Name: WILLIAM H. MACY Talks Fargo, Auditions, PTA
Uploaded: 2025-11-19T23:01:18.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'WILLIAM H. MACY Talks Fargo, Auditions, PTA' from The Adam Friedland Show on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-11-19. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'WILLIAM H. MACY Talks Fargo, Auditions, PTA' from The Adam Friedland Show on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-11-19. Transcript available.

WILLIAM H. MACY Talks Fargo, Auditions, PTA

I read "Fargo."
Like this is an American masterpiece.
Yes.
I was doing backflip.
No, I was terrified that I wouldn't get it.
I was up all night.
Everybody I knew in L.A. 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 going to screw up your movie
by not casting me."
That was not a good idea what I did.
It worked.
I don't recommend it.
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.
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 perhaps an economic necessity.
Oh, God.
I'm going back on the road, folks.
This year, 2026, I will be hitting--
That's next year.
Next year, 2026, I will be hitting a city near you.
First date, Seattle, Washington, January 22nd to the 24th.
Five shows.
Get your tickets at emeraldcitycomedy.com.
There's also a link in the description.
My man over here, Mr. Knows What Year It Is,
is going to be there, too.
Mr. 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.com.
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Finally, merch is available.
Go to theadamfreedland.show to check it out.
Shirts, hats, some hoodies.
We got the freaking sick head.
You want to just...
Just, yeah.
My man 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 know him as William.
William is known for many roles in film and television,
gritty properties like Fargo and Shameless.
Bill, on the other hand, is known by me
for roles of some of my favorite films.
The Tale of Despero...
What is this?
Despero?
Despero.
Are these movies that he was in?
These are great movies.
These are great movies.
So we're doing the thing again where Caleb writes it
and then I kind of...
I'm not good at reading.
Bill, on the other hand, is known by me
for roles in some of my favorite films,
like The Tale of Despero 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 Dr. Don...
What?
And to sit across from a veteran of the genre,
a man who portrayed not only Don Twombly,
but also Despero's father, Lester.
What a treat.
Sometimes I can't believe my life.
Ladies and gentlemen,
William H. Macy.
Wow, it's a nice pick.
The eyes, too.
Phenomenal.
Give it up for him, guys.
And Thomas Eisenman, Caleb Pitts.
I love my team.
Okay.
Ladies and gentlemen,
our next guest is a legendary American actor.
It's a great honor.
William H. Macy, everyone.
Give it up for him.
Guys, boys.
A lot of noise.
Woo!
What do you think?
40,000 people.
Yes.
40,000.
Don't get up.
Don't get up.
Stop.
You, stop.
You.
You're crazy.
insane asylum with these guys, huh?
We're in an empty room.
We're going to do.
Oh, don't.
Please.
Three people here.
An empty room.
Would you say that if you were shooting a picture and, you know.
No, I would only say that on your show.
Yeah, yeah.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you so much for coming on.
My pleasure.
Don't you think he hasn't missed a single episode?
Apparently, that's what you were telling me before.
I think I missed one.
Yeah, yeah.
I think he's missed every episode, so this is going to be.
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 I mean?
I'm glad.
I remember like.
You're a cheap date, but I'm glad.
I just want to go into you a little bit of your upbringing and then kind of
just work
our way out from there.
Sure.
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 II.
He flew a B-17 in World War II.
He was a pilot.
He was a pilot.
He was a pilot.
Did he get shot down?
No.
There was no Hogan's Heroes situation with him?
No.
When the Eighth Air Force first went to England, they would send over 80 planes
and 20 would
come back.
It was just this shy of a suicide mission.
By the time my dad got there, 80 would go over and only 20 would not come back.
Yeah.
So it was death-defying, man.
From what I understand, the RAF, they would do nighttime just like bombing
raids and they'd
just bomb indiscriminately.
But the United States Air Force...
The U.S. said we can't hit anything.
Yeah.
We would go surgical and then that was, thus it was a lot more dangerous.
It was a big controversy.
Yeah.
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.
Yeah.
And that was one thing.
But there was still a lot of flack.
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...
Yeah.
Pranking the commandante.
Jokes out the wazoo.
Yeah.
That's what they made it look like.
Hogan's Heroes.
Yeah.
I took my dad to see, well, a war movie that was about B-17s and bomber pilots.
And I said, what did 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...
There were four Rolls-Royce engines with no mufflers on them.
I mean, they must have gone deaf.
Yeah.
And my dad had hearing loss from that.
And the second thing, of course, in this movie, they thought bombing was not
dramatic enough.
So they put, you know, interstitiary fighting between the bombardier and the
pilot.
Yeah, yeah.
And my 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 just like literally like 10% would come back.
So, like...
At the beginning.
At the beginning.
Yeah.
My 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.
Yeah.
In post-war Italy.
They were like, Barney, I've never known a lover like you.
And I was like, he was cleaning up.
But, yeah.
I mean, I think being in the air, I think, was a sexy thing to chicks.
Oh, man.
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 gotta be there in Alberta."
And 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.
How bad was this war, you know?
These guys were getting trimmed left and right.
Not in the Pacific, though.
Like 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 Lutheran."
You know, all the way to 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.
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.
Yeah.
It makes me 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, like, performances and actors that kind of
spoke to you when you were growing up?
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 I know.
Who's your mentor, if I understand?
My 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, uh...
I'm smarter than that.
I saw The French Connection.
Oh.
With Gene Hackman.
Yeah.
And I thought, if I could ever act like that...
Uh-huh.
That was my goal.
And remains my goal.
And how old were you when you saw that?
Twenties.
In your twenties.
And you were like, that...
Man.
Have you ever been in a car chase?
Uh...
I mean, I assume the actors don't drive the cars, but...
Uh...
I haven't.
But in that one, this is before they started to crack down on that stuff.
Gene Hackman was driving.
He was driving?
Yes.
And I've read stories that they owned a bunch of the streets, but not all of
them.
Oh, yeah.
And it's also Marseilles.
It's in Marseilles, right?
Which is like a mafia city.
No.
No, New York.
Well, it's...
But it starts off in Marseilles.
Yes, it does.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But the car chase...
The arrest is...
Yeah, yeah.
But those are like, yeah, under the elevated trains, of course.
Yeah.
Oh, my God.
So those old Gene Hackman?
Rest in Peace, Bo.
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.
He was always the best part.
He was never 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.
Oh, that's a good thing.
When you were studying with David Mamet, like, as you've said, he was your
mentor.
What specifically were the things and the lessons that you...
He imparted on you that you've taken into your career?
Well, it was a hippie college, so there were no grades and no tests and no
requirements.
So we did theater all day.
Yeah.
And all night sometimes.
And there was a class of about 30.
He had gone...
He graduated from Goddard and he'd gone to New York and he was in...
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 t