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March 12, 1999/24 Adar 5759, Vol. 51, No. 24
Author, playwright catches Nolte in almost every act
TAMI BICKLEY
Staff Writer
Phoenix resident Mel Weiser discusses his personal relationship with actor Nick Nolte in "Nick Nolte: Caught in the Act," which will be available in bookstores March 22. Weiser is a director, producer, playwright and author of two other published books.
Photo by Halstan Williams
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For 12 hours, he was a quadriplegic, a man with a broken neck, a man who had a near-death experience following a body-surfing accident in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Los Angeles.
In the course of that day 20 years ago, the life of playwright Mel Weiser took a significant turn. Twelve hours after the mishap, he could move his fingers and toes, but it took him almost two years to fully recover.
"After that, I said, 'It's time to do something very special,' " he said.
This turning point prompted Weiser to abandon his career as a highly accomplished and somewhat anonymous voice in the entertainment business, to write "The Trespasser," (Avon Books), a novel about a woman who has a near-death experience, and a second book, "Within the Web" (Dell Publications).
In Weiser's modest Phoenix home, there are no visible signs of extravagance. But he has a slew of extravagant stories to tell.
Growing up in New York City, Weiser was fascinated by the theater and paid close attention to Broadway and the works of playwrights Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams. He failed to get his own plays produced while living in New York.
Then in 1958 he moved to Arizona with his family. Once here, he watched his portfolio and resume expand. After producing, writing and directing some 70 productions that were performed on Broadway and in dinner theaters around the country, Weiser rented two theaters in Phoenix - Circle Sixteen Playhouse and what was then known as Phoenix Little Theater.
He later developed the now-defunct Phoenix Jewish Theater in the former Valley of the Sun Jewish Community Center, where he directed such plays as "Morning Star" and "The Tenth Man."
Perhaps his most memorable achievement, he says, was when he and actor Michael Byron developed Actors Inner Circle in Phoenix in the 1960s. It was there that Weiser was introduced by another actor, Burke Rhind, to a prospective talent named Nick Nolte.
In Weiser's new tell-all book, "Nick Nolte: Caught in the Act," ($24.95 hard cover, Momentum Books Ltd., Troy, Mich.) he describes that first meeting with Nolte this way: "(Nolte) told me all about his inexperience and his hunger to act. The fire was there, all right. Some people are wannabes, and some are gottabes. It was evident ... that he fit squarely and eternally into the gottabe category."
Weiser suggested to Nolte that he move to Phoenix from Nebraska to join Actors Inner Circle. Nolte's mother, Helen, lives in Phoenix, so he was no stranger to the Valley. Nolte went on to act in more than a dozen stage plays here, directed by Weiser.
Nolte was eventually propelled to superstardom when he was cast in a Walt Disney television production of "The Feather Firm." But he never forgot Weiser. The two have remained close, sharing an array of both wild and tender moments together.
The halo of craziness that surrounds Nolte is shared in Weiser's up-close tome, available March 22. The biography is already making waves in Hollywood. It reveals for the first time Nolte's obsession to churn out perfect scenes, and his fear of not doing so. From caustic temper tantrums to unscripted bursts of rage, Weiser, too, has fallen victim to his share of verbal abuse from the actor.
"We both realize there's no venom behind that," Weiser says. "I speak to him abusively too. In fact, there's no one else I know who treats him the way I do. I argue with him. I tell him he's crazy. I tell him he's obsessing. But everyone else fawns over him because he's a star."
Being a star has fueled Nolte's apprehension about exposing his personal side, Weiser says. So a book detailing Nolte's preoccupation with flatulence or the removal of his boils and lesions surely is not his idea of star treatment.
"Nick didn't want me to write this book, let alone read it," confides Weiser. "He told me, 'I don't read books about myself.' And I told him, 'I know why. Because you're afraid to read some of the things about yourself that you're afraid to face.' "
Like the fact that Nolte admittedly doesn't have many true friends. Or that sometimes Nolte's apparent toughness gives way to heartfelt feelings.
By 1994, Weiser thought he had seen it all when it came to Nolte. But when they traveled together to Washington, D.C., to gather information on Thomas Jefferson, in preparation for Nolte's role in the film "Jefferson in Paris," Weiser discovered yet another side to the complicated actor.
"Nick has an inordinate preoccupation with violence," Weiser explains. "He wanted to see the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, so we went. For five hours, he didn't say a word. But when we got outside, he broke the silence with a painful groan. He was (shouting to me), 'Did you see? Did you see? Did you notice?' It all came pouring out. He is very impatient with anti-Semitism or anything that degenerates another person."
Weiser says he hopes Nolte will read his book because "whether or not he does, others (in Hollywood) will read it and will report to him. ... And unquestionably, (the book) will have an impact on him.
"I'm sure there will be things about the book that will distress him, but I'm sure he'll also be pleased with certain things that he likes other people to recognize, like his intelligence, his dedication to his art and his determination to try to find something about life he can hold on to. I don't think he'll ever stop talking to me because of this book. We have too much (of a history) behind us."
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