William H. Macy: Oklahoma folk are the best

William H. Macy is grateful to how "sweet" people were during his big screen directorial debut.

The 64-year-old's stint as a filmmaker comes in the form of Rudderless, which follows a grieving father who stumbles across a box full of his recently deceased son's lyrics and recordings. In a bid to appreciate the talent he hadn't known of, the dad forms a band to perform his child's work.

William shot the feature in Oklahoma and found himself in awe at how friendly people were in the area.

"I wasn't jesting [when I said]... we couldn't have made it anywhere else. I mean, we got so much help, so many services in kind, people were so sweet to us," he smiled to newsok.com.

"You go to New York, you say, 'Excuse me, can we put something on your front yard?' and they say, 'Get the hell out of here. I hate the damn movies! Argh.' And here it was, 'Yeah, what can I do to help?' People work hard here - the crew worked their buns off day and night - I don't know, it's just sort of that Midwest work ethic. It's quite impressive."

William is no stranger to the movie business, having starred in hits such as Pleasantville and Fargo, which won him an Oscar nomination. His experience of being in front of the camera contributed greatly to his role as director, though there were still moments in which he found himself overwhelmed.

"I felt I came to this with a lot of experience. None of the problems I was confronted with were new to me. But what I wasn't prepared for was the intensity of it, the workload. After the second day of prep, I thought my age was going to be an issue; I couldn't get myself home, I couldn't walk, it was so difficult. Luckily, I found my sea legs. But it's less like making art and more like getting hit by a bus," he joked.