Credit: Far Out / YouTube Still
Tue 4 August 2026 7:00, UK
Thanks to the age of remakes and reboots, the chances of an actor inheriting a role are higher than ever, but there are some parts they know they can’t beat, which is why Woody Harrelson turned one of them down.
No stranger to the endless barrage of repurposed properties himself, having starred in a Star Wars prequel and a Planet of the Apes sequel, the actor was at the top of the list to put his own spin on a small-screen favourite who’d become the latest big-name British character scooped up by the American airwaves.
On one hand, as iconic as the role was to audiences in the United Kingdom, they were largely an unknown quantity to viewers in the States, which levelled the playing field somewhat. On the other hand, reheated nachos are never as good as they are the first time around, so you can understand Harrelson’s trepidation.
That, and the fact he wasn’t really doing TV at the time, either. Apart from a seven-episode stint on Will & Grace, he was completely absent from television in a recurring capacity between Cheers ending in 1993 and True Detective debuting in 2014, so it would have taken an enticing offer, and presumably a lot of money, for the star to change his mind and head back to his roots.
While we’ll never know what the monetary incentive was, and it would have been a pretty penny at least, William H Macy nonetheless confirmed that he found out he wasn’t the number one contender to play Frank Gallagher in the American version of Shameless when the guy who was told him he’d knocked it back.
“I ran into Woody,” Macy explained. “He said, ‘Whatcha doing at the moment?’ And I said, ‘Shameless‘. And he said, ‘Oh, yeah, I talked to them about that’. I thought, ‘Great, so I’m at least second choice.’ He said, ‘I watched the British version, and I just thought it was really good. I didn’t think I could do it better than that’. There was a little bit of a pause, and I just went, ‘I can.’”
David Threlfall’s Frank was one of the only mainstays of the original Shameless between 2004 and 2013, and in his hands, the character became a 21st-century standout. He may not have been showered with accolades throughout the show’s 11-season run, but ask anyone who’s watched a bit of British telly in the last quarter of a century, and they won’t hesitate to tell you that the Gallagher family patriarch provided big shoes to fill.
Further reading: Cutting Room Floor
That was enough to have Harrelson walk away, but Macy completely embraced it, with both he and Threlfall playing Frank for 11 seasons apiece, and it even created some weird synergy between 2011 and 2013 where both UK and US iterations of the series were on the airwaves at the same time.
The latter notched six Primetime Emmy nominations for ‘Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series’ for his efforts, as well as two Golden Globe nods in the corresponding categories, and while you can debate whether or not he was better than Threlfall in the role, Harrelson’s loss was inarguably Macy’s gain.
