Name: The THREAT That Got William H. Macy Fargo
Uploaded: 2025-11-24T14:00:27.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'The THREAT That Got William H. Macy Fargo' from TAFS Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-11-24. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'The THREAT That Got William H. Macy Fargo' from TAFS Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-11-24. Transcript available.

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 are the good ones and which are the bad ones. So I'm pretty good at
reading scripts,
and I read Fargo. And you were like, this is an American masterpiece.
Yes. I was doing backflip. No, I was terrified that I wouldn't get it. It was
perfect for me. 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 Lundergaard? 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 L.A. was there. I probably memorized my
entire part
before morning. The whole night. Yeah. And I auditioned again. They said, that's
real good.
And then I found out they were auditioning in New York. So 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 going to screw up
your movie by not casting me. That's Mamet. That's like, don't be afraid of
these pussies.
Yeah. Yeah. That's like that day. 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 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 did you say? I said, you're going to 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. 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 mean, when I saw Serious Man, 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, my dad also went
into a three-month
depression. The two of us were, I called him. I was like, I'm still fucking
thinking about
that movie. They are really good at getting under your skin. It's not about the
emotions,
it's about what you do, right? You said that before. Yeah. So it's not a matter
of like drilling
into some past trauma. What it is, is just approaching the work for what the
assignment is,
right? That's a good way of putting it. That's our assignment. Yeah. So is that
how you went into
Lundergarten? Obviously there was a dialect aspect of it too. Yeah. There's
like Minnesota nice,
which you were like fucking perfect at. Not very nice, but.
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 that, all that stuff. If it's an accent,
you have to study. If
it's, if there's some physicalization, you've got to memorize that, but that's,
that's, those are
externals. They're not acting. The acting is looking at each other and deciding
what I'm going to do
about what you just said and making that decision. It's improvisatory.
Beautiful. 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, they hold themselves to a higher standard than Dave does.
I've never seen,
heard him bark at someone about paraphrasing. Loving a line. As a matter of
fact, I've heard him say,
whoa, well, you keep saying that, well, I must've wrote it wrong. Really? So he's
not precious at all?
Not at all. That's very interesting. Isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. I go. So going for
Fargo,
like you had that Oscar not, what does it feel like sitting there at the
Academy Awards? Are you,
did you, you want to win? It seems like, dear God, you want to win. You want to
fucking win.
Do you have to go to a party afterwards? Don't have to. But did you? No. You
drove home. You only go to
the party when you win. You only go home when you win. And then it's a great
party. 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. This is a
great speech,
but it's also best supporting. So you've got to wrap it up fast. Cause it's the
beginning of the,
of the show. That's the one where they start playing the music. Yeah. And you
have in,
in, in the speech, you have a guy that you deliberately don't think, right? No.
If you're,
well, I would, if I, 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 saying. I think, and I hope you get to go
to the Academy
board sometime as a nominee, but I'll tell you it, it's, it's overwhelming.
There's no time to think
of clever stuff. Maybe if you're one of those guys, it's if you're Meryl Streep
and this is your 40th
trip. Um, 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. So, you know, so I didn't do much
of a campaign.
Woody would never go apparently. Uh, I know a lot of people that won't go,
especially people that have gone. It's kind of a smaller move.
Yeah. I think you get old enough and you think, uh, I, 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 yeah, sometimes you get exhausted. Yeah. I have to go to the SAG East.
Yeah. It's in a,
it's in a tent. Like, yeah, the food is cold. On 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,
I've been to the Emmys a
lot of times and I got two and there were all of us, you know, for about three
or four years,
we'd see this, all of us and, uh, uh, modern family, shameless and modern
family was always there.
Do you talk shit to them? No, quite the opposite. When we, 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, yeah.
Um, when did you meet Paul Thomas Anderson? How did that come to pass?
Um, 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, he 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, I'll read the newspaper for this guy. Was he 25? Yes. It's a fabulous
film. Jesus Christ.
I, and that and him doing Boogie Nights. 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, what I thought the film was. 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 within. And at a point I realized, Oh my God, he's auditioning. He's
also not me. He's 28.
He said, I'm the guy who's going to make this decision. And I remember going,
tell me more. You're an Academy Award nominated actor. I know, but he's a 28
year old.
Fargo was out a year and a half before I started feeling the, the love, the,
the love. Yeah.
Um, well, speaking of flood blinds, I mean, the thing is your character kind of,
kind of sets the insanity of that movie and like the, 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, a nimrod who,
who nature pushes upwards and then begins to believe in their own genius. And
then nature
slaps them down. That's well put. And, um, but you famously, you steal the show
a couple of times.
You have a couple of lines in that movie that are just, I know what you're
talking about. Okay.
The first is we missed the cum shot. Okay. So that scene is so intense, right?
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'd you say? We missed the cum shot. Like, uh, he came inside of her. Uh,
should we go to stock footage?
Yeah. And everyone's stunned by the size of his member, I think. And, uh, uh,
and Bert played that, 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, uh, um, yeah,
that line. And then
of course the famous flubbed line. So I, it was a mistake, correct? Yeah. The
wife is down in the,
driveway getting laid by all these guys. And, uh, Ricky J did this speech with
me. Legend. And I said,
uh, uh, 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 ass in her 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. Brain fart. I didn't.
I said, no,
I didn't. He said, 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,
said it wrong. You were losing your mind. And he used it. Yeah. Yeah.
- Yeah, yeah.