He was so young and such an impressive fellow. There was such a gathering of massive talent, starting with Paul Anderson. What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you reflect back on Boogie Nights? Unlike Fargo, Boogie Nights didn’t earn Macy an Oscar nom (those went to Anderson and co-stars Burt Reynolds and Julianne Moore), but it helped solidify his status as one of the best character actors working, as evidenced by his diverse 45-year résumé. Stunned, the partygoers immediately stop the in-progress countdown, with Little Bill giving them a big smile before he kills himself. The camera then stays with him as he quietly retreats outside to his car, grabs his gun, returns inside, and shoots his wife and her latest lover. He’s searching the house for his wife only to find her engaging in her extramarital hobby again in a backroom. Just over halfway into the film, Anderson employs a long tracking shot to follow Little Bill and his arrival at a 1979 New Year’s Eve party just before the clock strikes midnight. The unlucky-in-love pushover finally reaches his breaking point in Boogie Nights’ most shocking sequence. “Shut up, Bill, you’re embarrassing me,” she barks at him for daring to interrupt her while she’s having sex with another man on a towel in a driveway as a group of onlookers surrounds them. Played by real-life pornstar Nina Hartley, Little Bill’s wife (as she’s officially credited) constantly, and blatantly, cheats on him. Macy plays hangdog assistant director Little Bill, a man who is nothing if not dedicated to his craft - unfortunately, his wife doesn’t feel the same way about their marriage. The naïve youngster experiences the highs of his new fame and lifestyle followed by a string of drug-fueled lows. Set in the late ’70s and early ’80s, the second feature from the then-27-year-old filmmaker explored the “golden age” of porn through the eyes of rising star Dirk Diggler (Mark Wahlberg). “I thought I was being punked by my agents,” Macy, a now 14-time Emmy nominee, recalls of reading Paul Thomas Anderson’s modern classic, Boogie Nights. With his stock on the rise, the search for the next meaty gig was underway, and he couldn’t believe the script and character that his representation was suggesting. Macy had fought for the role, and it paid off with an Oscar nomination. BIG CLOCK PORN TVAfter a decade-plus of TV guest spots and supporting film roles, his career-changing moment had arrived in the form of sad-sack Jerry Lundegaard, the struggling car salesman who proved to be an even more inept criminal in Joel and Ethan Coen’s Fargo. Macy assumed he was the victim of a racy prank. Photo-Illustration: Vulture Photo: New Line/Kobal/Shutterstock On his visit to a porn set, Burt Reynolds’s “clueless” attitude, and making Paul Thomas Anderson laugh - and smell - during that killer shot.
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