Macy, ‘Door-To-Door’ Look Like Emmy Winners
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – With the Emmys less than a week away, Hollywood is playing guessing games over possible winners of the television industry’s top awards, but at least one actor seems considered a shoo-in, William H. Macy.
Macy, one of Hollywood’s top character actors, is nominated for best actor in a TV movie for playing Bill Porter, a salesman afflicted with cerebral palsy, in 2002’s “Door to Door,” which aired on the TNT cable network to 7.3 million viewers and can be seen on video and DVD.
The show already won a prestigious Peabody Award for excellence on TV, earned Macy best TV movie actor honors from the Screen Actors Guild, and received 12 Emmy nominations overall, more than any other original TV movie this year.
“A couple of these awards shows are really special … The Emmys are huge, they are the granddaddy” of TV awards, Macy told Reuters in a recent interview. “I’m very, very pleased.”
Tom O’Neil, who hosts the goldderby.com web site and is the author of “The Emmys,” thinks Macy is the clear front-runner in his group, and believes his performance is so strong, it will likely lead “Door to Door” to the Emmy for best TV movie when the awards are handed out on Sunday, Sept. 21.
“Some critics regard this movie, respectively, as one of the great achievements in his career,” O’Neil said.
Macy said one primary benefit of all the recognition is that it generally leads to more acting jobs, although it is hard to believe Macy has trouble getting work.
The actor, 53, began his career in the 1970s working with playwright David Mamet, but it was 1996’s Coen brothers film “Fargo” that proved to be his breakout movie and made his face recognizable among audiences. Most recently, he played horse racing commentator Tick Tock McGlaughlin in “Seabiscuit.”
PORTER POWER
He and writing partner Steve Schachter came across the true story of Bill Porter, a cerebral palsy, or CP, victim and door-to-door salesman for Watkins home products in Portland, Oregon, by watching a TV news magazine story about Porter. The pair decided Porter’s story was so compelling, it would make a good movie.
Cerebral Palsy describes chronic conditions that all affect muscle coordination, and it is caused by faulty development or damage to motor skills areas of the brain.
Basically, Porter overcame his disability to eventually wind up as one of Watkins’ top door-to-door salesmen. When the daily trips around the neighborhood became history at Watkins, Porter moved his operation online, and people can still buy products from him at his website.
Macy said writers often go wrong in telling stories about people with disabilities because they focus on the problem and not the person.
With “Door-to-Door,” Macy and Schachter started with the person, his strengths and his weaknesses, then crafted the story. Porter is fiercely independent, but his independence sometimes gets him into trouble.
“He’s so full of pride that he can’t accept help from people, and what he learns is that its very human to ask for and receive help,” Macy said.
Macy said some Hollywood movies try to endow disabled people with charm, and added “that rings false to me.” He said writers often go awry if they try to tell an able person’s story, and just simply insert a disabled person into the tale.
As an actor, Macy said he tried to mimic Porter’s every move as close as he could to keep the story real. The film is no woe-is-me tale.
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“This is a story about a really cool guy who happened to have CP,” Macy said.
“Door-to-Door,” too, has lured the actor into supporting efforts of the United Cerebral Palsy organization to promote social change and progress for people with disabilities.
“It’s great to get out and do something that is new and not about me,” Macy said.
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