FAN Interview: Michael Melendez – Freakin' Awesome Network

During one of my off days laying in the sun and checking out my emails, I started talking to my old buddy Michael Melendez. A talented actor, Michael has been making big strides in his career, including acting AND writing the script to his latest film “Turning Home”. After getting lathered up by what I thought was a hot chick in a bikini (and turning out to be some oily fat man named Murray), I got to talk to Michael and catch up.

Tell the viewers at home a little about yourself.

Me? I’m just another Charlotte area based actor who still has a day Job.

What got you into this kooky acting game?

I’d written a few plays in college but then I’d heard how acting lessons can help directors, so I tried to apply the same to writing. I’m not sure it helped, but it got me interested in acting.

Who are some of the names in show biz that you admire and respect?

Edward Burns and Kevin Smith are writer/directors I like. Barry Levinson wrote “Diner” (1982) and “Tin Men” (1987), two films I love. But guys from the local indie scene have been influences too. A. Blaine Miller has written some of the best characters I’ve ever read. Dan Lashley and Richard O’Sullivan too — they’ve both written scripts I wish I’d written. As for actors, some of the less obvious that come to mind are Michael Caine and Andre Braugher. Davis Osborne and Tim Holt are a couple of local guys I enjoy watching.

*blush* Talk about some of the roles you’ve had?

There is one or two I wish I could take back, but I’ve been lucky too. I’m really just happy to get to play. Robert Filion cast me in his short, “Lot 66” (2010) about a guy with a severe fear of the dark who spends the first night in his new home alone, during a thunder storm. I played a ruthless killer-for-hire in a thriller called, “Three for Dinner” by Dalliance Films. In Michael Plumides’ Ghost Trek I play Dr. Zeke Wallace an ex-chiropractor turned paranormal investigator. He’s slick, self-confident and two-dimensional but really only on the outside. I want more to do with that character in that regard. I’ve seen more scripts and it’s all there. Those are all fun characters but they made me realize I have a lot to prove as an actor. Especially to myself.

Now a lot of people don’t know that we’ve worked together on Rose Colored Miles. Talk a little about that experience.

This was your script I wish I’d written. For your readers who don’t know RCM, it’s a story about about a former child television star who is tracked down by a producer for an entertainment news type television show. The child star agrees to an interview for the show but only if the producer spends some time in his bizarre world. You played the child star and I was the producer. Steve Stussey photographed it. We had a good time and if the film we made is only half as good as the script, then you should be very proud.

Michael as Rex Costello - Rose Colored Miles

I certainly am sir. and you did a damn fine job in it. You’ve done a short called Ghost Trek, which appears to be a comedic takeoff of Ghost Hunters and other ghost type shows, Talk about that experience a little.

Yeah, that’s what it is. Ghost Trek follows this team of maybe not-so-qualified paranormal investigators who call themselves, P.U.D.S., Paranormal Underworld Detective Society. It’s this great concept developed by writer/director Michael Plumides. Robert Filion co-directed it with him. We just won Best Comedy at the Fright Night Film Fest, so we’re all pretty excited about that.

Excellent stuff! Now your most recent project is the film “Turning Home”, which you are not only acting in, but also wrote the screen play. Tell the folks what the story is about and who else is involved.

Turning Home is a play I wrote in college that I adapted to a screenplay. It’s a story about a family struggling with grief over loss but it touches on relationships and dreams and how the loss of a loved one can affect those things. But the story is in what these characters do with it. It’s essentially a story about celebrating life. It follows a young former solider who reenlists during war time to escape the pain of losing the love of his life. When he returns to his small town home three years later for the wedding of his late wife’s brother, he learns that like him, her family is struggling with the grief.

I originally wrote it so I could cast myself, as an acting project for me, but as time went on and I looked back on my own life experiences, I had a clearer picture of my past relationships with family, with girls, with friends and of what made those relationships work or why others deteriorated. That’s mostly how the story evolved into what it is now.

Several years ago when I picked up the script again and started rewriting, I’d take it to my day job and assign characters to my co-workers, just to hear the words out loud. One of them, Carol Owens loved the story and asked if she could pass it on to her sister-in-law, Catherine Owens who was studying film at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Cathy called me and told me that she’s leaving to study film at the University of Southern California but loved the script so much, she wanted to direct it after graduation. So I thought I should check her out. I saw a film she wrote and had recently directed called, “Louie the Moon” (2004) and I could see why she knew what I was trying to say with my story. Over the years we discussed the story and the characters but I wasn’t sure what would happen. Then one day she called me and said, “Let’s do it.” My wife Amber and I started fundraising and we shot through March. Cathy brought her DP, Rachel Elias from Los Angeles, our Casting Director, Liz Manashil was also based in LA and we were very fortunate to cast Darren Burrows (Northern Exposure), Amin Joseph (The Expendables) and Hannah Telle (who is originally from Shelby, NC). But I’m also very proud to say the rest of our cast was local talent; Haven Wilson, Catherine Trail, W. Scott Parker III, John C. Cunningham, Bethany Tiller, Francine Locke and Tracy Gordon. We filmed mostly in Davidson, NC. Some in Cornelius and Charlotte too. Currently we’re in post production.