Dean Cameron loves show business. It hasn’t always been a mutual love, but it’s been in his blood for so long it has become second nature to Cameron, quite the accomplished actor.
“My father was in a play when I was six years old and they needed a kid so I did it,” Cameron said. “It’s funny because I was just going through some old boxes and there was a review of the play and I got better reviews than any of the adults so it was cool to see it – my father had circled it for me.”
While his father was not always into his career aspirations, Cameron’s mother is the person who really pushed him to follow his own path. “My mom told me that if I never try it I will always wonder,” he said. “So I did, and I’m still trying to figure out if it was great or horrible advice.”
Whether it was good or bad advice, the young man from Norman, Oklahoma moved to Los Angeles after graduating high school and found himself taking on a difficult role early in his young career – the role of Jeff Spicoli in the television spinoff Fast Times – a character originally made famous by Sean Penn in the film Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
“Everyone wanted to know who was the poor guy who was going to play Spicoli,” he explained. “It was a huge pair of checkered Vans to fill. Sean (Penn) had played this iconic, will-never-be-forgotten role in the history of film. I didn’t want to do it but I knew show business was hard and had to; I thought, ‘If I don’t suck, it will put me on the map in a good way.’ And it certainly did, and my subsequent success was directly attributed to ‘Fast Times’. It was only seven episodes, which was the right amount of time for it to last.”
Following Fast Times, Cameron’s star power would only rise when he took on the role of Francis “Chainsaw” Gremp in the comedy classic Summer School. “Amy Heckerling was initially supposed to direct Summer School, so the writer was aware of me,” Cameron said. “When I read the script I thought it was a great chance to make an iconic character; Chainsaw was a very well written part. She initially wanted Patrick Dempsey and Wallace Langham, and had Amy stayed on she would have made the movie a bit more hip and edgier. But Carl Reiner was brought in and he’s a legend; Carl smoothed out the script and the story.”
With the success of Summer School, Cameron was given a developmental deal with Paramount and was hopeful it would catapult him to another level of stardom. However, the untimely writer’s strike halted his movement. “The strike came along and stopped all the momentum I had built,” Cameron lamented. “We managed to sneak Bad Dreams in there, but my career never really recovered from the writer’s strike, which is probably why I’m not a big fan of unions to this day.”
While his career didn’t skyrocket as he had hoped, Cameron’s popularity with audiences didn’t falter and his next big project was a chance for him to show his talent as a lead actor and a musician – 1990’s Rockula.
“I didn’t have to audition for Rockula, based on Summer School”, Cameron pointed out. “The movie was a cool take on things and it’s funny because the film started out as a serious film and when they finished the script they made it a comedy – fortunately. Most people enjoy it because it’s sappy and silly; not because it’s horrible either.”
Though Rockula is a cult classic, Cameron realizes it could have been a bigger hit had it been given the release it deserved. “It was another heartbreaker for me,” he said. “When it was ready to be released, the studio (Cannon Films) went bankrupt.”
Undeterred by the business side of Hollywood, Cameron went back to school – twice – to complete his trilogy of “educational” films. He also was able to channel his inner cartoon character when filming Ski School and Ski School 2.
“I’m doing as much Bugs Bunny as possible in Ski School”, he laughed. “I wish the movies were more high profile, but it’s like David Lee Roth said, ‘I don’t get all the girls I want, I get all the girls who want me.’ That’s how I feel about movies. They offered it to me – and the script had some stuff in it that was subversive for the time. And I said to the producer and the writer, ‘This movie is so stupid, we will have a great time making it,’ and I don’t think that was appreciated. We had a very good time doing that movie.”
Cameron turned down the movie Rock ‘n’ Roll High School Forever after Ski School, but got involved in another comedy soon after, though he initially wanted no part of it.
“I turned the movie Men at Work down a lot because I didn’t want to work with Emilio Estevez,” he said. “He was a ‘Brat Pack’ guy and I was still thinking I was going to carry movies and I obviously didn’t say a lot in that movie because I was gagged through most of it – which turned out to be a blessing. I was completely wrong about Emilio and it was all because of my snobbery. He was awesome and really cool to work with and it surprised me how professional he was – so in the end I had a great time. The downside being it was five weeks of night shoots so you didn’t see anyone. Your friends are all asleep when you’re working so it was really weird.”
“That’s how I feel about movies. They offered it to me – and the script had some stuff in it that was subversive for the time. And I said to the producer and the writer, ‘This movie is so stupid, we will have a great time making it,’ and I don’t think that was appreciated.”
If there were a movie Cameron wished he had turned down it would probably be Miracle Beach. “People like it and that’s nice,” he said. “I just hate it. It was such a disappointment. I knew when I was doing it ‘this was it’ for me. The script I read and the script we were making were completely different. Logically, if you have Ami Dolenz after you, what idiot is going to go after this model? There was no battle. No conflict. I also had this weird hair helmet because I was losing my hair. I don’t think I’m any good in it. Halfway through, as a friend pointed out to me, I kind of give up. I thought no one would ever see it. And then HBO got the PG version of it and in 1996 it was the most shown movie on HBO.”
Cameron’s witty repartee is what makes any conversation with him engaging. Just ask the Nigerian scam artist who fell into Cameron’s wild web for nine months of correspondence – a hilarious back-and-forth that Cameron turned into a hit show: The Nigerian Spam Scam Scam.
“It was a huge effort and a lot of that goes to Paul Provenza who shaped the 120 pages of correspondence into 27-28 pages for the show – he’s just a comic genius,” Cameron stated. “We went to the International Fringe Festival in Scotland and it was a hit show – and the night before we performed Paul was rewriting it. It’s never been shot quite the way I like, so I think I might do a Kickstarter for it sometime soon.”
Cameron also has kept himself busy with web work, an occupation he finds much more fulfilling than acting. “What I really enjoy about web work is the amount of work put into it is equal to the amount that returns,” he described. “You write the code and it pops up like it’s supposed to – there’s something satisfying about that.”
From his development work, Cameron has found a way to irk one of the most annoying agencies in the world – the TSA – with his invention – Security Edition. “I was whining to a friend about how bad the TSA,” he said. “I said someone should put the Bill of Rights on a piece of metal so when you go through the metal detectors you can say here, ‘take my rights.’ We have socks and luggage tags for those that are less confrontational. It doesn’t do anything but piss the people off in line behind you.”
2012 and 2013 have been good to Cameron – even his 50th birthday was a joy – with all the credit going to his wife. “It’s the ultimate torture to have a Christmas Day birthday,” he joked. “My wife went above and beyond this year. It was a really memorable birthday and I have only had a few of those because of the holiday. I guess it could be worse and I could have a January 5th birthday when everyone is sick of celebrating. But it did suck as a kid!”
As his career picks up steam again, Cameron is reflective on what the past year has meant for him personally and professionally – especially with the passing of his mother, the person who inspired him to follow his dream years ago. “My mother passed, I turned 50, I just did episodes of The Newsroom and Glee, I’m doing my web work and I have a lot riding on Steel Panther,” he said. “I feel reinvigorated with show business after the ups and downs of the last year.”
Cameron has remained close with some of his co-stars from Summer School, most recently joining them for a midnight showing of the film at the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles. “Patrick Labyroteaux is a great guy and doing great things,” he said. “I reconnected with Robin Thomas (Gills from Summer School) and we are becoming friends. It’s better than having enemies.”
Dean Cameron has made the most of the opportunities presented to him throughout his career and is happy where he is today. “I used to feel show business was a silly venture,” he explained. “It’s narcissistic and ridiculous. What you want is for people to sit in a theater and look at you 40 feet tall and say ‘ Oh, I love that guy!’ What a stupid thing to want – but, so what? It’s what I like doing. I don’t like going to parties. I like this. I see now it’s a means that justifies the ends – if there is an end.”