.
01:12I get to see my pals when I get there because I know a lot of those people.
01:16And I get starstruck and I get to meet people that I've been watching on the telly.
01:21It's turned into a pretty lovely party for me.
01:25There's a lot of table hopping and we do that a lot.
01:29And there are people I basically see at the Emmys.
01:32Yeah.
01:33I went through a whole period of it with Modern Family.
01:37They were up that year.
01:38It was maybe three years in a row.
01:41They were up.
01:42I was up for whatever.
01:43And they always put us side by side.
01:46And we developed this thing.
01:48Each time we'd lose, we'd go, yay, and stand up and kiss each other.
01:52And it was a great thing.
01:55If you could be seated next to anybody at the Emmys, who would you like to be sitting
01:59next to besides your wife?
02:01If you're doing the seating, you can put Steve Carell here.
02:05Let's put Tina Fey right there.
02:08The entire cast of Veep right here.
02:13And Julia can sit right here.
02:14Nice.
02:15Okay.
02:16That sounds very distracting.
02:17Yeah.
02:19Okay.
02:20So let's talk about Shameless.
02:22By the way, personally, I wonder what is wrong with my family that I identify so much with this family.
02:29I'm so sorry.
02:30Yes.
02:31Yeah.
02:32But there are a lot of, it feels like there are a lot of humanistic truths in the crazy Gallagher family.
02:37At the end of the day, I think that's why it works.
02:39It's about family values, and I'm not being specious.
02:43That family loves each other, and they get each other's back, and they fight, and they
02:48do all these terrible things to each other.
02:50But at the end of the day, they know they're going to be there.
02:52Mm-hmm.
02:53It's very moving, really.
02:54Yeah.
02:55Often.
02:56Our show has a lot of laughs, but boy, it makes me cry a lot.
02:59Yeah.
03:00Yeah.
03:01I agree.
03:02What life lessons has Frank Gallagher imparted onto you?
03:05Well, with child rearing, it's our job, to a certain extent, to prepare them for later traumatic experiences.
03:12Mm-hmm.
03:13They might as well just get it out of the way when they're younger.
03:15If it doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger.
03:18Mm-hmm.
03:19Children should be seen and not heard.
03:21Mm-hmm.
03:22They owe us as parents.
03:25You know, the normal wisdom.
03:28Yeah.
03:29Yeah.
03:30Yeah.
03:31So the last season shows that the family has grown and evolved so much.
03:35But I'd like to know from you, where do you think it leaves Frank?
03:40The writers have done a great job.
03:42I think it's a surprise to a show when you get to, well, it's a surprise when you get
03:47to the second season.
03:48Yeah.
03:49You didn't see that coming.
03:50And then these poor writers have to pick up the ball and think, where are we gonna go?
03:53Well, now we're in our eighth season.
03:55It's seventh season, and they still have stories to tell.
03:59So the family has evolved, as you said.
04:01Fiona's becoming a grown-up.
04:03We saw it last season.
04:04This season, she owns property.
04:06Mm-hmm.
04:07And Lip has embraced these two friends.
04:11I won't give it away, but it's lovely.
04:13He's growing up and he wants to go back to school.
04:16I have a big relationship with young Liam, the little kid.
04:19Mm-hmm.
04:20Where does it leave Frank?
04:22I don't want to upset you, okay?
04:24But Frank stops drinking for a while and gets a job.
04:28And is promoted quickly to associate manager.
04:32I'm not kidding.
04:34And I get Liam into a private school, and I raise money for the school.
04:39Frank gets a credit card for the first time.
04:42His first legal credit card ever.
04:44He has a car, and he wears a suit.
04:47And he showers, and he's shaved.
04:50He just got this mustache.
04:52He looks a lot like me, you know.
04:53Yes.
04:54Well, we're very excited for season eight.
04:57And you're hard at work at it now.
05:00I don't want you to get me wrong.
05:01It doesn't last long, but it lasts for a while.
05:04Yeah, I figured.
05:06And interesting, you know, my character's been loaded from the beginning,
05:10and that is a very specific acting challenge.
05:13But I was surprised with how disorienting it was to play Frank when he's sober.
05:19Yeah.
05:20I had to think about it completely differently.
05:23In a weird way, I had to think what I thought about it a little bit more than I had in the past.
05:27When you don't have an ebriation to blame for your actions as an actor, I think you've got to figure out why he's doing that on a personal level, on a more personal level.
05:39It's not just deus sex machina anymore.
05:42You've got to think about it.
05:43Right.
05:44It's been fun.
05:45He lies a lot better.
05:46Boy, you can't tell when he's lying anymore.
05:48Oh, that's interesting.
05:49That's dangerous.
05:50Yeah.
05:51Yeah.
05:52But as I said, in the episode we're going to shoot next week, I'll get to have a little taste at the alibi, and that'll be nice.
06:02That's wonderful.
06:04So you took part in our Comedy Actors Roundtable.
06:07Mm-hmm.
06:08You sat with Kevin Bacon, Ted Danson, Anthony Anderson, Kumail Nanjiani, and Brian Tyree Henry.
06:15How has that conversation sunk in with you?
06:18Do you have any insights since then?
06:20You know, we were talking about fans and people who recognize you and how to deal with all of that.
06:28And since the Roundtable, our show was sold to Netflix, and Netflix is a behemoth.
06:35So our fan base exploded.
06:37Mm-hmm.
06:38It's huge.
06:39And that's made life very interesting.
06:41And I've thought about what those guys said.
06:43How?
06:44Before, I've always been something of an anonymous actor.
06:47I get respectful nods and things like that.
06:50Mm-hmm.
06:51I threw out the first pitch at the Cubs game when we were shooting in Chicago.
06:54Nice.
06:55That's a bucket list check.
06:57Mm-hmm.
06:58And I did all right, by the way.
06:59I was in the strike zone, roughly.
07:01That's good.
07:02And anyway, there was this long catwalk, and I had to go across it to get to our seats,
07:07and then I had to walk back to, I led the national, I mean, take me out to the ball game.
07:12I sang that with them.
07:13Mm-hmm.
07:14And I was on the way to the bathroom when I was drinking beer.
07:15So I made this walk on this catwalk, and every time I did, the fans, the game would stop.
07:19They were going, Frank, dude!
07:21Yeah!
07:22And it was, it got to the, about the fourth time I went across the thing.
07:28They went, yeah, sit down, man.
07:31And it was great at first.
07:33That's amazing.
07:34Yeah, what do you think about, like, kind of like the fans of Chicago?
07:38I mean, you're, you've spent a lot of time in Chicago.
07:42You know, Chicago has been kind of in the news as being a representation of, you know,
07:50kind of where our culture is today.
07:53But there's all these wonderful things that come out of Chicago, including culture.
07:58You mean with all the murder, the murder rate and all of that?
08:01Yeah.
08:02Mm-hmm.
08:03But then you have the Cubs winning the World Series.
08:05I know.
08:06Amazing theater that comes out of Chicago and comedy.
08:09Oh, it's a, it's a great town.
08:11Yeah.
08:12People are armed to the teeth, you know.
08:14They're going to shoot each other.
08:16Mm-hmm.
08:17It's a great town.
08:19It's perfect for Shameless.
08:20It's right in the middle of the country.
08:21It's still a town you can get a job in.
08:23Mm-hmm.
08:24It works.
08:25The fan base there is amazing.
08:28They're really cool people.
08:30Mm-hmm.
08:31There was a huge crowd to watch us.
08:33We go to Chicago to do Exteriors twice.
08:36And we were shooting there last week.
08:38And a huge crowd had gathered.
08:41A couple of hundred people.
08:42And they were there all day.
08:43And it rained a little bit and they didn't leave.
08:45And Emmy Rossum took them cookies.
08:47Aw.
08:48Isn't that sweet?
08:49Sweet.
08:50They were a great group of people.
08:51And they were at the hotel.
08:54Chicago is perfect for Shameless.
08:57It's right smack in the middle of the country.
08:59I love the Chicago character.
09:01Mm-hmm.
09:02It's a working man's town.
09:04Mm-hmm.
09:05Beautiful.
09:06Yeah.
09:07Might be the prettiest city in the country.
09:09Yeah.
09:10So we're living in the golden age of television.
09:13Mm-hmm.
09:14Is the community that created it enjoying it as much as the fans who are watching it?
09:19I think so.
09:21You asked about going to the Emmys.
09:23I think everyone there, first of all, there's so many chances to get there.
09:31Mm-hmm.
09:32I mean, a lot of actors have a better than even chance of getting an Emmy nomination.
09:36And they know it.
09:38And there's a feeling that we are, there's an acknowledgement that it's the golden age.
09:44That there's so many good things on TV.
09:47There's no time to watch them all.
09:49Yeah.
09:50I mean, one does what one can, but it's great.
09:53And not only is the work excellent, it's new, it's fresh.
09:57Stories that never would have made it onto old-timey television.
10:01It's a story for everyone.
10:03Great directing.
10:04Great, bold acting.
10:06A lot of people working.
10:10And boy, are they getting better at it.
10:12Mm-hmm.
10:13You were asking about Shameless.
10:16It's a well-run show, thanks to John Wells.
10:19And we rarely do over time.
10:22We shoot, even though our show is very big, our hour is an hour, 60 minutes.
10:27Sometimes they go 62 minutes.
10:29You know, network TV shows are 40-something minutes.
10:32Yeah.
10:33It's a jam-packed hour.
10:35And we shoot it in a 12-hour day, in six days, six days and change.
10:40And it's because the scripts come in on time.
10:43Our crew is crackerjack.
10:45You've never seen people like this.
10:46I mean, they are so good at what they do.
10:49And not only are they really good at what they do, they kind of run for 12 hours.
10:53They're running.
10:54They're not phoning it in.
10:56They're running to get the shot.
10:59Because everyone's proud of the product.
11:02Everyone wants to go home in 12 hours.
11:05It's an awesome sight to see.
11:08As far as your career is concerned, you've had a 30-plus year career.
11:15You've done film, television, theater.
11:19Where have you been most satisfied?
11:23Time period or method?
11:26I'm most comfortable acting, certainly.
11:29I've been directing films.
11:30One of the things that Shameless has afforded me is a hiatus big enough to do a film.
11:34So I've done three films.
11:37When you're the director and it works, you do a scene and it's good, you can take credit for it.
11:43I mean, directing is a big job.
11:47When you look behind you, there ain't no one there.
11:49You better figure it out.
11:51Especially an indie film.
11:53So that's a pretty big rush when you get it right.
11:56I've written a fair number of pieces and that's also a rush.
12:02When you write something and you think, that's a good scene.
12:05That's a funny joke.
12:06And it goes through actors and directors and editors and it comes out and it's still good and it's still funny.
12:13That's a good feeling.
12:14That makes you feel like you know what you're doing.
12:17But certainly I'm most comfortable acting.
12:20I find it fits like a good suit.
12:23I just love doing it.
12:24Is there a role directing job or circumstance that you have yet to experience that you think about?
12:30Well, yeah, there are a lot.
12:35I think I'd like to direct another one with a big enough budget that if I can think it, they can shoot it.
12:42As opposed to an indie film which is more, what can you endure?
12:48As you well know.
12:50There's some roles I'd like to play.
12:55As I get older, it opens up more roles available to me.
13:01I'll tell you one thing.
13:02I acted with Felicity, my wife, Felicity Huffman, in one of the films I directed which is called Crystal.
13:09And she and I play husband and wife and it's set in a southern town.
13:13I love doing those scenes with her.
13:16Yeah.
13:17And Dagnabbit, we're good together.
13:19It was great.
13:20It's very funny.
13:21That was fun.
13:23I was directing and in order to get it in the can, we had to rehearse.
13:29So it's one of the few instances where I was able to rehearse because I basically said to everyone,
13:34I can't shoot it if I can't rehearse it.
13:37I can't act this scene and I can't be in two places at once.
13:40So we got to rehearse it.
13:45And, you know, we're stagehounds.
13:47We grew up in the theater.
13:49And I could tell, especially with Felicity, she came in for the table read.
13:55She was off book, ready to rock, ready to get this down.
13:58And the younger actors are more, well, we're just reading it, right?
14:03Felicity's attitude is, you can just read it.
14:06I don't have time to just read it.
14:07I don't want to figure out what I'm going to do.
14:09It was great.
14:10It was great fun.
14:11I'd love to act with Felicity if it's the right thing.
14:13I'd love to do something big.
14:14And you've said before that she's one of those actors who's always hitting her mark,
14:20constant professional.
14:21Oh, yeah.
14:22Yeah.
14:23Yeah.
14:24That's the person you want to direct and play opposite of.
14:29Yes.
14:30A lot of people think of directing as guiding the actors through the emotional blah, blah
14:34of the scene.
14:35Boy, if you've got to talk about acting, especially in an indie film, you're screwed.
14:39Because what you really want is someone to just come in, be brilliant, be brilliant quickly,
14:43and a couple of times, and then we can move on.
14:46Have you tried out any acting techniques that you've had to throw away?
14:51They did not serve you.
14:53What an interesting question.
14:55David Mamet, the writer David Mamet, was my teacher.
15:00So I really learned everything I know from David.
15:04And he went to the neighborhood playhouse for a while, so he was a Meissner advocate.
15:10And then David changed the technique a bit, I think, in a genius way.
15:15And that's sort of the way I act.
15:17I went, I studied with Strasburg a little bit.
15:20I took a class with Lee once, and with some of his acolytes.
15:25And I am not a fan of the Strasburg thing, the whole effective memory.
15:30I don't think that works.
15:33I'm in a transition period about if you can teach acting, and if you do, what are you going to teach, and how are you going to get it?
15:40How are you going to teach them?
15:42So I don't know.
15:43But I think there's a lot of stuff out there that falls under acting technique, which is mostly nonsense.
15:49The one thing it does do is it makes you think about the role.
15:52You have to be very, very careful, though, about talking yourself out of acting for some technique.
15:58You know what I mean?
15:59You've got to use your common sense.
16:01My daughter might go into this business, and she was going to do a play.
16:06And she said, Pop, talk to me about acting.
16:08And I thought, and I thought, and I thought, and I said, It's got to sound like you're actually talking, and that you've never said it before.
16:17That's all I know.
16:20That's good advice.
16:22So before we wrap up, and thank you so much for spending the time with us, we have a four-question series called First Best Last Worst.
16:32Yes. First acting job that made you think, I've made it.
16:39I haven't had that one yet.
16:41I'm an actor.
16:44I'll believe it when I retire.
16:47First acting job where I really felt my power was called The Lone Canoe, Old Chief Hoopjaw's Lone Canoe After the Potlatch Bomb and Elixir.
16:58That was the proper title.
17:00Dave Mamet wrote it.
17:01It was at college.
17:02I had a moment.
17:03We only performed it about 12 times.
17:05I had one night where I owned it.
17:07I owned the stage.
17:09The audience was right there.
17:10I knew it.
17:11I felt it.
17:12I never got over it.
17:13Amazing.
17:14Best story you have from the city of Chicago?
17:17At a point, we had a theater.
17:19We built a theater, and we did it without asking anyone.
17:22Ah, youth.
17:23We just built the theater, hung out the sign, and started doing plays.
17:27Well, of course, sooner or later, the building inspector and the police came by, and especially the fire department.
17:37At any rate, by that time, we'd had three big hits, and we had a little board of directors, and some of them were big in Chicago architecture and building.
17:46And they helped us out, and they called Mayor Daley to say, his honor, to say, this company's great stuff.
17:56I mean, you know who Dave Mamet is?
17:58And the mayor, we had to go to a meeting, and the mayor called everyone there.
18:03So the streets commissioner was there, sanitation was there.
18:06All of these people were there for him to tell them, help these kids out.
18:13And they were all wondering, what did you ask me here?
18:17That's when I got how Chicago worked.
18:20But boy, that town embraced us.
18:22They really loved us.
18:24Last time a fan interaction made you smile.
18:28I signed a guy's car.
18:30He had a Sharpie.
18:31It was a new car.
18:32I said, you really don't want me to do this.
18:34But I signed his...
18:36I signed his hood.
18:38It's still there.
18:40Worst audition experience.
18:44It was for a sci-fi thing.
18:49It was one of those aliens, and I was sitting in a big room in a folding chair, and the director, who was French, and he had two translators.
19:01He spoke so quickly.
19:02He said, okay, you're near death.
19:04And he said, and the alien's about to eat you.
19:07And I went, oh.
19:08And he said, but you love it.
19:09And I went, ah.
19:10And you got it.
19:11So he kept throwing, you know, all these conflicting emotions.
19:13But you're tied up in a...
19:14You're hanging upside down.
19:16You're about to die.
19:17But you're feeling orgasmic.
19:19And I was tying myself in knots in this folding chair in the middle of the room.
19:24And I finally went, it's not going to happen.
19:27It's not going to happen.
19:29You know it.
19:30I know it.
19:31And he's going, what?
19:34And I left.
19:36One of the few times I had the sense to retain a little bit of dignity and leave the room.
19:42Well, I'm sure it all worked out in the end.
19:46I think so.
19:48I think it did.
19:49I'm a lucky guy.
19:50Well, Bill, thank you so much for letting us talk to you today.
19:54The show is shameless.
19:55And we will see you on Emmys night.
19:57Let's play some ukulele.
19:59Let's do it.
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