SAG Awards

William H. Macy Sees Both Sides of Time’s Up: “It’s Hard to Be a Man These Days”

“A lot of us feel like we are under attack and we need to apologize. And maybe we are, and maybe we do.”
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During Sunday night’s Screen Actors Guild Awards, viewers may have noticed that every presenter on stage was a woman. That’s because, as SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris told Vanity Fair, the ceremony was trying to celebrate women specifically, in the era of #TimesUp and #MeToo. But after winning his third career SAG award for outstanding performance by a male actor in a comedy series for his work in Shameless, it was William H. Macy’s turn at the mic—and, according to him, the men of Hollywood have also been engaging in the cultural conversation behind the scenes.

Speaking to press backstage at the show, Macy said: “It’s hard to be a man these days. I feel like a lot of us feel like we are under attack and we need to apologize. And maybe we are, and maybe we do.” Referring to a meeting that his wife, actress Felicity Huffman, hosted at their house, Macy continued: “We had a meeting under the auspices of Time’s Up. That’s good. Men don’t talk enough. We talked. A little bit, what the hell, that can’t hurt you.” Macy said that while he supports the cause, he also finds himself “playing devil’s advocate a bit.”

Macy quickly exited the pressroom before anyone could ask follow-up questions about who else might have attended this meeting, or what, specifically, was discussed. He did, however, also say that he had worked for and with a lot of women, and that he supports strides toward equal pay and treatment in his profession. “When it comes to equality and pay, it’s going to happen and it’s going to happen quickly . . . I work for [Shameless executive producer]John Wells and he’s been proactive in making our cast and crew look like America.”

Wells and Macy both found themselves at the center of a public conversation around pay disparity for women two years ago, when Shameless star Emmy Rossum held up production on Season 8 of the Showtime series in pursuit of a higher salary than Macy, who plays her TV dad. (Rossum’s character, Fiona Gallagher, is indisputably much more of a lead character on the series than Macy’s.) After finally winning the negotiations, Rossum looked back on the experience and told the press at an event in 2017: “One of the nicest things about the way it all went down is I felt so supported by Bill [Macy] in that.” At the same event, Macy added: “It’s a no-brainer. It’s something the country’s gotta fix. You get there earlier, you work harder. Just a silly discussion really . . . Who’s the center of the show? It’s Fiona. Of course she should get paid.”