For six seasons, actor William H. Macy has been through the mill. As Frank Gallagher, patriarch of the highly dysfunctional Gallagher family on Showtime's hit series "Shameless," it appears there's nothing the show's writers won't throw at him. However, Macy insists when it comes to Frank, he does have standards. But is there really anything Frank wouldn't do?
"I hope so," Macy tells Headlines & Global News exclusively. "I'm too afraid to say what they are out loud, though, as the writers would do it. Frank does have his standards. He just does what he needs to do to live the best life you can. He's not a violent man; he doesn't want to hurt people, although that does exist in him."
Over the course of the show, Frank's journey has been fraught with every emotion possible. Things culminated last season when he learned his beloved girlfriend Bianca had terminal cancer and chose to abruptly take her own life. The ramifications are still taking a toll.
Is it the unexpected that makes the show as good as it is?
Oh always, it's one of the most important things to me, I love a film where I don't expect it.
Do you think we'll ever go back to just seeing the old messed-up Frank?
I think you might be onto something. We've established it, my character got a new liver, and they require some care. So what we've done since I got my liver, about a season and a half ago, is he doesn't drink that much. But because of all the surgeries he's able to get prescription drugs, and he's still as high as a kite, just doesn't drink that much. Could he get drunk again? It could happen. We sort of held ourselves, and I requested it of the writers, that we play true to a guy that had a liver transplant. The truth of the matter is if Frank goes out and drinks himself silly he will pay a dear price and be sick for weeks. If he does it too many times he'll end up in the hospital or probably dead. There are no more livers for Frank, so it's serious. I have a couple of times drunk too much and played it that I was sick as a dog.
Being a family man, what's it like playing a character whose family hates him?
I'm thick-skinned, and I have to admit that sometimes some of the things that happen to Frank on the show hurt my feelings. Sometimes, it's happened a lot, when he's blasted himself out of the family and they won't to have anything to do with him. So I'll watch the show, and there will be scenes of the family loving each other and Franks out of the picture, that makes me sad, and it does hurt my feelings. The part about walking down the street and people saying, "Oh, 'Shameless,' I hate you! I hate you man, you're great, it's not you, but jeez you should be euthanized." I usually just say thank you, what can you do?
People actually say that to you?
Yes, and they will usually catch themselves quickly but will say they can't believe the crap I do.
That just proves you're doing a good job.
Bull's-eye - yes it is, absolutely! I love that I get under people's skin and will call that a success. That's the way I measure things. I got some acupuncture recently, and the first time you do it, or if you haven't had it done for a while, it does get you emotional. I pulled a muscle and needed it so I got stuck a lot. Anyway, it does make you a little wonky when you get off the table, so I got home and watched the movie "Brooklyn." I was so wonky and emotional from the acupuncture, and there was a scene where I had to leave the room. I didn't even pause it, I just left the room, went to the back of the house to where Felicity was, and she asked, "What's wrong?" I just screamed, "She's falling in love again and she just met this guy, he's so sweet and I think she might be pregnant, and they are in Ireland." I was just a mess. I had to watch the whole movie standing up walking around weeping my eyes out.
But you're doing that without having to have acupuncture?
I know, and I'm the luckiest palooka. Felicity and I talk a lot about the responsibilities, not just as actors, actors are fairly low on the totem pole in terms of the stories getting told and how they get told. Film is a writer-and-director medium, actors have a huge imprint, but we do talk a lot about our responsibility to tell the truth about stuff we do and particularly violence. Just the way violence is depicted in movies, I think we have to start telling it more truthfully and quit glamorizing it. I think we're doing harm to ourselves and to our community.
Are you watching Felicity's show "American Crime"?
We actually watched one today, it's just so good. And that's exactly what I'm talking about, there's drama in dealing with these things as they actually are. We don't have to do this operatic violence or pornographic violence. Violence is dramatic enough, and it's common sense. If you kill someone, that is dramatic, but if you kill 40 people, it's nothing. It doesn't mean anything, you just get numb and it's pornographic, it's just more and more and more explicit, there's no where to go, and it's not dramatic.
Felicity is doing a phenomenal job. I can't imagine how taxing it was on her.
Isn't she, she shot that down in Austin, so she was there without her family and that helped a lot, although she came back so often she spent a lot of time on airplanes, God bless her, so she could be with us. But she didn't have time to herself and worked like a dog, I knew she did. Just the number of times she'd asked to read a scene with me and what I thought. She went over stuff, and that woman is prepared when she shows up on set, it's pretty stunning. In the scene we watched today she was just dead-on, it's so simple and calm, and don't you love the way she looks?
Which look do you prefer, the blonde or brunette?
You know I like them both, do I have too choose? I'm voting that she flip-flops back and forth [laughs].
How do you guys make it work when you're both apart working?
It hasn't been too bad in the last couple of years, she's does "American Crime" in Austin, and that truthfully sucks. She's gone six months out of the year, and I hate that. We have two children, and that means I have to raise them, and that's a lot of pressure for anybody. We only film in Chicago twice a year for a week on "Shameless," although it looks like we're there. They make snow at the Warner Bros. lot; you can buy it [laughs].
When do you go back into production for season seven?
Rumor is it's going to be early, we've started as late as September, but we might start as soon as June. It depends on John and the writer's room and actor schedules. I'm sure it will be announced soon, maybe within a month or so. For the moment I have a break, and then back to it. I love it; it's just a great way to spend your day.
Are you working on anything else?
I shot a film in the hiatus, and I'm cutting it at our house. It's an independent film that I directed called "The Layover" with Kate Upton and Alexandra Daddario. We are working on the score and have another two weeks of that, then all those people that you see listed in a movie's credits come in to do their thing. There are many hands that go into this thing.
