Fred Melamed: Contradictions And Coincidences

Fred Melamed is a study in contradictions.

The actor is best known for playing pedantic and smug, most notably in the Coen Brothers film “A Serious Man” and on Larry David’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” on television, but in real life he’s a nice guy. And during his three decades on stage and screen he’s often cast as an insecure pedagogue who unwittingly provides comic relief due to his pomposity, though he’s actually thoughtful and serious-minded in person.

The steadily working actor—who studied at the Yale School of Drama (along with classmates Kate Burton, Frances McDormand and John Turturro), was in the Tony Award-winning Broadway play “Amadeus,” has appeared in more than a dozen movies, including more than a handful of Woody Allen films and countless television shows, including “30 Rock” and “The Good Wife”—doesn’t have a name, or even a face, that’s instantly recognizable to most. But anyone who owns a television is guaranteed to have heard his voice.

True to the opposite path that his career seems to have taken, Mr. Melamed, by his own admission not the most gifted athlete, has been the voice of CBS Sports, the Olympics and the Super Bowl, as well as the immensely popular and violent Grand Theft Auto video game series.

Come January, his profile, and perhaps his penchant for the contradictory, is set to change. The East Ender, who lives in Montauk with his wife, Leslee and twin 10-year-old sons Lee and Alec, is headed to Sundance, and higher visibility on screen, with his latest film, Lake Bell’s “In a World.”

Coincidentally, his role in the film is that of a movie trailer voice-over talent. Ironically, Ms. Bell wasn’t aware of her lead actor’s prolific life as a voice actor when she cast him in the role.

“Strangely enough, she didn’t know about it,” Mr. Melamed, who played the title character in “Uncle Vanya” at Guild Hall in East Hampton this past summer, said over lunch at Indian Wells Tavern in Amagansett last Thursday. “She saw me in ‘A Serious Man’ and ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ and contacted my agent.”

Playing Sy Ableman, a “sensitive” villain who steals away his neighbor’s wife, in “A Serious Man” earned Mr. Melamed credit for one of the Best Performances of 2009 by New York Magazine and was “worthy of an Academy Award-nomination” said many critics, including Roger Ebert. It was also one of his favorite roles, he said.

“In a World” provides another meaty acting opportunity, he said, adding that the title for the film was inspired by the work of the deceased voice-over king Donald Leroy “Don” LaFontaine, a voice actor who recorded more than 5,000 film trailers, starting many of them “in a world ...”

After imitating Mr. LaFontaine’s catchphrase in a smoky baritone, Mr. Melamed said that his character in the film, Sam Sotto, is the “heir presumptive” to the title of “king of all movie-trailer voice-overs” when the number-one voice-over actor dies.

“I play this kind of second-tier guy who thinks he’s going to be the big trailer guy. I assume, and everybody assumes, it’s going to be me,” he said. “However, there’s a bunch of young guns and time is changing. One of these people is my daughter, who is played by Lake. The problem is, I’m so insecure, so riddled with doubt and so stuck in the number-two way of thinking that I’m threatened by my own daughter’s talent.”

“Maybe they are tired of the old voices. Maybe they want new, different voices,” he continued. “She decides, along with a bunch of other young women and men, mostly men, that they want to knock me out of the way; they want to compete. And that’s what the movie’s about.”

When asked if he minded being pegged as a boorish character so frequently, Mr. Melamed was quick to respond.

“I can’t imagine why,” he deadpanned, gesturing first to himself and then shrugging his shoulders with a knowing smile. “The truth of the matter is that movies are cast to a large extent on looks. Within that you try to be as broad as you can. But I’m perfectly happy with that.”

He said that he was fortunate being picked for his roles in “In a World” and “A Serious Man.”

“If you get a couple of roles like this in your lifetime, you’re lucky,” he said.

His spouse has a different hope for him though, he reported.

“I asked my wife, ‘What would you like to see me play?’ and she said, ‘I’d like to see you play the guy who gets the girl,’” he said, shyly smiling.

After “In a World,” it could be possible. The actor has plenty on his plate in the near future, including “Blumenthal” with Brian Cox (where a love interest for his character is a distinct possibility) and “HairBrained” with Brendan Fraser, both of which are in post-production. Coming up, he’s slated to return as Judge Alan Karpman on “The Good Wife” and is set to start filming a movie with Michael Cera in April.

Whether or not he’s about to become the next romantic comedy lead is anybody’s guess, though with his career trajectory it’s not outside of the realm of possibility. Regardless of where the next role takes him, in life, as in the movies, at the end of the day, it’s love that makes the world go round, Mr. Melamed said.

“Love of all kinds—the love of a husband or wife, boyfriend or girlfriend, of work, of life itself—is the only thing that makes life a worthy proposition,” he said.