William H. Macy, the anti-hero of such films as Fargo, Boogie Nights and Magnolia, may not be the only Hollywood star to have spent ten days besieged by falling plaster, teeteriong on a ladder as he vaulted his own ceiling. But he doesn't have a whole lot of company.
"It was a mess," he recalls cheerfully one evening, relaxing under his finished creation with his wife, Felicity Huffman, star of the critically acclaimed television sticom Sports Night. "At one point," he says, "I had my agent just send the checks to Home Depot."
He may not be the Bob Vila of Hollywood. Yet. But Macy's willingness to undertake a goodly chunk of the renovation of the couple's Mediterranean-style house built in the late 1920's on the outskirts of affluent Hancock Park Lite"--dovetails with this chameleonesque actor's career.
Nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his unforgettable portrayal of Jerry Lundegaard, the tightly wound car salesman in Joel and Ethan Coen's 1996 film Fargo, Macy played a repressed fifties dad in Pleasantville (1998), a suicidal pornographer in Boogie Nights (1997) and a has-been whiz kid in his most recent movie Magnolia. He currently portrays Teach, a volatile crook, in the revival of mentor David Mamet's American Buffalo at the Atlantic Theater Company in New York. In fifty or so stage roles and nearly forty films, Macy has specialized in bringing a palpable sense of humanity to the most despairing, and at times desparate,of characters.
The couple's eight-room, 2,100-square-foot-residence was also in wretched shape. "It was described as a fixer-upper, but it was pretty beat," says Macy. "It was beyond ugly," Huffman adds. "What's now my office was one of those dark, scary places where they store wheelbarrows."
Macy was a bachelor when he purchased the property, tucked behind a California cedar gate with Mission-style lanterns on an unassuming street. "The house had great bones," he says. "I was drawn to the openess of the living and dining rooms- and the price." He was especially captivated by the whimsical, purely decorative tower above the entrance, now lit for dramatic effect. "It's completely architectural," he observes. "It looks like Rapunzel is going to throw down her hair any minute." "It was affordable, with potential," says Huffman, a Rapunzel blonde. "There was no architect or decorator. Just us."
Unbeknownst to many filmgoers, Macy's voluminous talents have long included those of the nuts-and-bolts variety. As a young actor in Chicago, he augmented his income by doing light carpentry. "My father is a real-deal construction guy," Macy explains. "He built our house, restored cars. He's one of those World War II guys who could do a little bit of everything pretty well. What he didn't teach me, he gave me the confidence to pretend I know how to do."
The couple are both proteges of playwright David Mamet and founding members of his Atlantic Theater Company, where they met. In the 1970's Macy helped Mamet, a teacher of his Goddard College in Vermont, build the St. Nicholas Theater in Chicago on the site of an old printing shop. Legend has it that the actor , who nailed beams late into the night, showed up on-stage for a performance with a hammer in hand. ("Never let truth get in the way of a good story." he quips.)
Initially the actor vowed to do all the work on the house himself, but four weeks of tiling his own kitchen counters- a job he thought would take four days- convinced him otherwise. "I learned a lesson: Never do tiles by yourself," he says wryly. "I also learned there were people out there better than me. So instead of lifting hammers, I lifted the phone."
Like its residents, the house feels down-to-earth and at ease, notably devoid of Hollywood froufrou. "It's more Disney than Warner Bros.," Macy says. "Disney is more fairy tale and friendly. Warner Bros. has an edge." Much of the furniture, including the Mission-style bed in the master bedroom (Macy assembled it from a kit), is Craftsman-inspired. "The house is in the past a little bit," he says, "with a big thirties thing going on." The couple have begun collecting paintings, particularly pastoral landscapes- works that "provide a real sense of peace," Huffman says. The floors are covered with kilims purchased on their honeymoon in Istanbul. It was there that they found an intricate silk prayer rug that covers a chaise in the sunroom, a romantic spot where cove arches and French doors reveal a ceiling painted Mediterranean blue.
Above the Batchelder tile fireplace in the living room is a group of handsome bowls hand-turned by Macy, some in his favorite wood, hoop hornbeam. Often called an actors' actor, Macy- who can spend hours rapturously tree anatomy- may also be a craftsman's craftsman. In recent years he has become a dedicated wood-turner, a passion that was born during the filming of Fargo. Although the movie is set in the depths of a Great Plains winter, with characters routinely scrapping off windshields and retrieving dead bodies in the snow, the film was shot during a unusually mild interlude. "We had a lot of free time, because they were trucking in snow," the actor recalls. "One day I picked up a newspaper and read a story about Paul Kochelmeyer, a Minneapolis wood-turner, so I called him. I hired him to teach me how to turn bowls."
These days, it's not hard to find the actor on location: He's the one hovering in the local gift store reading the names on the bottoms of the bowls. Macy currently does most of his turning in the couple's cabin in Vermont. "What I love about turning a bowl is its immediacy," he explains. "You can actually go from a tree to a bowl in three hours. I also love the history: guys with foot-pedaled lathes traveling from town to town, turning anything that had to be round."
The couple have filled the living room with personal objects, such as a walnut baby grand piano, a gift from Huffman, with Bruce Sprinstein and Steely Dan sheet music propped against the music desk ("Someday I'll learn how to play it," he vows). A collection of three guitars, including a twelve string Martin that was a gift from David Mamet, is displayed on stands, for reasons more practical than aesthetic. "If they're out," Macy says. "I play them more."
Outside, California fruit trees surround a terra-cotta-tiled patio, where French doors crested with a mounted trellis lead to Huffman's office formerly "a ramshackle room," Macy says. The fountain was a feng shui touch. ("We try everything," the actor declares. "We're from Hollywood!").
For Macy, creating a character and creating an object of enduring beauty- a turned bowl, for instance- have more in common than one might suspect. "No one would agree with me, but I think acting is in its best sense a craft, and a mechanical craft at that," he says. "The rest is a gift from God."

The article is accompanied by a full page and a quarter cover photo of Felicity Huffman seated next to her husband, William H. Macy in their living room in front of the fireplace; a small color photo of the front of their house- William H. Macy and his wife, actress Felicity Huffman live in a 1920's Mediterranean-style house near Hancock Part in Los Angeles. The couple refurbished the residence, which Macy bought as a fixer-upper, and decorated it themselves.; a page and a half color photo of their dining room- "For e an object has got to be beautiful," Macy remarks, "but it's also got to last." Sturdy Craftsman-inspired pieces- a simple table, a set of painted ladderback chairs, an oak glass-front cabinet- furnish the dining room. The armoire is by Gustav Stickley.; a small color phot of Macy leaning against a room doorway arch; a page and a half color photo of their back living room- RIGHT: Macy (above) who did light carpentry before making it as an actor, built the low table in the sun-room. "It's a humble table, but it's strong," he says. He learned to turn bowls, such as the one on the table from a Minnesota wood-turner during breaks from filming Fargo.; a small color photo of Felicity hugging Macy from behind, standing on the veranda; a small color photo of teh master bedroom- Macy assembled teh Mission-style bed in the master bed-room from a kit. The kilim is one of six he and Huffman (top) bought during their honeymoon in Istanbul. Their friend Charlie Hulien designed and built the oak-framed mirror over the chest of drawers; A page and a half color photo of the rear terrace- Right: The rear terrace, set between two wings of the house, is accessible from the master bedroom, the sunroom and Macy's office. "I put in the doors and windows," notes Macy. He also added the cross beams, stone fountain, drop lanterns and chandelier.