Melvin Van Peebles performs at the Triad Theater, New York City, 2009
Photo by Frank Beacham
We lost a giant in American filmmaking today. Melvin Van Peebles, 89, broke all the rules and lived his life as a true artist in everything he did. He never gave up. It is a terrible loss.
I knew and got to work with Melvin. I learned a lot just watching him and hearing his many tales. Here is what I wrote after an all-nighter working with him in a film. RIP, Melvin!!!
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It was April 2, 2006, when I answered the call from Melvin Van Peebles to be in his movie, Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha.
Yes, that's the title and the spaces are as they are meant to be.
To say I didn't know what I was getting into is a gross understatement. I was to play a redneck truck driver who gets shot. Melvin did not give me an advance script. He said the lines would be easy to learn on location.
We shot the film during the night at a private wooded estate in Rye, New York. The only thing that would end it was the rising sun many hours later. A makeup artist reddened my beard and I was handed a script. The lines were much more extensive than I had anticipated.
I'm no actor, so it was a big challenge, especially when I learned that Melvin wanted me to say the words with a poetic beat. I struggled to get it right. I guess he either gave up or found my performance acceptable. I'm still not sure.
But the really hard part was ahead. The getting shot part, I mean. The red dot on my head and shirt in the photo are where the guns were aimed. That was a T-shirt, by the way, and the night was very cold.
We did 16 takes altogether. I was surrounded by gunmen in dark woods. Each time I was shot, I had to fall down hard, hitting what felt like frozen earth.
Finally, it was over. When I got home, showered and got into bed, I was sore. So sore and bruised I would find, I stayed in bed for two days.
In 2008, when the film was released, I saw it at the New York Film Festival. The pain came racing back again.
So much for my "acting" career.
Frank Beacham and Melvin Van Peebles after the film shoot in 2006