 friend of mine was bemoaning the lack of photos and
articles about Rob Tapert the other day. After a bit of digging, I was finally
able to get some decent pics of Rob, but it was surprisingly difficult
considering that this man is THE head of Renaissance Pictures. In business
terms, he's definitely the most successful of all of the
Fake
Shemps, but he's rarely written about or discussed, and almost
unknown to many Fake Shemp fans.
While Sam usually gets credit for being a
creative
genius, Rob often goes unrecognized for his sheer business genius.
Sam himself has pointed out that Rob deserves a lot more recognition than he's
ever had. Rob has been a quiet but essential force behind the success of the
Shemps as a whole, and has especially impacted the careers of Josh Becker, Ted
Raimi and Sam Raimi. Who helped Josh get LUNATICS, A LOVE STORY written and
produced? Who hired Josh to direct for Hercules and Xena? Who pulled Ted onto
Xena, and insisted on keeping him there through thick and thin? Who was out
drumming up the money so Sam could write and direct his films? Who was cutting
the deals to stretch every penny as far as possible so that Sam (who is
notoriously sloooooow on the filming schedule) could finish the shoot? Robert
Tapert, The Invisible Shemp.
Even now, with the mega-millions of dollars that have poured in from Hercules
and Xena, Rob's penny pinching within the company is legendary. When people at
Renaissance Pictures want to spend money on something new to the budget, it's
Rob's approval they have to get. Not Sam's, because Sam is so rarely even in
the building that a lot of people hired within the past couple of years have
never even seen him. Renaissance Pictures is pretty much Rob Tapert's deal now.
Although Rob is a businessman from the word go, I've found him to be
surprisingly humorous and easygoing. The first time I met him, I was wearing
these brand new black suede hiking boots and I noticed that he kept staring at
my boots while we were talking. It was making me a bit uncomfortable, so
finally I said, "I guess not many people wear boots around here,
huh?"
Rob's eyes twinkled a bit, but his face seemed perfectly serious as he looked
me right in the eye and said, "Trade ya for my shoes... they're killing
me." Unfortunately for him, I had no desire to swap footwear. Later
someone teased me, "Hey, you could have walked a mile in Rob Tapert's
shoes!" I dunno... if they were as
uncomfortable as
he said, I wouldn't want to go there.
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 ob
isn't very tall, in fact when Lucy is in heels she sort of towers over him. He
has a very distinctive face, full of sharp angles and smooth planes, with a
full head of fine red hair and intelligent gray-blue eyes. It seems to run in
the family, because his younger brother (who also works for Renaissance) is a
carbon copy - looks just like him, but younger.
Stories abound about Rob's
antics with his
friends. He likes to put on acts, with different accents, making himself seem
strange, lecherous or dim-witted. Actually he's very quick of mind and loves to
tease people.
Lucy has called him "The funniest man I ever
met." One of the other Shemps recently entertained me with an imitation of
Rob flirting with Lucy, which had me in stitches. Basically, it was Rob with
some shempy French accent saying, "Luuuuuceee.... your body is like a
Viiiiisa carrrrrd.... It's everywhere -I- want to be." Apparently Rob has
quite a few lines like that. I
ended up laughing so hard I forgot the rest of them.
One thing I noticed right away about Rob is that he shifts gears very quickly
and smoothly when dealing with a variety of people. One time he and I were
discussing a project and a constant stream of production staff was interrupting
us. Every single time, Rob politely apologized to me, dealt with the person who
interrupted in whatever way he saw fit, and then settled back to calmly and
attentively speaking with me as if nothing had happened at all. It was
impressive, especially since I knew he was worried because Lucy was late and
their whole schedule was getting further and further out of whack by the
minute. Everyone else was running around in major stress. Not Rob. He was cool.
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 he "cool" Rob disappears when it comes to dealing with
computers or the Internet, however. I remember one time he was supposed to look
at a website, and he couldn't figure out how to enter a URL. Someone had to do
it for him as he threw his hands up in frustration. He seemed only mildly
embarrassed and quite willing to laugh at himself as he admitted to me that he
knows nothing about the Internet, websites, mailing lists or newsgroups. He was
stunned when I told him some of the things going on, things fans have said or
done online. He shook his head in amazement and said, "Wow. I had no idea
about this stuff, and what people can do."
Rob may be even more insulated by his phenomenal success than Sam is. It's only
natural, and unfortunately necessary for people who work with these guys to
form a protective circle around them and try to help them have some peace and
privacy. Rob's relationship with Lucy has made it doubly difficult for him,
because she is such a huge attraction. I've seen Rob surrounded by Xena fans,
and yet go unrecognized. You can bet that doesn't happen to Lucy too often. In
any case, Rob strikes me as the least "in touch" with the average
person of all the Shemps. It's not that he holds himself above everyone else,
because I definitely don't see that in him. It's just that he's really caught
up in a very busy, constantly demanding world that by necessity is mostly made
up of the many people who work with him. He just doesn't seem to get the time
to do much else these days.
And now he has to find time to be a daddy, too. From what I've heard, he's done
a great job with Lucy's daughter, Daisy, and he seems to be really psyched
about the new Tapert on the horizon. He and Lucy are going to have their hands
full, that's for sure. Here's wishing them all the best.
Julius Robert Bay Tapert was
born Oct. 16, 1999 |
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F A K E · S H E M P
S
Rob Tapert
"What we call fake shemps."
From the special edition ED DVD
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C R E A T I V E
· G E N I U S
Bruce Campbell
One of Rob's creative decisions.
From the special edition ED II LD
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B U S S I N E S S
· G E N I U S
Rob Tapert
The delegation of duties on independent films.
From the special edition ED DVD
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U N C O M F O R T A B L
E
Rob Tapert
What seems to be his favorite audience reaction.
From the special edition ED DVD
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A N T I C S
Rob Tapert
Teasing Sam Raimi about a scene in Evil Dead.
From the special edition ED DVD
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L U C Y
Rob Tapert
What wife Lucy Lawless thought about Evil Dead, when she first saw it.
From the special edition ED
DVD
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| L I N E S
Scott Spiegel
A line Scott says Rob used on Linda from Evil Dead II.
From the special edition ED II LD
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C A N · D O
Rob Tapert
Their motivation for making Evil Dead after having seen many a drive-in
movie.
From The Incredibly Strange Filmshow
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