WILLIAM H. MACY Talks Fargo, Auditions, PTA

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Adam Friedland Show – William H. Macy Talks Fargo, Auditions, PTA
Episode Date: November 19, 2025

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Main Theme & Overview

In this rich, candid, and often humorous conversation, Adam Friedland and co-host Caleb Pitts welcome the Emmy Award-winning actor William H. Macy ("Bill") to discuss his storied career. The central themes are Macy's journey from theater to film, his collaborations with influential figures like David Mamet and Paul Thomas Anderson, legendary auditions (especially for Fargo), his philosophies on acting, and behind-the-scenes stories from Shameless, Boogie Nights, and upcoming projects. The episode is peppered with personal anecdotes, industry wisdom, discussion of the changing film landscape, and Macy’s down-to-earth take on the craft of acting.

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1. Early Life & Family Background

[05:21 – 10:36]

• Family & Wartime Stories: Macy shares fascinating stories about his father, a WWII B-17 pilot.

  • "My dad had hearing loss from that...when you were up there, man, you didn't think of anything except getting back alive." (William H. Macy, 07:19)

• Legacy and Memories: Both Macy and Adam recall tales about their war-hero relatives, exploring how those stories shaped perspectives on resilience and legacy.

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2. Path to Acting & Early Influences

[10:36 – 17:16]

• High School to Goddard College: Macy describes how acting became his passion, culminating in his studies at Goddard, where he met his mentor, David Mamet.

  • "That's where I met David Mamet. Yeah, and he taught me everything." (William H. Macy, 10:52)

• Admiring Gene Hackman & ‘The French Connection’: Gene Hackman’s performance becomes Macy’s “goal and remains my goal.”

  • "If I could ever act like that, that was my goal and remains my goal." (William H. Macy, 10:54)

• Chicagoland Theater & Making Your Own Work: Macy and peers followed Mamet’s advice to “make your own fun,” forming the Saint Nicholas Theater Company, participating in the Off-Loop renaissance.

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3. Mamet’s Teachings & Acting Philosophy

[12:43 – 17:29]

• Practical Approach to Acting: Macy breaks down Mamet’s “objective-based” Meisner technique – focusing on doing, not feeling.

  • "It doesn't matter how you feel, it's what you do." (William H. Macy, 13:38)

• Writer as 'Founder of the Feast':

  • "It's not an actor's job to be funny; it’s the writer’s job. Our job is to find solutions...never give up." (William H. Macy, 13:38)

• On Bad Acting Teachers: Macy takes issue with abusive teaching styles:

  • "He thought it was his job to rip people down...I said, man, I'd love to teach you how to teach and rip you down..." (William H. Macy, 15:26)

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4. Breaking into TV & Film

[23:27 – 28:44]

• Move to New York & LA: Macy describes the shift from theater snobbery to pursuing film—spurred partly by inspiration and economic realities.

• Law & Order Days:

  • "That's how actors paid their rent in New York for many years, that and Spencer for Hire." (William H. Macy, 24:36)

• Audition Struggles:

  • "Auditioning is awful. If there were a better way, I'm sure someone would have thought of it, but it's soul-sucking." (William H. Macy, 25:02)

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5. Fargo: Auditioning & Breakout

[26:18 – 33:06]

• Winning Jerry Lundegaard’s Role: Macy details his relentless pursuit of the Fargo part:

  • "I got my lutheran ass on an airplane and I crashed that audition. I said, I really want this part, I'm scared you're gonna screw up your movie by not casting me...I told Ethan, who had a new puppy, that I would kill the dog if he didn't cast me. Thank God he laughed." (William H. Macy, 28:15–29:04)

• On Oscar Night:

  • "You want to fucking win...When you lose, the world is out of sync, and then you get home and you take off your monkey suit and there's your speech, which is so much better than any speech that was given that night." (William H. Macy, 34:59–35:09)

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6. Collaborations with Paul Thomas Anderson (PTA)

[37:32 – 51:22]

• First Meeting for Boogie Nights:

  • "Paul started talking and he didn't stop for seven minutes...I realized, oh my god, he's auditioning, he's also twenty-eight, and he said, I'm the guy who's gonna make this decision." (William H. Macy, 38:51)

• Famous Boggie Nights Lines:

  • "We missed the cum shot!" (Adam Friedland, 39:49)
  • Macy recounts accidentally flubbing "ass in her cock" instead of "cock in her ass," with PTA choosing to keep the mistake for its authenticity.
  • "Paul...decided there was some wisdom, some truth in the reason I said it wrong. You were losing your mind." (William H. Macy, 41:46)

• Ensemble Dynamics: Macy compares filmmaking to a football team, emphasizing the harmony and occasional chaos of ensemble work.

• On Philip Seymour Hoffman:

  • "We all knew he was the best of us." (William H. Macy, 50:10)
  • "He makes it look so natural, you have to sort of remind yourself—this is Phil, this is the same guy that did that other thing..." (William H. Macy, 50:51)

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7. The Shameless Years & Craft Maturity

[56:11 – 61:12]

• Learning to Focus on Craft: Macy discusses personal growth during Shameless:

  • "I wish to God I could have learned earlier to do my job and let everybody do their job." (William H. Macy, 44:08)

• On Deep Listening:

  • "One of the foundations of acting is to really look and really listen. It turns out that's not something you can make a decision and then for the next ten episodes...You have to remind yourself before every single—not only scene, every take." (William H. Macy, 57:04–57:18)

• Practical Aesthetics over Method:

  • "There is no character. This is another tenant...The idea of character is a trick we play on the audience as a magician would..." (William H. Macy, 59:25–59:43)

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8. Industry Changes, Streaming, & Future Projects

[65:07 – 77:50]

• Film Industry Shifting to TV/Streaming: Macy voices nostalgia for character-driven movies and notes a return to theaters for some indies.

• Upcoming Projects:

  • Soul on Fire: A true story about a child burn survivor, with Macy playing Cardinals announcer Jack Buck.
    • "It's a lovely film...I met Joe [Buck]...it was really weird the first time they saw me dressed like their father, but they were very cool about it." (William H. Macy, 68:27–69:27)
  • Edgar Wright's The Running Man: New adaptation of the Stephen King novel—Macy has a supporting role shot in London.
    • "For this one, they went back to the book and it's big...it's a dystopian future..." (William H. Macy, 71:39)
  • Train Dreams: A quiet Western based on Denis Johnson's novella; Macy plays a poetic, philosophical character.
    • "It's very quiet; I've read the book...he's an amazing writer and they got his voice in this thing..." (William H. Macy, 75:49)

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9. Reflections on Legacy, Motivation, and Well-Being

[61:25 – 67:17]

• On Staying Healthy:

  • "No drinking, no smoking...I work out...gave up meat maybe ten years ago...and cutting back on drinking 'cause it's hard on you." (William H. Macy, 63:31–64:22)

• Why Keep Working: Macy finds meaning in creative challenge and the art itself, not retirement or money alone.

• Supporting Family, Avoiding Wealth-induced Idleness:

  • "I agree with Warren Buffett—I want to give them enough money they can do anything they want but not enough to do nothing." (William H. Macy, 66:00–66:21)

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10. Wisdom for Actors & Final Takeaways

[59:56 – 61:25]

• Acting Is a Craft:

  • "It's a craft. If you do it well enough, it's an art." (William H. Macy, 59:25)

• Advice for Younger Actors: Avoid method pretension.

  • "We're adults wearing costumes, President Lincoln. It's for you." (William H. Macy, 60:24)

• Favorite Line Ever Delivered:

  • "Let me save him, he's the president for God's sake." (William H. Macy, 73:39)

• Views on Violence in Film/Westerns:

  • "All this bullshit untruthful gunplay and violence in movies is hurting us as a culture because kids see it...Tell the truth about it." (William H. Macy, 75:13)

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On auditioning for Fargo:

  "I told Ethan, who had a new puppy, that I would kill the dog if he didn't cast me. Thank god he laughed." (William H. Macy, 28:15–29:04)

• On acting philosophy:

  "It's not what you feel, it's what you do." (William H. Macy, 13:38)

• On ensemble work:

  "When you get all those people of all different backgrounds...pulling in one direction for art...it's really moving." (William H. Macy, 42:32)

• On Philip Seymour Hoffman:

  "He makes it look so natural...a chameleon...he was magnificent." (William H. Macy, 50:51)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [05:21] Macy’s family and WWII anecdotes
• [10:36] Discovering acting and meeting Mamet
• [13:38] Acting philosophy and Mamet’s teaching
• [25:02] On the misery of auditioning
• [28:15 – 29:04] Auditioning for Fargo
• [39:39 – 41:46] Boogie Nights: famous lines and the “ass in her cock” flub
• [50:10 – 51:22] On Philip Seymour Hoffman
• [56:11 – 59:43] Shameless and deepening craft
• [65:07 – 68:27] Upcoming projects: Soul on Fire
• [73:39] Favorite line: “He’s the President for God’s sake.”
• [75:13] On violence and truth in Westerns

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Closing

This episode is a masterclass in both acting and storytelling, courtesy of a charming, self-effacing, and thoughtful William H. Macy. With rich detail and laugh-out-loud anecdotes, it offers a high-spirited and unfiltered look at the entertainment industry and the spirit behind a legendary career.

Transcript

[Adam Friedland]

i read the american masterpiece yes i

[William H. Macy]

was doing back no i was terrified that i wouldn't get it i was up all night everybody i knew in la was there i probably memorized my entire part the whole morning yeah damn i found out they were auditioning in new york i got my lutheran ass on an airplane and i crashed that audition and i said i really want this part i'm scared you're gonna screw up your movie by not casting me that was not a good idea what i did it worked i don't recommend it you say i said you're going to up your movie if you don't cast me i think i went farther and told ethan who had a new puppy that i would kill the dog if he didn't cast me thank god he laughed

[Caleb Pitts]

hello and welcome back to the adam friedland show it's adam friedland off top i just have to say i'm going back on the road it's

[Adam Friedland]

perhaps an economic necessity oh god i'm

[Caleb Pitts]

going back on the road folks this year twenty twenty six i will be hitting next year twenty twenty six i will be hitting a city near you first date seattle washington january twenty second to the twenty fourth five shows get your tickets at emeraldcitycomedy dot com there's also a link in the description my man over here mister mister knows what

[Adam Friedland]

year it is is gonna be there

[Caleb Pitts]

too mister caleb pitts give it up for him caleb pitts everyone also i'd like to as always thank our members for supporting us here on youtube dot com you make the show possible members get access to all of our episodes early and if you join at the second or third tiers you get your name in the credits of this fine program if you'd like to join the friedland family foundation you could do so by clicking the join button here on youtube at the top of the page or clicking the link in the description below you can also support us on patreon if you prefer the link for that is also in the description finally merch is available go to the adamfriedland show to check it out shirts hats some hoodies we got the freaking sick

[Adam Friedland]

you wanna just just yeah my man

[Caleb Pitts]

got the hoodie over there they're all available right now get them before they're gone they're flying like hotcakes my guest this week is emmy award winning actor william h macy i call him bill personally but you probably will you know him as william william is known for many roles in film and television gritt like fargo and shameless bill on the other hand is known by me for roles of some of my favorite films the tale of desper what is this

[Adam Friedland]

despereau are these movies that he was in

[Caleb Pitts]

so we're doing the thing again

[Adam Friedland]

where caleb writes it and then i kind of i'm not good at reading

[Caleb Pitts]

bill on the other hand is known by me for roles in some of my favorite films like the tale of despereau or marmaduke he's in marmaduke the dog one that's funny okay see some enjoy mystery horror romance i like talking animal movies there's a certain funniness to an animal that speaks english and to sit across from a veteran of the genre a man portrayed not only doctor don wha and to sit across from a veteran of the genre a man who portrayed not only don twombly but also desparo's father lester what a treat sometimes i can't believe my life ladies

[Adam Friedland]

and gentlemen william h macy wow it's a nice pick the eyes too phenomenal give it up for him guys and

[Caleb Pitts]

thomas eiseman caleb pitts i love my team okay ladies and gentlemen our next guest is a legendary american actor it's

[Adam Friedland]

a great honor william h macy everyone

[Caleb Pitts]

give it up for him guys boys

[Adam Friedland]

lot of noise what do you think forty thousand people forty thousand don't get up don't get up stop you stop you you're crazy we really let out the insane asylum with these guys huh

[William H. Macy]

we're in an empty room we're gonna

[Adam Friedland]

do don't please an empty room would you say that if you were shooting a picture and you know no i

[William H. Macy]

would only say that on your show

[Adam Friedland]

yeah yeah thank you thank you sir thank you so much for coming on so he's a huge fan he hasn't missed a single epis apparently that's what

[William H. Macy]

you were telling me before i think i missed one yeah yeah i think

[Adam Friedland]

he's missed every episode so this is gonna be it's it's a great honor i've been watching a lot of interviews with you and you know doing i do quite extensive research and you go you're bill yeah and i can say bill yes you can that makes me feel famous kind of you know what

[William H. Macy]

i mean i'm glad i remember like a cheap date but i'm glad

[Caleb Pitts]

i just want to go into you a

[Adam Friedland]

little bit your upbringing and then kind of just work our way out from there like i think you grew up you were born in miami grew up around atlanta and then maryland is that correct correct your father was a bomber in world war two he flew a

[William H. Macy]

b seventeen in world war two he

[Adam Friedland]

was a pilot he was a pilot did he get shot down no there was no hogan's heroes situation with him

[William H. Macy]

no when the eighth air force first went to england they would send over eighty planes and twenty would come back it was just this shy of a suicide mission by the time my dad got there eighty would go over and only twenty would not come back so it was death defying man

[Adam Friedland]

from what i understand the raf they would do nighttime just like bombing raids and they just bomb indiscriminately but the united states

[William H. Macy]

air force us said we can't hit

[Adam Friedland]

anything yeah we would go surgical and then thus it was a lot more

[William H. Macy]

dangerous it was a big controversy because in daylight bombing you stood a much bigger chance of getting shot down by the time my dad got there the luftwaffe was pretty much blown out of the skies and that was one thing but there was still a lot of

[Adam Friedland]

flak yeah i mean it would have been fun to be in one of those prank kind of prisoner of war camps where they were like pranking the commandante jokes altruism that's what they made it look like hogan's heroes yeah i

[William H. Macy]

took my dad to see well a war movie that was about b seventeen s and bomber pilots i said what'd you think and he said that's ludicrous it's ludicrous first of all you can't talk you can't take the headsets off and talk and even with the headsets you can bear there were four rolls royce engines with no mufflers on them

[Adam Friedland]

i mean they must have gone deaf

[William H. Macy]

yeah yeah my dad had hearing loss from that and the second thing of course in this movie they they had they thought bombing was not dramatic enough so they put you know interstitiary fighting between the bombardier and the pilot father said oh my god that's the stupidest premise ever when you were up there man you didn't think of anything except getting back alive i mean it was

[Adam Friedland]

just like literally like ten percent would come back

[William H. Macy]

at the beginning yeah my

[Adam Friedland]

grandfather was a cartographer in the raf actually and he was stationed in italy and then after he died i guess the flirt back in the day instead of like you know messaging someone on instagram was a snapshot it was like a passport sized photograph and then the girl would write a note on the back and he after he died my father and i were emptying out his office and there were stacks of these pictures of italian women in post war italy that were like barney i've never known a lover like you and i was like he was cleaning up

[William H. Macy]

but

[Adam Friedland]

yeah i mean i think being in the in the air i think was a sexy thing to chicks oh man

[William H. Macy]

one time i was living in chicago i grew up in cumberland maryland so you had to go to baltimore washington airport and i said pop can you take me he said yeah i'll take you i said we should leave at blah blah blah to get there it's a long drive and he said no i'll take you i said yeah i'm just saying i got to be there in alberta he said no i'll take you i said what are you saying he said i'll take you i said to chicago he said yeah i'll take you and he drove me to chicago we took two days to do it we hadn't gotten out of the driveway when my dad started telling me about every woman he had ever slept with

[Adam Friedland]

how bad was this war you know

[William H. Macy]

he said these guys were getting trim

[Adam Friedland]

left and right not in the pacific

[William H. Macy]

though crazy and the second the war was over it went back to that puritanical thing but during the war all bets were off he's like i'm not

[Adam Friedland]

lutheran you know all the way to

[William H. Macy]

chicago i sat there with my mouth open just listening soaking it up and it was before cell phones if i could have recorded that oh my god

[Adam Friedland]

oh my word yeah it's nice to know that our you know the older members of our family you know we're cool guys it makes you feel good i'm glad my grandfather yeah his older brother was a gunner in the raf also stationed in italy and a friend of his had a he took a shift for a guy and he was shot down by the nazis over crete and he's my father's namesake actually max friedland he's like that's the one instance of heroism in our entire family tree is that guy but anyway i want to get to you so from what i understand you knew that you wanted to go into acting and dramatic arts fairly young what were like some what were some like films and and like performances and actors that kind of spoke to you when you were growing up

[William H. Macy]

i did it in high school and i didn't fail which was new for me and then i did it in college and then i finally went to a hippie college in vermont called goddard college and that's where i met david mamet yeah and he taught me everything

[Adam Friedland]

he's your mentor if i understand my

[William H. Macy]

mentor my pal and he gave me my career and he taught me everything i know about acting and he's the smartest guy i've ever met present company excluded and i'm smarter i saw the french connection with gene hackman yeah and i thought if i could ever act like that that was my goal and remains my goal how old were you when you saw that twenties in your

[Adam Friedland]

twenties and you're like that man have you ever been in a car chase i mean i assume the actors don't drive the cars but i haven't but

[William H. Macy]

in that one this is before they started to crack down on that stuff gene hackmoon was driving and i've read yes and i've read stories that they owned a bunch of the streets but not all of them oh yeah and

[Adam Friedland]

it's also marseilles it's in marseille right which is like a mafia city no new york what's it's but it starts

[William H. Macy]

off yes it does the car chase

[Adam Friedland]

the car chases the arrest yeah but those are like yeah under the elevated trains of course yeah yeah oh my god so those old gene hackman rest

[William H. Macy]

in peace yeah yeah i never got to act with him dave did a movie with him he was never bad i saw him in some stinky movies

[Adam Friedland]

he was he was always the best part bad it's true yeah it's really just like i don't think there's anyone that's i mean yourself included actually the two of you might be the most just every time you're on screen everyone's like oh great like my pal yeah it feels that way yeah that's a good thing when you were studying with david mamet like as you've said he was your mentor like what what specifically were the things and the lessons that you he imparted on you that you've taken into your career

[William H. Macy]

well it was a hippie college so there were no grades and no tests and no requirements so we did theater all day and all night sometimes and there was a class of about thirty he had gone he graduated from goddard and he'd gone to new york and he did one year of the neighborhood playhouse and then he came back then so it's the technique is stanislavski through meisner roughly and he refined it when i start talking about acting technique i can see the will to live drained from people so just stop me at any time no

[Adam Friedland]

no no i'm getting a free class right now basically the cameras aren't even on i'm a schizophrenic person who's recreated the dick cavett show set and all my life savings and when they run out i'm not going to be able

[William H. Macy]

to talk to well that's sad i'm glad i made it before that happened yeah yeah hopefully anyway he took the meisner technique which is all about the objective as opposed to the emotions and he refined it even more so the lessons that he gave me he said it doesn't matter how you feel it's what you do i'm talking about you acting when the camera's rolling or the curtain is up it's what you do about it don't worry about how you feel about it he said he taught us that the most the founder of the feast is the writer and that it's not an actor's job to be funny it's the writer's job to be funny or dramatic and that our job was to find a solution to these problems and never give up so irrespective of what you're doing figure out what to do to fix it and let the rest go hang he taught us that the audience only wants to know one thing and one thing only what happens next that's it he simplified it and you know what it stuck with me for my whole life he said as an actor if anyone ever treats you with disrespect quit leave the room don't ever let that happen and this was back in a time when acting teachers were notoriously vicious notoriously like cult leaders in fact yes rip your soul

[Adam Friedland]

out of you they want to convince you that you were like molested even if you weren't like they were like yeah i've had friends have horror stories about acting acting teachers oh god yeah

[William H. Macy]

awful awful and i loved him for that because it's true it's true i even talked to a really famous teacher one time we were drinking i ended up standing on the table saying you're a fucking asshole he thought it was his job to rip people down to emotionally just to leave them in tatters and then rebuild them yeah and i said man i'd love to teach you how to teach and rip you down and destroy your self esteem so that i could make you a better teacher

[Adam Friedland]

also you're teaching because you don't know how the fuck to that i mean

[William H. Macy]

you said it i didn't i mean

[Adam Friedland]

it's like sometimes when you read a review like that's why like roger ebert made like an incredible movie right and i think like to some extent it's like if if you're talking shit on some other people's like you better you better just be able to do it yourself you know like beyond the valley of the dolls is an incredible picture

[William H. Macy]

but i will say dave mamet is a magnificent teacher and director and he knows more about storytelling than anybody i've ever met he couldn't act his way out of a paper bag and he was the first to see well he's a filmmaker you know he's a filmmaker

[Adam Friedland]

yeah yeah and as you know playwright and a screenwriter i mean it's so funny to imagine him at a hippie college though that's the visual that i'm getting because he's just like a fucking alpha male like sergeant major general you know and like he's surrounded by like the dawning of the age of aquarius

[William H. Macy]

you're not wrong you're not wrong we showed up first thing he said is you got to be on time if you're not on time i'll kick you out of the class and on time means five minutes early after that i'll lock the door and all this you know my hair was down to here i think i was stoned for the first five classes anyway because it was stone all day anyway you're like hey

[Adam Friedland]

president nixon man what on time on time what's the problem jesus chill out and so you got your start in theater in chicago with him is that

[William H. Macy]

correct yeah my friend stephen schacter and me after graduating from goddard we wanted to start a theater company that's another thing dave taught us you can sit by the phone or you can make your own fun and we decided to make our own fun so we we went to la tried to start a theater there which is like opening a sunday school in beirut it was just not a good idea and dave called up and he said billy stevie i just wrote this play it's called squirrels come on to chicago and he'd just done sexual perversity in chicago which was a huge hit did it at the organic theater stuart gordon directed it and yeah he was the beast he was the sorry about that he was the is that your daughter yeah does she know the show she might know the show i'll bet she does she knows everything she'll tell you it's good there was a paul simon a simon and garfunkel concert one time when the phone rang and our garfunkel said stop and he stopped the band and he said you better get that it could be

[Adam Friedland]

important he was a good actor too

[William H. Macy]

yes he was i just watched cardinal knowledge fabulous what a movie mike nichols

[Adam Friedland]

had you ever worked with him before no no no he came out of the theater as well you know you could tell in this nichols yeah yeah

[William H. Macy]

yeah second city him and elaine may

[Adam Friedland]

were just like i got to work

[William H. Macy]

with elaine once she is she was

[Adam Friedland]

the best yes the fucking best i saw her in a kenneth lonergan play yeah probably eight years ago and it like floored me she played like a matriarch that was like early stage dementia and the whole family was fucking sick and tired of her and it's just it it breaks you that oh man what was she like to interact with

[William H. Macy]

pretty crazy she had written the play it was called mister gogol and mister preen at lincoln center and

[Caleb Pitts]

she was

[William H. Macy]

she's a kook she's an eccentric and delightful and smart as a whip indefatigable knowledge of all things theatrical it was

[Adam Friedland]

something i found out when she made ishtar she was one of two women in the director's guild geez at the time i had no idea yeah i

[William H. Macy]

liked ishtar remember how they just skewed

[Caleb Pitts]

i liked ishtar i loved it well

[Adam Friedland]

it was that because she was spending

[William H. Macy]

so much money the camel the camel sunk well you know what i really

[Adam Friedland]

liked about that movie was that they got them to play against type totally dustin hoffman's the pimp and warren beatty's

[William H. Macy]

the nebbish i know genius casting and

[Adam Friedland]

they were both great oh my god we love them they're amazing yeah you

[William H. Macy]

can't what's the song you can't get respect if you play an accordion the

[Adam Friedland]

song i love funny songs too you know that as a through line throughout that movie is hilarious as well you

[Caleb Pitts]

know i hate that i have this

[Adam Friedland]

instinct to do it but we're really annoying people but it's just so funny because every name that comes up you're just surrounded by jewish people it was

[William H. Macy]

good for me one i was exotic yeah yeah no literally still had a

[Adam Friedland]

bit of a southern accent brazilian basically

[William H. Macy]

yeah right so they sort of marveled at me and every once in a while when we'd read something by ar gurney or something i had to translate this is what wasps do and dave once described me as being hebraically challenged he was on me all the time

[Adam Friedland]

he was a wild man he was like a gambler and like a smoke cigar he had cigars and stuff like that yeah he was kind of like what do you call it like peckinpah

[William H. Macy]

or something well strangely he's the most courtly and gentlemanly man i've ever met really yeah he's really good that way and a laser sharp mind i've seen him on a set greet the extras and introduce himself and fourteen hours later he says good day goodnight to them by name oh he has that like

[Adam Friedland]

bill clinton quality he's like just knows people's names yeah i mean the man's a genius you told a story about in chicago when he was living in the hotel on on a podcast that i heard once that i just thought

[William H. Macy]

it was so funny hotel lincoln yeah

[Adam Friedland]

yeah yeah but you were saying that like he would just disappear for weeks on end and you're like he's on another gambling vendor well he put this

[William H. Macy]

in american buffalo which was based on his card game which was uptown at a kenny's resale shop and dave was teach and kenny was donnie and i got to meet kenny and you'd know whether dave had won or not by his wristwatch if he had his wristwatch he was doing fine if he had no wristwatch we had to get the

[Adam Friedland]

chicken check did you have some rough customers after him was he like don't pick up the phone today yeah you didn't have you didn't have some like yeah you didn't have some guys that

[William H. Macy]

tough tough guy thing that he puts on he's a lover not a fighter although the best he's been taking jiu jitsu for a hundred years so i wouldn't want to tackle him i would

[Adam Friedland]

tackle david mamet without even saying hello i would take him down no you were in a lot of the original productions of a lot of his and you've been in a lot of pictures that he's made but like from there like what was the decision to kind of move to new york and then eventually la and like get in the business make movies be in movies we

[William H. Macy]

were pretty snobby in chicago i was there a little less than ten years we started a theater company called the saint nicholas theater company we were part of that off loop renaissance as they called it our theater was on halsted street and we were the bee's knees we started the theater with three solid gold hits you had to know me to get a ticket it was we were sold out reality set in shortly after that but i think in the back of my mind i always wanted to make movies yeah but at the time we thought i don't need to go to new york it's better theater here than in new york yeah it

[Adam Friedland]

was the same i do stand up so it was like i started in washington dc and like you start in a tertiary scene then at a certain point you have to go to new york or la if you want to make a career yeah so like you were working for about ten years prior to like i think in the eighties and early nineties you were like auditioning all the time you were on the fourth ever episode of law and order

[William H. Macy]

i was in the first law and order they aired it for the the fourth as the fourth i mean that's an honor i didn't know that until a couple of years ago when someone said you were in the pilot of law and order which is how actors paid their rent in new york for many years that and spencer for hire

[Adam Friedland]

is that a demoralizing process like going out all the time like you know going to set for a couple days just like being on that treadmill yes

[William H. Macy]

yeah yes auditioning is awful if there were a better way i'm sure someone would have thought of it but it's soul sucking it's really rough of the good things that have happened to me right after my wife and daughters not having to audition is really up there

[Adam Friedland]

did that that happened after fargo i

[William H. Macy]

would assume about a year or two

[Adam Friedland]

after far because you got the nomination

[William H. Macy]

i don't know i someone should have told me just get an oscar nomination you can quit auditioning i should have done it years earlier do you know

[Adam Friedland]

if you're gonna win or not when you're the you don't know they don't tip you up no no did you have like a prepared face for like if you didn't win a speech no a face like if they say someone else's name like you don't want to

[William H. Macy]

be like yes fuck yes because a couple of guys have yeah yeah or

[Adam Friedland]

women what do you do with your face and the winner is you pretend

[William H. Macy]

you're really happy that they won because

[Adam Friedland]

who won that year it was cuba

[William H. Macy]

cuba gooding oh that was rough that

[Adam Friedland]

was a big year i mean your performance in fargo and i want to get into it a little bit is just like the man is in hell like the man is just in literal

[William H. Macy]

hell it's a genius script how did

[Adam Friedland]

you walk us through the auditioning for it i mean you'd been on er at that point for a couple seasons so and you know like you you're making a living you know you're paying

[William H. Macy]

the damn rent yeah i'd moved to la and i had enough juice that i was working all the time guest stars and that kind of thing yeah

[Adam Friedland]

and so how did you know that this because from what i understand like you kind of pushed it real hard

[William H. Macy]

yeah yeah dave mamet taught me everything i know i think i'm pretty good at reading scripts and here's what i do and i suggest it i try to read them in one sitting i kind of skip over the stage directions because they're nonsense they don't help you and if you can see the film in your mind's eye you can read it if you skip the stage directions you can pretty much read it in the length of time the film will be when you see it in your mind's eye it's pretty easy to decide which is which are the good ones and which are the bad ones yeah so i'm pretty good at reading scripts and i read fargo you like the american masterpiece yes i was doing backflip no i was terrified that i wouldn't get it it was perfect for me i knew i i knew how to do the thing when i turned the last page i knew exactly how to do it so they called me in to read for the detective role and they said that's real good you want to read jerry lundegaard and i said yeah and i went out in the hall and i read it came back in they said that's real good you want to work on it and come tomorrow and i said absolutely i was up all night everybody i knew in la was there i probably memorized my entire part the whole morning yeah and i auditioned again they said that's real

[Adam Friedland]

good

[William H. Macy]

and then i found out they were auditioning in new york so i i got my lutheran ass on an airplane and i crashed that audition and i said i really want this part i'm scared you're gonna screw up your movie by not casting me that's mamet

[Adam Friedland]

that's like don't be afraid of these pussies yeah that's like that dave it seems like what he taught you to do is act but also just like just like this is all bullshit just like if you want something go for

[William H. Macy]

it yes that was not a good idea what i did it worked i don't recommend it what did you do don't do that what'd you say i said you're gonna fuck up your movie if you don't cast me i think i went farther and told ethan who had a new puppy that i would kill the dog if he didn't cast me thank god he laughed

[Caleb Pitts]

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[Adam Friedland]

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[Caleb Pitts]

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[Adam Friedland]

stormed the beaches of normandy when they put the flower in the barrel of

[Caleb Pitts]

hitler's gun and he shot himself

[Adam Friedland]

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[Caleb Pitts]

course your grandfather wants to remember the good times the time when

[Adam Friedland]

when he

[Caleb Pitts]

was throwing flowers so instead of getting him a picture of one of these things you can get him an aura frame where he could see all these

[Adam Friedland]

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[Caleb Pitts]

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[Adam Friedland]

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[Caleb Pitts]

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[William H. Macy]

by the way ethan cohen has a show at the atlantic theater company which i'm part of it's called let's love run don't walk it's the funniest thing it's magnificent they're geniuses they're geniuses and ethan is a stunning writer it's so freaking funny they are the best i

[Adam Friedland]

mean they're when i saw serious man i know i know you're not in it but i went into a three month depression yes because it's about just how it's just beyond how bullshit life is it's about how bullshit being jewish is and i just for my dad also went into a three month depression the two of us were i called him i was like i'm still fucking

[William H. Macy]

thinking about that movie they're really good at getting under your skin it's not

[Adam Friedland]

about the emotions about what you do right you said that before so it's not a matter of like drilling into some past trauma what it is is just approaching the work for what the

[William H. Macy]

assignment is right that's a good way of putting it that's our assignment yeah

[Adam Friedland]

so so is that how you went into undergrad obviously there was a dialect aspect of it too there's like minnesota nice which you were like fucking perfect at not very nice but

[William H. Macy]

i come from the school i'm not saying you don't have to do some research if you're going to play a doctor you got to learn how to do all that stuff if it's an accent you have to study if there's some physicalization you've got to memorize that but those are externals they're not acting the acting is looking at each other deciding what i'm going to do about what you just said and making that decision it's improvisatory it's got to be improvisatory same words i also believe i don't believe in ad libbing i say learn the script of course when dave mamet writes a script nobody has to be told to learn it exactly actors love his script so much they hold themselves to a higher standard than dave does i've never heard him bark at someone about paraphrasing loving a line as a matter of fact i've heard him say whoa you keep saying that well i must

[Adam Friedland]

have wrote it wrong really so he's not precious at all not at all that's very interesting isn't it yeah yeah so going for pargo like you had that oscar nominee what does it feel like sitting there at the academy awards did you want to win it seems

[William H. Macy]

like dear god you want to win

[Adam Friedland]

you want to fucking win do you have to go to a party afterwards

[William H. Macy]

don't have to but did you no

[Adam Friedland]

you drove home you only go to

[William H. Macy]

the party when you win you only go when you win and then it's a great party yeah yeah when you lose the world is out of sync and then you get home and you take off your monkey suit and there's your speech which is so much better than any speech that was given that night this is a great speech but

[Adam Friedland]

it's also best supporting so you gotta wrap it up fast because it's beginning that's the one where they start playing the music yeah and you have in the speech you have a guy that you deliberately don't think right no well i would if i was mad at someone i would just forget to say their name and you know who you are i have no idea what i'm

[William H. Macy]

saying i think and i hope you get to go to the academy awards sometime as a nominee but i'll tell you it's overwhelming there's no time to think of clever stuff maybe if you're one of those guys that's if you're meryl streep and this is your fortieth trip but i was i was a live wire i was oh my god i was cavalier about it on the way in too because i was directing a play here and it's that whole chicago attitude i thought you know i got a play to do fuck the academy awards you know so i didn't do much of a campaign woody would never go apparently i know a lot of people that won't go especially people that have gone it's kind of a baller move yeah i think you get old enough and you think i've done it i gave it the office i don't need to do this anymore the oscars i don't know the emmys i don't know but there's a bunch of awards out there and sometimes you get exhausted yeah i have to go to

[Adam Friedland]

the sag east yeah it's in a tent yeah the food is cold on

[William H. Macy]

the other hand if you can hold it lightly that's where you get to meet all your pals it's fabulous it's a fun night i've been to the emmys a lot of times i got two and there were all of us for about three or four years we'd see this all of us and modern family shameless and modern family was always

[Adam Friedland]

there do you talk shit to them

[William H. Macy]

no quite the opposite when we would lose both tables would get up and we're all toasting each other while somebody else is walking up there we're going

[Adam Friedland]

yeah when did you meet paul thomas anderson how did that come to pass

[William H. Macy]

they sent me boogie nights and the script they sent me was even more racy i thought it was being punked and i called my agent i said no this is legit it's got to have an r rating that's in the contract and then i when i got back to town i was working someplace i went to see his film hard eight and i thought i'll read the newspaper for this guy was he twenty five yes it's a fabulous film jesus christ and that him doing boogie night sign and i've told the story a lot and i think paul's okay with it but i went there ready to put the full court press on him how i saw the through line the way i was going to play it i thought you were auditioning and i said hey nice to meet you and paul started talking and he didn't stop for seven minutes and he talked me all the way through the film the way he was going to shoot it and at a point i realized oh my god he's auditioning he's also twenty

[Adam Friedland]

he's twenty eight he's twenty eight he

[William H. Macy]

said i'm the guy who's gonna make this decision and i remember going tell

[Adam Friedland]

me more you're an academy award nominated

[William H. Macy]

actor i know but twenty eight year olds margo was out a year and a half before i started feeling the

[Adam Friedland]

love the love yeah well speaking of flood lines i mean the thing is your character kind of kind of sets the insanity of that movie and like the end of your character's arc just sets the movie explodes right yes yes and it's the centerpiece kind of of the rise and the fall i like barry lyndon also and they're both rise and fall movies they're about a nimrod who nature pushes upwards and then begins to believe in their own genius and then nature slaps them down that's right but you famously you steal the show a couple times you have a couple lines in that movie that are just

[William H. Macy]

i know what you're talking about okay

[Adam Friedland]

the first is we miss the cum shot okay so that scene is so intense right i know and there's no dialogue and everyone's gasping and you break the tension i mean you that is it's so funny for that reason what did you say we missed the cub shot like he came inside of her should we go to stock footage yeah

[William H. Macy]

and everyone's stunned by the size of his member i think and burt played that thing you know he was trying to pretend he was in charge but he was he had had a bomb go off in his face too you know and he said

[Adam Friedland]

yeah that line and then of course the famous flubbed line so i it was a mistake

[William H. Macy]

correct yeah the wife is down in the driveway getting laid by all these guys and ricky j did this speech with me legend and i said do you mind my wife is down there with an ass in her cock i can't concentrate right now and he says sorry sorry sorry and paul came and said you said ass in her cock and i said i did sorry sorry and he said let's go again so we did the scene again and he said you said assin or cock again i said no no i didn't were you fucking with him no i said no i didn't it was just a brain worm yeah a brain fart i didn't i said no i didn't i said check the tape and he said let's just go again turns out i did it the second time and the third time i did it correctly and paul and this is why he's paul thomas anderson he decided there was some wisdom there was some truth in the reason that i said it wrong you were losing your mind yeah yeah i

[Adam Friedland]

mean it's such an amazing story i

[Caleb Pitts]

mean how does a set work right

[Adam Friedland]

like in a production that is so i mean does does you've been a character actor for a lot of your career right and in particular like pta's movies are so ensemble they're like robert altman's kind of movies so there there's so much chaos going on on camera like how a is the set chaos like how does one control that like how does a filmmaker control that and then you as an actor do you're kind of like on a football team if i had to assume you're like the nose tackle everyone has like a specialized kind of assignment like how do a group of you know eleven people

[William H. Macy]

become one thing that's what's glorious about this business it's everyone thinks hollywood it's one thing they're a bunch of liberal blah blah blah blah blah and it's not as you well know it's eclectic it's a hodgepodge of people and when you get all those people of all different backgrounds and political bents and race and creed and outlooks and ages and they're all pulling in one direction it's moving they're all pulling in one direction for art for a piece of art it's really moving what happens if just

[Adam Friedland]

one guy just fucking sucks if you've

[William H. Macy]

got a good director and good producer they'll straighten him or her up if you don't you suffer through it it's got a fucking one person can really

[Adam Friedland]

cause a lot of trouble you famously said that before i think you said something about i want to find the that it's a major block for you is that worrying about the potential for someone else i think you're i'm pretty sure you're talking about travolta and wild hogs no i'm joking i'm joking i'm joking he was fabulous i'm joking i'm

[William H. Macy]

joking okay okay no i think what you're referring to is when i did shameless that tv show it ran eleven seasons and i finally got my ten thousand hours if you know the phrase

[Adam Friedland]

malcolm gladwell thing yeah and one of

[William H. Macy]

the things that i learned which i wish to god i could have learned earlier was to do my job and let everybody do their job i'm pretty sure i was a jerk at the beginning of my career i thought i knew more than everybody else and i took responsibility and worried about stuff that was not in my purview at all and it causes chaos when someone does

[Adam Friedland]

that is there like a key grip or a best boy that you'd like

[William H. Macy]

to apologize to no probably more directors than actors

[Adam Friedland]

and so what would be my what would you say if john travolta was here about your behavior towards him on the set of wild hogs

[William H. Macy]

you're stirring up the pot aren't you

[Adam Friedland]

i'm just teasing now i will tell

[William H. Macy]

you this about john travolta and this is unknown there is a hierarchy on the set and the number one on the call sheet has a responsibility i mean we need no ghost from the grave to tell us that shit flows downhill so if you've got a bad producer you know a mean disrespectful producer or a mean disrespectful director or a mean disrespectful number one on the call sheet everyone's going to suffer and the converse is true if those guys are great or people men or women are respectful and kind and create a set that is safe nobody will act up it just they set the tone and john is great at that he's always number one on the call sheet and he just sets the tone of kindness and respect on the set being on

[Adam Friedland]

the set like a set like boogie nights it feels like it looks like when you're watching the movie like these guys are having a blast even when the cameras weren't rolling it had it was it like summer camp or something

[William H. Macy]

like that there was a lot of joking and a lot of humor on that set because paul is he loves making movies it shows yeah he's got a huge knowledge of every movie ever made and he loves actors so he was delighted every second of the day even when we were chasing the sun or it was a tough scene like that first scene we rehearsed that thing forever the tracking shot yes yeah and that makes producers very nervous because it's three o' clock in the afternoon and you haven't rolled a piece of film yet but then when you do the whole scene's done burt reynolds was he

[Adam Friedland]

was like he was a curmudgeon on set like notoriously i made a joke

[William H. Macy]

one time he said mentioned smokey and the bandit and i said something snarky and everyone thought he's gonna deck you

[Adam Friedland]

what did you say what was the

[William H. Macy]

joke i'm sorry he said we were trying to decide how to do something and he said well in smoking the bandit i did blah blah blah blah blah and i said something to the effect of well we know how that turned out and everyone goes oh my god what happened i laughed immediately going aren't i funny i was just making that was hyperbole but paul said you came close to getting decked apparently mark

[Adam Friedland]

wahlberg also says it's the one movie he regrets because he's very catholic yeah

[Caleb Pitts]

a movie about your penis being enormous

[Adam Friedland]

yeah what an idiot if i was in a movie called the biggest penis of all time yeah and i'm like i really regret that no no it's it's like oh so embarrassing that movie about the biggest i watched magnolia within the last year and i lost a parent i hadn't seen it since i'd lost a parent and my understanding is that paul wrote it after his father passed away but that movie was devastating after losing a parent you played donnie the quiz kid yes and that character is also just in the vein of you were kind of on a run of like just these tragic men characters but that performance of yours is just

[William H. Macy]

it's brutal thank you so much it's

[Adam Friedland]

a man reaching out for love and

[William H. Macy]

i have a lot of love i just don't know where to put it

[Caleb Pitts]

the braces

[Adam Friedland]

getting braces to impress a hunk that's that just doesn't even know

[William H. Macy]

you're alive oh my god i have to see that i haven't seen it in a long time i want to see that again my daughters just saw

[Adam Friedland]

it it devastates you yeah yeah i mean it's a phenomenal movie what was it like working with pta the second time around

[William H. Macy]

a joy so many people from boogie nights had come on for the second one so we knew each other i mean making a movie is like a pickup baseball team it's scary and you get there and it's your friends most people have this experience you know when you begin the second if you've got a big role when you begin the second or third day or the second week you go oh now i know how to do this i understand this if only we could go back and start again so when it's people you know there's an ease about it so it's a head start i'm a big believer in rehearsal was there

[Adam Friedland]

someone in that crew that felt like top of the class was phil hoffman like working with him were you like this is i mean this is the greatest actor in the world i think

[William H. Macy]

we all knew he was the best

[Adam Friedland]

of us what was it like just in the flesh watching him work

[Unidentified Speaker]

like

[Adam Friedland]

what did he do with the words on the page that were just like how did he was it magic or

[William H. Macy]

like it was a bit magical first of all all i knew about him was boogie nights you know eating the pencil and hugging himself and so so

[Adam Friedland]

implosive the boom pole where he's like basically ejaculating in his own pants is

[William H. Macy]

one of the fun i missed that

[Adam Friedland]

part well that's right after we missed the cum shot that's right before we missed the cum shot yeah yeah he

[William H. Macy]

makes it look so natural you have to sort of remind yourself this is phil this is the same guy that did that other thing he was magnificent i think i really i really fell in love with him after magnolia when i saw him do these other roles i mean talk about being a chameleon and he he didn't change his appearance that much he was just a different guy in the same skin it was

[Adam Friedland]

almost as if you had never seen him before but he looked exactly the

[William H. Macy]

same yep he had he's a complicated man all those characters live within him yeah obviously we found out do you

[Adam Friedland]

get a better performance when you're like

[William H. Macy]

with someone like that i think so i think so i mean if you want longevity in this business you can't count on that but boy it's you know a rising tide lifts all boats and when the leads in the thing are just killing it and simple and honest and so in your face so when they look at you you're being looked at it's powerful it's powerful medicine

[Adam Friedland]

you're just seeing like him go ninety nine yards with the ball yeah every time yeah and you're like i better

[Caleb Pitts]

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[Adam Friedland]

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[William H. Macy]

you want to hear a great story yes it became clear that shameless was going to run for a while i think about the fourth or fifth season we were selling like hotcakes and felicity my wife said what are you going to do next season what are you going to work on next season i said what do you mean she said well you've got this lab you get to act every day you get to act all this stuff do you have a goal something you want to work on i married very well and i said good god you're right i hadn't thought about it and it sounds trite and it sounds mundane but one of the foundations of acting is to really look and really listen yeah and to a certain extent really talk really talk to someone and

[Adam Friedland]

to react to what someone else is

[William H. Macy]

no you can let that go you can let that go okay write that down but to really look and really listen so i decided in that next season i would really look and really listen and it turns out that's not something you can make a decision and then for the next ten episodes or twelve episodes you'll do it you have to remind yourself before every single not only scene every take you got to remind yourself because everything is trying to push your attention back on yourself everything and this is what happened i would do we would do a take and i would go bill really look and really listen so we do the second take and i would really look at my fellow actor and nine times out of ten they would go i'm sorry you gotta cut i have no idea what my line is sorry it just

[Adam Friedland]

went up on my lines you're getting

[William H. Macy]

in their heads they saw me really looking at them and they went what's

[Adam Friedland]

going on really yeah so did they have to account for that or did

[William H. Macy]

they i don't think they ever knew it's because i was really looking at them rather than actor looking at them right as a guy as a as the guy as the guy yeah as the guy no as me as you yeah that's the difference there is no character this is another tenant of this

[Caleb Pitts]

thing i like this this makes a

[Adam Friedland]

whole lot more sense than this like yeah when you were three you you you pissed yourself and that you have to bring this into your scene where you're playing some sort of marvel superhero it doesn't make any sense it's like

[William H. Macy]

i don't think it's possible either it's so cultish i know for me when everybody gets quiet and the camera starts rolling i've got all i can do yeah to get the lines out properly and to really look at someone and improvise with them throw them a curveball see what they do figure out what i'm going to do based on that i can't think of another thing to do so the idea of bringing forth the time sparky got run over i can't do that or even if you do it before the scene it's gone

[Adam Friedland]

you're like a guy going to the office and you're doing your job and you're focusing on your fucking job yeah

[William H. Macy]

it's a craft yeah it's a it's really a craft if you do it well enough it's an art but ain't everything yeah character that the idea of character is a trick we play on the audience as a magician would and the audience says yes tricked me again

[Adam Friedland]

yeah that's i think that that is like an articulation of that's right acting that i that is like the most down to earth articulation of the craft that i think i've ever heard a

[William H. Macy]

performer give that's why atlantic theater company which has a school they call it practical aesthetics yeah with the emphasis being

[Adam Friedland]

on practical is it annoying to work with a guy that's just like fully method and he's like and you're like eating lunch with him and you're like come on dude

[William H. Macy]

come on this is one of the things i learned in

[Adam Friedland]

stop we're not actually ninjas okay yeah right we're playing ninjas at work we're

[William H. Macy]

adults wearing costumes president lincoln it's for you

[Adam Friedland]

who was like that like is there anyone in particular that was that

[William H. Macy]

are like that oh sure it's it's yeah it's a a common story that they want to be the character brando is like that right no i don't know off off stage i'm not sure i've never heard that he's the best he's the best who's been your hero throughout your career in theory meryl streep could be bad but she's never been bad yet no she can do anything i'd love to work with her if she's listening the aforementioned gene hackman a genius actor never saw him be bad there's a whole bunch of them man

[Adam Friedland]

you guys are good

[William H. Macy]

acting's gotten better i mean it was just seventy five years ago when to show that you were upset you went like this that's not that long ago that that was acting and look where we are now

[Adam Friedland]

there's a movie i really like with you that like i don't know if anyone remembers especially not these boys they were born after nine eleven you were yeah that's crazy anyway

[William H. Macy]

my hemorrhoid just acted up when he gave him a hemorrhoid no he's had it but it just hurt when he said why'd you

[Adam Friedland]

hurt his hemorrhoid the cooler fabulous what

[William H. Macy]

a good movie fabulous you kind of

[Adam Friedland]

returned kind of to your broken man

[William H. Macy]

and i'll tell you they sent me the cooler and i thought nope if i do this i'm just gonna be jerry lundegaard for the rest of my life the hapless loser i don't want to play that role because in real

[Adam Friedland]

life you're one of the coolest guys

[William H. Macy]

i've ever met i think so too

[Adam Friedland]

maybe they named it that to trick you into thinking it's a cool guy

[William H. Macy]

yeah yeah god bless ed pressman who i'm pretty sure i had that right was the producer he wouldn't take no for an answer and the director they just hounded me and i'm glad i did it and you guys should see

[Adam Friedland]

it it's a movie it's not for

[William H. Macy]

me for maria bello she is just

[Adam Friedland]

stunning it's a really touching love story there yeah like it's a movie about a casino who hires a guy who's such a such a loser that his loserdom actually like kind of radiates towards the guy at the table and the

[William H. Macy]

casino has hired me if someone's at blackjack and winning all the time you

[Adam Friedland]

just bring him out all i gotta do is sit there and have a drink and then the guy starts losing

[William H. Macy]

there's a scene of a guy throwing craps and he's winning every time and i just walk by in my ill fitting suit schlumped by and i just put my hand on the table and i walk away and as soon as i walk away you hear oh

[Adam Friedland]

well

[William H. Macy]

you're seventy five now i'm seventy five

[Adam Friedland]

you look fucking great thanks how'd you do it no drinking no smoking i

[William H. Macy]

own a distillery i don't own the whole thing i woody creek distillers nope i love to drink you love to

[Adam Friedland]

drink why do you look so good

[William H. Macy]

beats me i think i can thank mom and dad and every woman i've ever gone out with exercised like crazy so i did it too and felicity is no exception and then about twenty two years ago twenty four years ago twenty two years ago we hired a trainer in la and we've had the same trainer for twenty two years i'm still working with her so i work out you work out i work out and i gave up meat maybe ten years ago and i'm cutting back on the drinking because it's hard on you

[Adam Friedland]

oh i was gonna say after this

[William H. Macy]

we could i know it's oh okay

[Adam Friedland]

it's like what time is it it's

[William H. Macy]

noon it's twelve o' clock somewhere dude

[Adam Friedland]

twelve o' clock it is literally probably twelve o' clock right now personally like i once once you're engaged with your work i feel this way right now like i don't really ever want to stop doing like work i hear you you know and like so what mode what motivates you like looking ahead like future challenges like you know you've directed of course you've written but like what what's like what is you know what are you searching for like what or or are you content like just drinking in colorado when i took off some

[William H. Macy]

time it turns out i'm not good at that i need some sort of creative challenge it's the way i've always challenged myself in my life and i think i need that turns out i'm not as rich as i thought i was too what did she do who

[Adam Friedland]

your your wife she bought a boat

[William H. Macy]

no no no she makes more money than i do no i just i like i like to live large and you do i do i do what

[Adam Friedland]

like what you what you're ostentatious gentleman

[William H. Macy]

no but we have we still have a house in la and one in in woody creek and that's expensive and i like not looking at the check

[Adam Friedland]

just i don't know how much money

[William H. Macy]

i have yeah it's a great feeling they'll call me i've got two daughters and you know i'd love to make sure that they can do anything in their lives that they want to i agree with warren buffett i want to give them enough money they can do anything they want to but not enough to do nothing right i have a

[Adam Friedland]

friend who's a billionaire son who just he just reads that carl oven nausgaard book and smokes cigarettes he just has nothing to do he just smokes cigarettes and reads my struggle by karl hoven it's really like he's got great knicks

[William H. Macy]

tickets to answer your question though i do want to i still like acting and i feel like i recently got pretty good at it you know i put down a lot of baggage that i carry around you're not yeah i think i can do it and there's always an altercocker in any film so i think there's work for me do i want to carry a film do

[Adam Friedland]

you want a paris texas yeah yeah

[William H. Macy]

i did a one called happy texas have you ever seen that great movie fabulous

[Adam Friedland]

the guys on the lam and they're they have to act like gay guys and then you're the sheriff and

[William H. Macy]

i'm the sheriff right and you're gay yeah and i fall in love with

[Adam Friedland]

one what do you make of like the shift in the industry so obviously you're on a television series for eleven years right it seems like there's been a shift towards that medium tv's where

[William H. Macy]

it's at do you do you streaming

[Adam Friedland]

do you miss the movies yeah i miss them me too remember when they

[William H. Macy]

were about people they're still about people

[Adam Friedland]

sometimes they're just trying to engage with

[William H. Macy]

some oh the movies the movies yeah it seems that they wanted comic books are the only thing that they can guarantee but there's a shift it's recent last couple of years i've done a lot of indies and they're sometimes they just four wall them and put them in theaters but they're bunch of them i've been involved with where they're going into theaters and i think they might succeed i've got this one that's coming out any minute and train dreams no soul on fire okay i think they're gonna put it in a thousand theaters

[Adam Friedland]

who made it you want to indy

[William H. Macy]

i'm behind it i think they might have sold it but i don't know who they sold it to anyway saudi arabia i'm off to saint louis next week for the opening and i'll find out a lot more lovely film what is it about it's a true story about this guy who as a child was burned over ninety percent of his body ninety two percent he should have died but he didn't and i played jack buck the cardinals announcer cardinals announcer and joe buck's dad yep i met joe and i did a look alike with jack you know that white hair i did that and it was really weird his when i met the family i was on set the first time they saw me and here i am dressed and looking like their father but they were very cool about it that's

[Adam Friedland]

your second announcer role right seabiscuit you're the tiktok you're tiktok yeah you're the guy with the sound effect i know

[William H. Macy]

that's a great role that guy was

[Adam Friedland]

you were talking a mile a minute

[William H. Macy]

in that movie yes i practiced it so i could do it really fast and i did about three takes and gary said great it's great it's great what if you do one really fast

[Adam Friedland]

and that was the fastest you could

[William H. Macy]

go what are you talking about that's as fast as my tongue can work

[Adam Friedland]

so you got hooked on methamphetamine on

[William H. Macy]

that set no it's before that i should have yeah should have started my meth habit earlier yeah yeah you made

[Adam Friedland]

a you directed a sex road trip comedy with alexandra daddario and kate upton

[William H. Macy]

all right enough said no it was you know it's about two women in their early to mid twenties who are having a crisis so who better to direct it than a seventy year old

[Adam Friedland]

man yeah i bet it was were you in pajamas the entire time i should have been were you in a

[William H. Macy]

bathrobe they did great and it's got moments in it but i did not do that script justice as a director i've done three of them eyes up here maybe yeah i threw my hat in the ring by the way right i threw my hat in the ring to direct another one so i haven't learned my lesson are the boobs gonna be even bigger were there boobs in

[Adam Friedland]

that oh what a professional ladies and

[William H. Macy]

gentlemen what a professional they were stunning women boy everywhere we went it was like moses parting the sea crickets would stop chirping when they came on set birds were so so fine looking and really delightful both women we had a good amount of fun on the thing

[Adam Friedland]

i want to talk about your two projects that are coming up you're in edgar wright edgar wright's new picture the running man which i understand is the stephen king adaptation he wrote the book

[William H. Macy]

and there was the schwarzenegger version of it and for this one they went back to the book and it's big we shot it in london i've got two scenes it's like a most dangerous game kind of thing yeah yeah it's a dystopian future the government which looks like a studio it's more television than government runs everything and there's this game they choose a guy as the running man he starts going if he gets if he can stay alive for a certain amount of time they give him a million dollars but anyone can kill

[Adam Friedland]

him oh anyone anyone oh wow it's

[William H. Macy]

like the game mafia yeah yeah and

[Adam Friedland]

you happen to be best friends with arnold schwarzenegger no i got that one

[Caleb Pitts]

wrong

[Adam Friedland]

so now that you're working out do you think you could go toe to toe with arnold yeah maybe enter a couple competitions maybe i would do

[William H. Macy]

it if it was he and i

[Adam Friedland]

just the two of you just the two of us he's amazing i love him so much yeah i can't my father and i one of the biggest categories of pictures that i grew up watching were just the neck snap genre the genre where the guy just kills someone by snapping them their neck so i've seen pretty much every seagal john clavin dem you know they make it

[William H. Macy]

look so easy they just walk up and go and that's it yeah that

[Adam Friedland]

could be a good goal for you moving forward you know at seventy five you haven't done one neck snap no yeah yeah or have you ever said

[William H. Macy]

secure the perimeter nope never lock it

[Adam Friedland]

down no no what's your favorite line you've ever delivered in any movie

[William H. Macy]

it's not mine it's mamet who went insane i did air force one and i say let me save him he's the president for god's sake dave still quotes that to me

[Adam Friedland]

no it's just even your delivery makes it funnier he's the president for guns that movie is awesome

[William H. Macy]

this is get off the plane this is while harrison's on the back of the plane going like this you know

[Adam Friedland]

the president is hanging off the plane let me save him it's the president well we should talk about train dreams

[William H. Macy]

yes yeah i love westerns i'd love to do a western but they're all just to coin a phrase horseshit because all the westerns that come out now are based on western movies john ford movies and the real west the best ever is best it's it's fascinating the shootout at the ok corral you ready for this two guys got shot got killed yeah four guys five guys got shot and that lives in lore they've written poems and songs written movies about them that's the biggest shootout in the west i read a western script the other day there's fourteen bodies on page three just blaming away it's like hong kong action and i've shot off my mouth a lot about it but i think all this bullshit untruthful gunplay and violence in movies is hurting us as a culture because kids see it and you know this whole thing we used to say hey don't blame i'm just the messenger this is what america's like that's not what america's like it's horseshit and it really offends me i just think tell the truth about it just

[Adam Friedland]

tell the truth and that's kind of what the new picture that you're in with joel edgerton yes yeah it's about

[William H. Macy]

this couldn't be quieter and simpler what

[Adam Friedland]

i understand is your character is kind of like a poet and a philosopher

[William H. Macy]

kind of like it's based on a novella it's very quiet i've read the

[Adam Friedland]

book the dennis johnson book yeah i read it because it was short this

[William H. Macy]

is pretty close i read it on

[Adam Friedland]

vacation this is pretty close he's an

[William H. Macy]

amazing writer and they got his voice in this thing and he's joel is great in it and everybody it's quiet it's so moving we were in toronto were you in toronto or you just

[Adam Friedland]

saw that thing i heard you i heard something where you you spoke about

[William H. Macy]

it we watched the thing i hadn't seen it completed i had seen a cut and i'm watching it in the big theater with a lot of people and i was a mess i was weeping like a baby and then they go okay time to get up on stage now yeah and i was still

[Adam Friedland]

really was that the first time you'd

[William H. Macy]

seen it finished yeah finished it and it's different when you see it with a bunch of people as we in a theater yeah theaters man especially with

[Adam Friedland]

comedy like seeing an audience laugh at a joke especially if you made something and you've that you like deliberately done a cut like an edit like it just it feels so satisfying it feels more satisfying than doing stand up for me it's like seeing an audience something you've totally agreed you're watching from the side you're not watching from from the stage you can't really with the lights you can't really see see i mean you know that from the theater well

[William H. Macy]

the way i put it is i've written a bunch of stuff and a lot almost all of it has humor in it and when you sit at your typewriter that's how far back i go and you write a joke and it goes from there to a producer who steps on it and then it goes to a director and then it goes to production designer then it goes to the actors and if that joke is still funny after all those people have handled it that's a good joke that's the highest high i've ever had in this business getting a pop feels

[Adam Friedland]

good oh getting a pop feels good we missed the cum shot yes

[Caleb Pitts]

guys

[Adam Friedland]

thank you for your time thanks william h macy i've loved this you've loved

[William H. Macy]

it yeah you could do this professionally this was a great oh you do

[Adam Friedland]

yeah i do sorry oh no yeah sa