William H. Macy Wants to Do Bigger Films, Play Bad Guy After ‘Shameless’

William H. Macy not completely sold on doing another long-running TV series after an impressive 11-year stint no shame.

William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman’s Timeline

“I don’t think, but I never say. I have a bucket list of what I want to do, and I focus on those things,” the Emmy winner, 72, said exclusively. Us Weekly. “But if the series comes, it can happen. I’d rather do a bigger movie. I want to play a bad guy. I mean, really bad guy. I’ve never done horror.”

Macy played Frank Gallagher on the beloved Showtime drama from 2011 to 2021. Since then, he has appeared on Hulu. At Break up and now the stars are together Diane Keaton, Susan Sarandon and Richard Gere in a romantic comedy maybe i which will be shown in theaters on January 27.

“I am no shame for 11 years. And unlike the big features, one of the tentpole items you’re most likely to have in the trailer is waiting for your little one, meaning, they’ll take a quarter of a page in a day. On no shame we will shoot 11 pages in a day. Thank you very much,” he said us, laughing. “I’m happy because as an actor, I’m on the set all the time. They get very good about the schedule. And when I’m there, I’m acting. And that’s what I like the most. I like when everyone is quiet and it’s my turn. Part of waiting, that it will get a bit clawy after a while.

Shameless Cast: Where are they now?

Although he has said goodbye to his fictional Chicago family, he keeps track of them. “All the players from no shameeveryone is working. Jeremy [Allen White] it’s the only kill in his series The Bear. Oh my God, he’s amazing,” he said. “Shanola’s [Hampton] moving from one job to another.”

He even recently reunited with his on-screen daughter Emma Kenney on her ABC comedy The Conners. “When he started doing it no shame, he is still a child! He can’t drive, he doesn’t even have a girlfriend. The first boy he kissed was on camera in front of the whole country,” she said. “I was so proud to see him do it [The Conners]. He works all the time. Everyone is working except me!”

He added: “I’ve never done a sitcom before and I love it. I mean, it’s an art form and we Americans have done it well. The big ones are great, and they’re always going to be big. I’m talking about All in the Family and Friends and cheering. And it’s amazing that he managed to do that in five days. He did this little morality play for five days. I don’t know how they do it. It’s funny.”

At Fargo the actor has apparently done everything – from TV to the stage, blockbusters and indies. But he still had one deal when he read the new script.

“One thing I don’t understand is violence in movies. I’m a horsesh-t. And I wish our industry would do more to start – if you’re going to have violence, at least tell the truth. But the movies we make today, the violence It’s nonsense. It’s a lie. It’s not true violence. And I think it’s bad for body politics. I think it’s bad for us as a culture to have so much violence and no consequences. No one should pay the price for that kind of violence,” he said. us. “My children [Sophia and Georgia] and I want to go to the airport one time, and we live in the mountains, so it’s far. And we count the number of billboards that have beautiful actors holding guns in our faces. And we got bored after about 15 movies. … And I think it’s rubbish. I’m done with it. So cut as much as I can. The writing is weak.”

Jeremy Allen White and Addison Timlin Relationship Timeline

He added, with a laugh: “But I beat around the bush. Let me tell you what I mean!”

Read more about Macy’s:

we: At this point in your career, what makes you want to be a part of a particular project? And has the thought process changed over time?

WM: Already. The way I think about it is when I’m in my twenties, I’ll read the script and I’ll ask myself, ‘What is this, how does this show the human condition and what it means to be human? ‘ Then when I was in my forties, I said, ‘How much am I going to get paid?’ [Laughs] And now I’m just asking, ‘Should I get wet?’ So here is my progress in deciding on a script. But in all seriousness, when [Maybe I Do] been around for a while, had many permutations that fell apart and they could not get it off the ground. I was later in the process when Michael [Jacobs] called me, but when I heard this, the cast, I was just beside myself with glee to get to work with these people. It’s kind of a dream come true.

we: You’ve played a lot of downtrodden characters over the years. What is it that catches your attention when you read the script?

WM: I think I am. [Laughs] In this business to a certain extent. If you do well, they will ask you to do it again. And I was worried as a young man, when I did a lot of theater, I was a callow young man who got whacked over the head again and again. And when I Fargo, I thought, oh boy, am I going to be pigeonholed and play this loser role from now on? And interestingly, the script for The cooler came out and I looked at it and I said, ‘No, I’ve drawn the line. No more losses.’ But thank God they stayed after I did. … But I don’t get pigeonholed as playing losers. I have played strong characters and funny characters, and I have no complaints. I’ve got to play a lot of different things.

we: Is there one genre that gives you something that the others don’t and it’s hard to choose which one you prefer?

WM: Yes, because they all have their wonderful parts. Also, it changed. Everything changed a few years ago, and now it’s changing again. They are currently working on an indie film. A lot of people come to my table and they’re putting the movie in the theater again, it’s four walls, so the old becomes the new. What goes around comes around. I love making blockbuster movies. It’s a very specific pace. They pay more money, your trailer is bigger and you can get home in a reasonable hour. It does not chase the sun all the time. Although, you know what, you spend $5 million on a movie, you spend $500 million on a movie, but you’re always behind schedule and in a hurry. TV is great. I always like it because it’s an actor’s medium. You can act all day.

we: You have undergone many physical transformations on screen. Do you like being in the makeup chair or not?

WM: Yes, transformation. No, I don’t like being in the makeup chair. As a matter of fact, check it out. [Shows his ponytail.] … That’s not me! That’s for the part. I don’t know. I apologize to my wife [Felicity Huffman]. Really hard. They hurt a little. And also, your hair – I don’t know how you manage it. I have this stuff, it’s always on my face. They’ll cut it when I set it up, but we’ll see.

we: What advice would you give to your younger self?

WM: Take the Fountain! It’s an old joke. He asked Bette Davis what advice do you have for young actors moving to LA? And he said, take the Fountain [Avenue], which is a road from west to east with very few lights. You can be very fast. My advice to myself is that I wish I had caught everything – of course, everyone thinks this – I wish I could have caught things more slowly. I wish I had chosen one less hill to die on. One of the great gifts to do no shame for me there are things that I kind of give up. You know, back in the day, I’d get a scene and I’d say, ‘That’s a bad scene! Stop the press. Call the guard. It was a bad sight. We have to fix the scene.’

And after 11 years no shame, Sometimes I’ll do a scene, I’ll say, ‘Okay, I don’t think it’s a very good scene,’ but when I see the stuff that’s aired, it’s okay. It’s good. I’m not wrong. It’s not a pretty sight, but that’s okay. These things can be done. You don’t have to score every point. I will tell myself young [to] can be harder in memorizing lines. Start early, work later. Besides, you know, I have normal regrets. Sometimes I’m cruel, sometimes I’m stupid. But I have been a lucky man. I have been in many wonderful movies and met the most wonderful people. And I counted on one hand the number of movies that I was in the south and it was a disaster. I have been lucky.