As you know, A Serious Man, a new film by the Coen brothers will be receiving the Robert Altman Award at The Spirit Awards this March and in early celebration on Hollywood the Write Way, Fred Melamed who plays Sy Ableman in the film sat down to talk about the film.

What did you learn from the Coen brothers while working with them for A Serious Man?

I am a writer as well as an actor, (and an aspiring director), so I actually learned a great many things from them. I view them as brilliant writers first, who then make brilliant films from what they have written. In their writing, I observed a tremendously elegant economy. There is not one extra word, scene or joke. Every line is true to the nature of the character saying it, and moves the story forward. Nothing added unless implicitly necessary. This includes sections that some might regard as parenthetical, like the Yiddish stuff at the beginning, or the Story Of The Goy’s Teeth. As an actor, I learned the great value of relaxation. It gives you true freedom in your choices. And that if your character is essentially true, you can be very broad in your strokes without it becoming burlesque. As a wannabe director, I learned to spend a great deal of time and care in casting, and to cast people you have deep faith in. And the more thorough your pre-production, the more relaxed and free you can be on the set.

When identifying yourself with your character, how does that help and hurt developing and getting into character?
I always think of the character as being me. But me wearing a “coat”, which may be a different way of speaking, moving or regarding other people. To me, acting is pretending, just like kids playing, only you pretend as if it were really, really real. I think of each character as having an “essential gesture” as Michael Chekhov put it. For example, Sy Ableman is a manipulator, a Machiavellian villain, but his way is to make everyone relax and accept his suggestion (which he also believes) that he is only trying to do what is best for everybody. I thought it would be interesting to try to play him as a constant “massager” of people; someone who gets what he wants by convincing everyone that they can relax and let him make the decisions, and that all will be well. That is his essential gesture. But the character is always me.

As far as being attached to the film, was it the story or the characters that drew you in to A Serious Man?
When I started reading the script, I immediately thought it was just brilliant, and wanted to be a part of it. Then, when I realized how great a role I was being offered in Sy Ableman, I got so excited. An actor is very lucky to have a chance to play a role like that any time, (the plum role of the movie, as far as I am concerned), and with the Coens, no less!

How many re-writes were there about and how did that affect the way you portrayed your character?
Except for some very minor changes, mostly for practical reasons, (name changes, etc.), there were no rewrites! There was a situation where the motel that Larry and Uncle Arthur move into in the original script was called The Jolly Roger. While they were scouting locations, the Coens found a real period-correct motel called the Aqua City (it had a pool). By changing the name of the motel in the screenplay to the Aqua City, the Coens reckoned they could save a few thousand dollars on creating a sign or a CGI shot. On the first day of rehearsal, I begged them to change the name back to the Jolly Roger, as I thought it was infinitely better, stronger. After some discussion between themselves, they had a sign built and changed it back. I don’t remember any actor ever asking anything else.

What were the most entertaining and most challenging scenes to shoot?
The first scene shot on the first day was the one in Embers restaurant, where Judith (the phenomenal Sari Lennick) and I bully Larry into moving into the Jolly Roger. I had just become friends with Michael Stuhlbarg, who is an extremely gifted actor, and the three of us had rehearsed a bit the night before on our own. We were all very relaxed, and looking at both Sari and Michael as I groped his hand and counted to ten, silently, was extremely entertaining. I was near breaking up many times, and Michael actually did once or twice. We had an utter blast making A Serious Man. For me, there weren’t many hard scenes to shoot. The nearest was the dream sequence, where I had to be physically rough with Michael. It was only difficult because I genuinely like him so much, and I’m so much bigger than he is, plus he is so convincing as an actor that it really looked as though he was getting hurt. But he was fine.

Can we expect to see you on Broadway again in the future?
I haven’t appeared on stage in quite a long time and I don’t have any immediate plans to do so, but I’m always interested in going back.

What are your upcoming projects?
I just finished my first episode on Law & Order as sagacious (and recurring) Judge Bertram Hill. I also completed an interesting pilot, yet unnamed, about a gay teenage runaway hustler, played by Lonny Ross (of 30 Rock fame), who befriends a somewhat embittered, widowed chess genius (me), in Central Park. It is all about their unusual, contentious friendship.

And I have written a movie, which I hope to direct myself, titled “(Also, a Villager)” It is fiction, but largely based on the true story of a friend of mine, a cartographic authority and map dealer of great renown, who was famous for having built the collections of several wealthy collectors and venerable institutions. After 20 years as an extremely respected and well-liked insider, he was caught stealing from the Beinecke Library at Yale. As the evidence against him mounted, he ultimately admitted to having stolen more than 5 million dollars worth of maps and rare documents from various collections. He was, by far, the most brazen and prolific map thief of all time. The British Library, in its sentencing brief to his judge, called him, “The most reprehensible cultural criminal of the modern era.”

What is so interesting about him, is that although he is understandably vilified in map collecting circles, it is just about impossible to get anybody to say anything negative about him at the personal level; a nearly universally loved, admired human being. He used much of the money to do what he thought would help preserve a better way of life. His friends, his town, his family. He had had a kind of pathological need to be a kind of magician in people’s lives, to help them in whatever way he sensed they needed, with little regard for fame or gratitude. He wrecked his own life, and the lives of many others, because he believed that if he ceased his role as this kind of magic rescuer, he would literally disappear; that he could have no life as an ordinary man.

What are your favorite holiday traditions?
Well, because I have twin seven-year-old boys, I enjoy the gift giving stuff a great deal. We do both Hanukkah and Christmas, so it is a costly, though extremely pleasing proposition. We also like to watch 4 movies together during the holidays. The first is It’s A Wonderful Life, that eternal chestnut. We watch James Stewart’s George Bailey in it. It was just after he came back from WWII, and didn’t know if he’d still have a career. It is an incredibly modern, moving performance. Second is the 1935 Selznick David Copperfield, with Freddy Bartholomew and W. C. Fields, a movie more full of Christmas, love and heartache than anything produced in my lifetime. The third is Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol. If you haven’t seen this, see it. And last, my favorite motion picture of all time, David Lean’s Great Expectations. Note, particularly, the work of Francis Sullivan, the greatest portly character actor who has ever lived, as the redoubtable Mr. Jaggers, the barrister.

It probably goes without saying that I enjoy the potato pancakes, delicious hams and so forth that maddeningly turn up at this time of year. But I am attempting to be a good lad now, and may have to watch some of the films I just mentioned while sweating away on the exercise bike.

The Spirit Awards will air live on IFC March 5, 2010 at L.A. Live at 8pm PST/11pm EST.