DAN'S PAPERS, November 6, 2009 Page 14 www.danshamptons.com
Who’s Here
Susan Galardi
By Susan M. Galardi Over a period of 20 years, Montauk resident Fred Melamed made “millions” as a voiceover artist. He was the spokesperson for CBS Sports and Mercedes Benz, and played many voiceover parts in Woody Allen movies as well as countless other films, TV series and commercials. “Voiceover was my waitress job for about 20 years,” said Melamed recently over coffee in Bridgehampton. “I have a voice like Orsen Welles—not the voice of a real person.” In the first decade of 2000, all that changed. Commercial media were looking for a different sound—the less articulate guy next door. Suddenly, Melamed’s waitress gig was up. Melamed describes himself during that period, beginning in about 2003, as being in the desert. He moved out to the East End from Manhattan with his wife Leslee Speier and 18-month-old twin sons. “After decades of being so busy, suddenly it came to very little,” he said. “But it encouraged me to go back to acting again, and writing.” Then Melamed got serious. A call came from the powerhouse directing team, the Coen brothers, who were getting ready to shoot their latest film, A Serious Man (now playing in East Hampton at the UA movie theatre).
Fred Melamed, Actor
“They called me directly,” said Melamed, beaming at the memory. “It’s very exciting when a director calls you and offers you a role.” The role is Sy Ableman, “the most insufferable, pompous windbag,” Melamed said with a laugh.
For his work, he has received unanimous critical acclaim. The Chicago Tribune said, “Fred Melamed plays Sy, and the role is unthinkable in any other hands.” The New York Times called him “splendidly unctuous,” and Roger Ebert said of the cast, “My favorite is Melamed.” In addition, The L.A. Times’ Oscars update predicted Melamed would take the statue for Best Supporting Actor, and in fact, as of this writing, he is on six major critics’ lists for that specific award. “I’ve been in this long enough to know not to get caught up in the whirlwind,” said Melamed. “But if you’ve spent some time in the desert, it’s very nice. It makes you very grateful.” Most ironic about Melamed’s quick assent—if not from a pile of ashes but the dunes of Montauk—is that he never auditioned for the role. He knew the Coens from his graduate school days at Yale Drama, where he met fellow students John Turturro and Frances McDormand, who was in the first film the brothers made and is married to Joel Coen. “We were in the same orbit,” Melamed said. He didn’t run across the Coens again until 1990, when they were casting Barton Fink. “I auditioned for the role of a movie studio head and came in second,” he said. Then came another opportunity with the eccentric (continued on page 22)