William H. Macy has been active in the movement that is sweeping across Hollywood in response to the sexual misconduct issue, but admitted that it hasn’t been easy as a man.
“It’s hard to be a man these days,” Macy said backstage at the Screen Actors Guild Awards. “I think a lot of us feel like we’re under attack and that we need to apologize, and perhaps we do.”
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Macy won the Screen Actors Guild Award for best male actor in a drama series for his role in “Shameless.” Afterwards he revealed that he and a bunch of other actors got together to discuss the sexual misconduct issue, but gave credit to the women in their industry who are leading the charge on the Time’s Up movement.
“We had a meeting. A bunch of guys got together under the auspices of Time’s Up. That’s good for men. Men don’t talk enough. And we talked,” he said. “In what we do for a living, we’ve got to be free to speak the unspeakable and try things,” Macy continued. “So I don’t want it to throw a wet blanket on things, and I don’t feel that it will, because half the business is women and they’re smart and they’re hip.”
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While there’s still a long way to go, Macy is proud of the change that has already occurred in their industry but is predicting more to happen, fast.
“It’s a good time to be a girl. I’m proud of this business, because such things as safety in the workplace, that’s done. We’re not going back. It’s changed. It changed in an instant and it’s not going back. When it comes to equality in pay, it’s inevitable. It’s going to happen and it’s going to happen quickly. My hat’s off to our business.”