David Livingston/Getty ImagesIt didn't take long for William H. Macy to go after Selena Gomez for Rudderless, the new indie movies that marks his directorial debut.
"It was sort of a no-brainer as soon as we thought of it," Macy tells me. "I had just seen Spring Breakers and she's the best thing in that, and she said, 'Yes.' She's the real deal. I would love to do something with her again. That girl can act."
Rudderless (in theaters and on VOD on Friday) focuses on the story of a father (Billy Crudup) who finds recordings of his son's music after he dies in a school shooting. Gomez makes an appearance in the film as the boy's girlfriend.
"It's been such a mitzvah for us to have her because she has so many fans that just adore her," Macy said.
He then cracked, "I picked up her phone and accidently hit the 'z' button and it got tweeted and it got 783,000 retweets."
Crudup, who gives one of the most powerful performances of his career in the movie, signed on pretty quickly, too. "I sent it to him and in a very unprofessional way he read it the day he got it and called me that night and said, 'Let me think about it and I'll call you tomorrow,'" Macy said. "And even further unprofessional—he did! I would have just married him for that. He said, 'Yup, I like it. Let's do it.'"
Rounding out the cast are Star Trek's Anton Yelchin, Macy's real-life wife Felicity Huffman and Laurence Fishburne.
When Macy and I talk, it's just hours before the movie's Hollywood premiere.
"I love directing," said Macy, who recently directed an episode of his hit Showtime series, Shameless. "It's feels very right to me. One of the unforeseen bonuses out of this whole thing is that I've fallen in love with the business in a brand-new way all over again like a stupid schoolboy."
"The actors, the grips, from the perspective of seeing the whole machine and how huge it is," Macy continued. "There are 100 some-odd people from disparate backgrounds—black, white, gay, straight, Republicans, Democrats. It's a hodgepodge of people that are all pulling in the same direction with joy for a piece of art. They're trying to make art. What can be more life-affirming than that?"