I was very sad to read the news that the Batman I grew up on, Adam West, had passed away. Some of my earliest memories are of watching the adventures of the caped crusader in re-runs of the classic 60's television series of Batman. As a child I loved the way West would deliver his dialogue and the physicality he brought to the character. When I was a kid I thrilled at his adventures with Robin the Boy Wonder fighting those dastardly villains like the Joker, Riddler, Penguin, and Catwoman. When I got older I got to appreciate all the fantastic campy humor and satire. Adam West perfectly portrayed Batman for two completely different audiences. Adults loved it for the campy comedy and kids like me enjoyed it for the thrills and adventure. And everyone agreed that Adam West WAS Batman.
I was also very sad to hear about Mr. Wests passing because I had the honor of working with Adam West on a film I directed. It is still one of the greatest thrills and honors of my life. I had written a script for a very campy comedy titled, Sexina: Popstar PI. Although the film has a provocative title (which is meant to be intentionally absurd and ridiculous) the film is a pretty tame satire on pop music mixed with a campy detective story. When we started thinking about casting it was the producer of the film, Charles Ricciardi that first brought up the name of Adam West. I instantly lit up at the idea. Here I was making a film that was influenced by 60's camp like the original Batman series and Adam West had always been one of my favorite actors. I honestly thought our low budget film would never get someone of the stature of Mr. West. At the time he was currently very popular as his hilarious character of Mayor West on Family Guy. His role as Mayor West was another reason I hoped he would be in the film because he continued to show his love and excellence at portraying the absurd. I hoped the ridiculous humor in my script would be something that might convince him to be in the film. We wanted Mr. West to play the part of our main villain simply known as "The Boss". We sent him the script and our offer and crossed our fingers and wished for the best.
To our delight and surprise we were told that he accepted the part. I was totally thrilled and instantly was reminded of all those times I watched re-runs of Batman on my parents TV set in the living room of our New York City apartment. And now I was going to work with my childhood hero in a movie I'm directing! I was so excited and nervous because the last thing I wanted to do was let Mr. West down. When we arranged his travel I was surprised to see he was flying in from Idaho. For some reason I just assumed he lived in LA, but he would later tell me that he loved living in the nature of Idaho with his family and found peace and happiness there.
We shot a lot of our film in New Jersey which is where Adam West flew in from Idaho and stayed during the shoot. The morning after he arrived I met him for breakfast. I was thrilled to be sitting there and small talking with my childhood Batman in person. He pulled out some vitamins at the table, one was a big green pill, and in his dry Batman like delivery he said "I call this one the Hulk"! I totally geeked out over my childhood Batman referencing another comic book character that I loved. We talked about the character in my film and joked around. I was thrilled that we had a very similar and silly sense of humor. Eventually I did ask some geeky questions about shooting the Batman series and he shared some great stories about working with Frank Gorshin (The Riddler) and Burgess Meredith (The Penguin). We also discussed his role as Mayor West on Family Guy. He was thrilled that so many young people loved him on the animated series and shared his thoughts on how highly he thought of the show’s creator, Seth McFarlane.
We first recorded with Adam West at a sound studio because some of his scenes were voice only. We wanted to recreate the style of the James Bond Villain, Blofeld, for the film. In the Bond films you would hear his sinister voice, but he would always be seen in the shadows with his bald head, grey suit, and stroking his cat. We did the same with Adam West having him voice the mysterious villain until he reveals himself at the end of the film to destroy our heroes. Mr. West is a master at voice work. He had been doing it for decades voicing Batman in different animated versions throughout the years as well as on the TV shows, The Fairly Odd Parents, Penn Zero: Part Time Hero and the Disney film, Chicken Little. And of course as the famous mayor of Quahog on Family Guy. I was so excited to see him get into the sound booth to perform the absurd dialogue I had written for him. He did one take after another of his dialogue to perfection. After one really hilarious line reading I told him in the control room "Pure West"! Referencing his classic line on the Simpsons on how he didn't need muscles on his Bat suit like Michael Keaton did. Adam instantly starting laughing at the reference repeating "Pure West!! The Simpsons"! He was kind enough to collaborate on some of the dialogue to improve lines that I thought could be funnier. He was even so generous that when I asked him if he would mind improvising some dialogue he was more than happy to do so and contributed some hilarious dialogue that he came up with on the spot.
When we filmed his live action material he was generous enough to bring his own wardrobe. We were filming at Bergenfield high school in New Jersey during the summer with no air-conditioning! It was so brutally hot. I felt so bad that Mr. West had to be subjected to such heat while wearing a suit, but he kept a good spirit and continued to joke around with the cast and crew. He had a great rapport with the lead actress in the film, Lauren D'avella. In the scene Adam had to hold a gun and threaten to kill the lead character, Sexina Played by D'avella. When we gave him the gun to use it was clearly a cheap child’s toy plastic gun and didn't resemble a real one at all. The film was very low budget and we thought it would add to the cheesy low budget feel. He instantly in a very humorous way joked about how fake the gun looked. Threatening to shoot us all with the fakest looking gun ever in a hilarious way! But he still used it in the scene and gave a great performance. Everyone there got a thrill watching him act and for me it brought back all the times I watched him on TV growing up. After we finished shooting he stuck around to take photos and talk to everyone and he was kind enough to sign my script and wrote a kind message of support and encouragement.
I was very sad to hear of Mr. West's passing. He showed me such kindness and generosity during the shooting of my first feature film. I was green at the time and he knew it. He was well aware it was my first film and was willing to work with me and give his all. He helped teach me some valuable lessons and made sure it was a fun and productive experience. Adam West was a pop culture icon and I was just a small time independent filmmaker making my first real movie. He showed me patience and kindness and shared his talent with me and gave a great performance in my small film. I will always be grateful to him for that.
Some years later I did a panel at San Diego Comicon for a documentary I directed about Star Wars and Indiana Jones poster artist, Drew Struzan. I was introduced afterwards to actor, Frank Dietz. I instantly recognized him because he co-starred with Adam West in the cult horror classic, Zombie Nightmare which was featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000. I told him that I had worked with Adam West on a film too. We both starting instantly talking about what a great guy he is and what a thrill it was to work with him. Adam became friends with Frank after working on that film together and it's always great to hear stories from other people that worked with him because they are all the same. He was an amazing, kind, and generous person and actor. For me, he will always be my favorite Batman. The Bright Knight, the one who taught me right from wrong as a child and thrilled me with his portrayal as the Caped Crusader. I'm very grateful that I got to work with my childhood hero and he will definitely be missed.
Frank Dietz and Adam West in Zombie Nightmare (Code Red Video)
Adam West in Sexina: Popstar PI (Wild Eye Releasing)