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February General Meeting
William H. Macy
by ou Hirsh
(February 2002) |
Not even an Academy Award nomination immunizes someone from the pains of the Hollywood writer's life. Just ask actor William H. Macy, Oscar®-nominated for his supporting role in the Coen brothers' Fargo.
"You'll all be pleased to know that I've got three screenplays and four teleplays sitting in a drawer, that no one will touch," Macy told his audience at the Feb. 9 Scriptwriters Network meeting.
Despite the setbacks, Macy has made plenty of headway on the writing side, crafting several successful made-for-television movies with writing partner Steven Schachter, including Every Woman's Dream, A Slight Case of Murder and the upcoming Door to Door.
"We've got a great little cottage industry going with movies of the week," Macy said. "We've done eight of them. He (Schachter) directs them, he and I write them, and lately I've been starring in them."
Macy's writing partnership, combined with his solid track record on the big screen -- he's appeared in films including Air Force One, Wag the Dog, State and Main, and Magnolia -- have given him entree into the world of TV movie-making. The experience has strengthened his long-held belief that the success of a project lies in the writer's voice and passion for a subject -- not in moves by executives to correctly guess what an audience will watch.
"Trying to figure out what they want is a fool's errand," he said. "The only thing you can do is figure out what you have to say, and the rest is in God's hands."
Between writing scripts and reading them to choose his acting roles, Macy has developed a keen sense of what inspires him -- and what ticks him off -- about a screenplay. Inspired over the years by the teachings of mentors like David Mamet and Robert McKee, Macy is a big believer in the three-act structure, and in characters that ring.
"I say it's all story," Macy said. "If you can write great dialogue, that's a boon and that's wonderful. But it's not as important."
One of the cardinal sins for a screenwriter is to load a script with verbiage designed to show off the writer's hipness and cleverness, but which does nothing to move the story forward.
"I implore you, I beg you: Don't write smarmy, smart-ass stage directions. Write a shooting script," Macy warned, adding that producers hate slogging through writers' personal takes and attitudes on the characters and settings.
"You can't act that, you can't shoot that, you can't set-decorate that, you can't costume that, you can't light that. You've just wasted my time," Macy added emphatically. "Give me the information I need to understand the script, and cut the rest."
He said dialogue with a singular voice gets his attention, along with characters -- especially the villains -- who are more than shallow cartoons. "The best writers are the ones who know you can't have a good 'good guy' without a good 'bad guy,' " he said. Macy pointed out, for example, that many writers would choose to make a Ku Klux Klan member fit an easy archetype of menace, without much depth or shading.
"Be brave. If you really want your story to sing, figure out a Ku Klux Klan member," Macy said. "They've got wives and children and mothers and IRAs, and plans and dreams. Figure them out, and you'll have a good character," he added. "If the bad guy is a well-rounded character, you know the good guy will be hard-pressed to carry the day."
Door to Door, based on a true story and set for a July airing on the TNT cable network, stars Macy as Bill Porter, who had a 40-year career as a champion door-to-door salesman despite being born with cerebral palsy. Macy and Schachter were inspired to tell Porter's story after seeing a profile on the ABC News magazine 20/20.
"He's the most stoical, wonderful man I ever had the privilege to meet," Macy recalled. But bringing Porter's story to the screen posed a particular writing challenge, since it didn't neatly fit the dramatic requirements for a seven-act cable movie.
Since Porter is a real person who was still around, making up events in his life was out of the question. Macy said he and Schachter used a "Forrest Gump" approach to solve the problem -- presenting Porter's life as it affects the lives of fictional characters whom he encounters during his long sales career.
"Where the drama in the story would come from was how he affected people," Macy said, noting that the story covers seven years in each of its seven acts.
Macy said he's been able to maintain a delicate balance between the two very different roles of writer and actor, and he has learned not to wear both hats at the same time. He said he and Schachter often square off on writing issues big and small, but when it comes time for him to act, he usually lets his partner make the needed changes without a fight. "When actors start writing on the set, it is dreadful," he remarked.
A problem can arise when an actor tries to make script changes that squeeze out potential discomfort or tension, in an attempt to feel more "comfortable" with a stage or film role. "It's not your job to be comfortable on stage," Macy said of the actor's responsibility. "If you're comfortable, something is very, very wrong."
"It's our job as actors to take chaos and make it calm," he added. "It's your job as writers to throw things up in the air."
Network member Lou Hirsh is a writer for a Los Angeles Internet company.
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