Veteran actor William H. Macy has voiced his frustrations with how movies and television frequently depict violence in an unrealistic, gratuitous manner. The Shameless star recently went on a “rant” about this issue during an appearance on the Films to Be Buried With podcast.
“I think Hollywood is doing a lot of damage to the world with our portrayal of violence,” Macy stated. “It’s not true, and it’s not a good place to be lying when it comes to our portrayal of violence.”
The Oscar-nominated actor expressed that he is “offended” when films and shows don’t truthfully represent the human experience, including the consequences of lethal violence.
Macy claimed this perspective has even cost him work at times, recounting how he lobbied for a Western he was working on to scale back exaggerated body counts, which are often inflated for entertainment value.
Using the 1881 gunfight at the O.K. Corral as an example, where only around four people died, Macy lamented, “Most of the scripts you get, there’s four guys on the first page. You see them downtown blasting away in New York City. There’s not a cop to be seen. People get shot four times and they give a speech.”
The 73-year-old has become so impassioned about providing a grittier, more realistic portrayal of violence that he has repeatedly tried to sell a TV show concept exploring the harsh realities.
“I wanna do a thing where, you take three episodes to have you fall in love with one of the major characters and then shoot him,” Macy explained. “But don’t write him off the show. And every week, you can see what a bullet does to a human body.”
His idea would depict the lasting trauma – physical, mental, emotional and more – that comes from acts of violence often glossed over in Hollywood productions.
“Let’s tell the truth about it, because I swear to God, you kill one person, there’s nothing more dramatic than that,” Macy stated. “You kill 18 people, it’s just porn.”
Macy’s blunt criticism calls into question the potential negative impacts of the cavalier way violence is so often sensationalized across movies and TV.