Acting’s Ubiquitous Everyman : Four upcoming films, TV, off-Broadway--there’s no let-up for William H. Macy. And now he’s adding to his co-writing credits with TNT’s ‘A Slight Case of Murder.’

Memo to James Brown, the undisputed Godfather of Soul:

Relax.

William H. Macy is not, repeat, not trying to steal the title of the hardest-working man in show business.

To be sure, the evidence that suggests otherwise is pretty daunting. Macy, the actor who came close to walking away with 1996’s “Fargo” with his Oscar-nominated role as a hapless Minnesota car salesman caught up in a murder scheme, seems like he’s in almost every movie that comes out.

Last fall alone, Macy was featured in “A Civil Action,” “Pleasantville” and the unfortunate remake of “Psycho.” Sunday marks the premiere of TNT’s “A Slight Case of Murder,” which he stars in and also co-wrote.

He’s one of the stars of the recent superhero spoof, “Mystery Men,” he’s getting ready to appear in several episodes of ABC’s “Sports Night,” he’s preparing to do an off-Broadway revival of David Mamet’s “American Buffalo,” and he’s got four films coming up, including Miramax’s “Happy, Texas,” which has already received good buzz from the Toronto and Sundance film festivals.

And like Mr. Brown, he feels good--if a bit dazed.

“This last year was tough,” Macy said recently while relaxing in the backyard of his Melrose-area home, rubbing his fingers through darkly shiny blond hair. “I did four movies in a row. I would end on Friday and begin another one on Monday. My hair hasn’t been a natural color in over a year. I was too busy, but I have the best agents in town, and they are good at appeasing everyone.”

Still, “it was an unusually long stretch of work, and it was rough,” Macy added. “That’s not to be repeated. I don’t ever want to do that again.”

But don’t count on it. All work and little play makes Macy a happy boy.

“I just like to work--it’s always been that way,” said Macy. “I don’t do well if there’s nothing to do. In cases like that, I tend to create a project.”

Although proud of his work in the various ventures, the project currently closest to his heart is “A Slight Case of Murder,” the latest in Macy’s gallery of quirky characters of the Everyman who gets in over his head in situations that spin perilously out of control.

Macy plays small-time film critic Terry Thorpe, who becomes involved in a possible murder, and struggles desperately to keep his head above water as the walls--and an oddball detective (Adam Arkin)--start to close in on him.

For TNT, ‘Not Their Usual Bill of Fare’

The film, which Macy wrote with director Steven Schachter, also stars James Cromwell and Felicity Huffman, Macy’s real-life wife and one of the stars of “Sports Night.”

In “A Slight Case of Murder,” Macy is a man who has a certain charm, even though he does some horrible things. One thing going for him is his honesty. Throughout the film, he directly breaks the “fourth wall” and addresses the audience about his innermost thoughts and fears, which manages to dilute his despicable nature.

“I know it’s not a sympathetic character, and my hat is off to TNT for doing this, because it is not their usual bill of fare,” he said. “But the idea of the antihero fits these life and times like a glove. We watched our own president just humiliated and exposed so viciously, but yet many of us had sympathy for him. A lot of us live our lives as morally as we can, but we all blow it sometimes. That’s why the concept of the antihero is so appealing--we can empathize with him because we’ve all been there.”

Salli Newman, the executive director of the film, said that with the wrong casting, “the audience really would have felt unsavory looking at this character. But with Bill, it works great. There’s such a quality to him that the audience just gets wrapped up in what’s going on.”

Macy said there was just a touch of similarity between Thorpe and the hapless car salesman he played in “Fargo.”

“The man in ‘Fargo’ was drowning,” he said. “Thorpe is swimming very well, but he doesn’t know what direction he’s going.”

Macy, with his trim, athletic build, is actually more handsome in person than he sometimes comes across on screen. His chameleon ability to jump back and forth between comedy and drama, ordinary guys and kooks, has kept him buried in scripts ever since he hit the big time in “Fargo.”

“That movie changed my life,” said Macy. “Thank you Joel and Ethan Coen (the makers of “Fargo”). There was no real perception of me in Hollywood before that. After that, it was like, ‘OK, you can sit at the grown-up table now.’ ”

Before that, Macy spent most of his time as a stage actor, having spent 10 years in New York, 10 years in Chicago and 10 years acting mostly on stage in L.A.

“Creatively I’ve never been more challenged than I’ve been out here,” he said. “Sure, I would like to do more leading-men roles, but the smart money says not to limit myself to that. There are some great secondary roles out there. The only thing that’s ever made sense to me is to do the good stuff, and to stay away from the bad stuff.”

He can jump from the authoritative but increasingly confused Dr. Morgenstern on NBC’s “E.R.” to the put-upon husband of a porno star in “Boogie Nights,” and seem like two completely different actors. And as he did with “Fargo,” Macy can take the smallest of roles and make such an impression that he seems like he’s the star of the film.

Macy is even able to fit into roles for which he would not ordinarily be considered. Mark Illsley, writer-director of “Happy, Texas,” said that the part Macy plays in the film--the small-town sheriff--was initially written for a fat man.

“We wanted this guy to be huge, and Bill’s people asked if we would consider him, and I said, ‘But he’s so little,’ ” said Illsley. “Then I thought, ‘What am I thinking? This is Bill Macy.’ And when I met with him, I realized that it was crazy not to have considered him in the first place. He said he wanted to play a big fat man in a little body, and it just turned out perfectly.”

Planning to Do Some More ‘Dental Surgery’

In the coming months, Macy will be seen in “Magnolia,” Paul Thomas Anderson’s follow-up to “Boogie Nights” and an independent film, “Panic.” In a few days, he will begin work on a movie with Mamet, the man Macy calls his “godfather.” This will be a comedy, “State and Maine,” about a film crew that takes over a small-town main street.

As he did with “A Slight Case of Murder,” Macy said he would like to do more writing, though he compares writing and acting to “dental surgery and making love.” He co-wrote last year’s “The Con,” which aired on USA Network.

“I want to write a TV show for Felicity,” he said.

“We’ve had a screenplay that has been kicking around for a few years now that would make a great drama. I would like to write a sexy love story about people in their 60s. There’s so much, and I just want to keep moving.”