6/2/2014 Say Hello to the Bad Guy

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MOVIES
Say Hello to the Bad Guy
Even when he isn't making a movie, Tiny Lister usually plays the bad guy. As a paid
spokesperson for Monster Energy Drink, Lister works corporate events on weekends,
and when hes on the clock, he appears as Deebo, his signature character from the
Friday franchise. Deebo is Listers Hamlet, his Sherlock Holmes, his artistic avatar.
Its always that character, he says of the neighborhood bully who first terrorized Ice
Cube and Chris Tucker in the original 1995 comedy. Thats what they pay to see.
BY THOMAS GOLIANOPOULOS ON MAY 29, 2014
Even when he isnt making a movie, Tiny Lister usually plays the bad guy. As a paid spokesperson for
Monster Energy Drink, Lister works corporate events on weekends, and when hes on the clock, he
appears as Deebo, his signature character from the Friday franchise. Deebo is Listers Hamlet, his
Sherlock Holmes, his artistic avatar. Its always that character, he says of the neighborhood bully
who first terrorized Ice Cube and Chris Tucker in the original 1995 comedy. Thats what they pay to
see.
I meet Lister in April outside MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on the afternoon of the
Monster Energy Supercross. Fifty-five years old, he trudges through the crowd gingerly, landing flat-
footed with each step. He wears black slippers with white sweat socks, a black long-sleeve thermal and
black sweatpants, both emblazoned with the puke-green Monster logo. A diamond Monster medallion
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dangles at his chest. He is unlike any movie star 6-foot-5, 285 pounds with a bald, angular head and
mammoth hands, a fearsome titan in a land of mini Ken dolls. Then theres the eye. Its not as cross-
eyed as it appears on film. Listers right eye, in which he is blind, is cloudy and it droops.
His look isnt complete until he climbs aboard a beach cruiser, the bike Deebo rides in Friday; however,
this one is painted black and that Monster green. Ominous theme music feels like it should be playing
as he pedals slowly toward the Pit Party, where a tire-changing contest has lured fans. Jaws is
swimming toward the shore. Ay! Lister barks at a couple holding hands crossing in front of the bike.
Ay, move! Tiny Lister is now acting.
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Imagine Billy Zabka in a Cobra Kai karate gi patrolling a parking lot, spouting catchphrases and answering to
Johnny while bullying twerps. Now consider the absurdity of the scene.
Upon entering the Pit Party, Lister, donning a wireless microphone, tries to pump up the crowd. Oh,
shit, its Deebo! someone inside the scrum hollers.
Ay, ay, give it up for the pit crew, Lister bellows. His voice is a guttural croak. Like Deebo, whenever
he raises his voice, Lister sounds as if hes just snacked on a few rusty nails. Give it up, he continues,
or Im gonna choke you out, fool. You gonna have me on TMZ. The performance continues for 10
minutes, until Lister retreats near a trailer.
Man, Im tired, he says off mic, revealing a toothy smile, the beads of sweat rolling down his brow.
Then he takes a swig from a can of sugar-free Monster Ultra Red.
Playing the bad guy wasnt always this easy Lister says he received death threats when he wrestled as
Zeus, a character he originated in the 1989 film No Holds Barred. But it came naturally. He can go
from that innocent look to absolute danger in a blink of an eye, says Eric Roberts, Listers costar in
four films. When he looks angry, you feel anger. As a result of that skill, Tommy Tiny Lister Jr. has
carved out a weird, remarkable career 30 years long this year, 176 acting credits in all, with work
alongside icons like Marlon Brando,
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Tupac Shakur,
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Hulk Hogan, and Michael Jackson.
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Lister on working with Brando in the 1994 movie Don Juan DeMarco: He hit me in the stomach and said, I heard
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you are Zeus, this big badass from wrestling. We became real good friends.
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I used to go to a hotel on La Cienega and he would kick the girl out of bed so we could read scripts together once it
was a John Sayles script. Lister acted alongside Shakur in 1997s Gang Related.
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You knew you were working with the greatest entertainer on earth, Lister says of his time on the set of
Remember the Time. This is how [Michael] said hello to me: I was in my motor home watching a Western. The
door opens and someone had put a stink bomb in my trailer that smelled like a rotten egg.
God, he believes, had something to do with making him one of Hollywoods go-to heavies. Born blind
with a detached and deformed retina, Lister was once ashamed of his right eye. He wore tinted glasses.
He even cursed God. Then one day he stopped hiding and took off the shades. I started doing these
movies and God said, You thought it was a curse. It was a blessing, he says. [My eye] became my
trademark in Hollywood.
His other calling card: Lister is a gentle giant known for being the friendliest guy on set, a welcome
collaborator. He has such a good, positive spirit, says Walter Hill, the director of 48 Hrs. and The
Warriors, who gave Lister his big break, casting him in 1986s Blue City and later directing him in
Extreme Prejudice and Trespass. This discovery that this big, strong fella is actually sweet and
friendly just makes you like him and brings about a very positive feeling.
It was shocking, then, in August 2012 when Tiny Lister pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges for his role
in a $3.8 million mortgage fraud scam. Currently out on bail, Lister is confident he will avoid prison
time. Whats so cool about God and our government is that you can make a mistake and they will
forgive you if you just a good person and doing right, he says. Everybody who saw my situation saw I
was good. Theres more to it than that. Lister believes this ordeal, like his birth defect, like his career,
happened for a reason.
Lister subscribes to a worldview with room for concepts like divine paths and prophecies. He had
loftier ambitions than a 9-to-5 after college, to the point of delusion. Despite never playing football
growing up, Lister futilely tried out for the New Orleans Breakers of the United States Football League
in 1984. And even with a discernible disability, he dreamed of protecting the president as a Secret
Service agent. He never made it to the NFL, or to Washington. But Lister did make it to Hollywood. He
first met Walter Hill at the Los Angeles nightclub Imperial Gardens, where he worked as a bouncer.
Lister then decided to give acting a shot. One of his workout buddies at the time was Jimmy Bridges Jr.,
brother of Todd Bridges of Diffrent Strokes fame and, more significantly, the son of an agent. Hed be
like, Introduce me to your dad, man. Introduce me to your dad. I want to be an actor. After a while I
was like, Come on, man, lets go meet him, Bridges remembers. He was 6-5, 275, with a lopsided
eye. My dad was like, I can do something with him.
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Lister and Hulk Hogan in No Holds Barred.
A slew of henchman roles followed until No Holds Barred, the Hulk Hogan vehicle that answered the
question: What if Ed Wood were still alive and made a film about professional wrestling? Lister nailed
the audition, arriving in character as Hogans rival, Zeus, a psycho ex-con with a Z shaved into his head
and an Anthony Davisesque unibrow. He had only a handful of lines in the film, with most of his
screen time dedicated to beatdowns and wild mugging but considering his primary objective was
terrifying the target audience of 9-year-old Hulkamaniacs, the performance is iconic in its precision.
To appear as a threat to the similarly enormous Hogan, Lister bulked up to 305 pounds. But no amount
of muscle could protect him when, while filming the climactic fight scene, Hogan broke Listers nose.
Man, I caught Tiny. I dont know if I was tired or overzealous, but I just splattered his nose.
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I was
apologizing, afraid to God he would kill me, but he was way cool about it, Hogan says. We had this
thing we would say to each other, Free James Brown, if he squeezed me too tight or I was squeezing
him too tight. We both loved James Browns music so, if he was choking me too tight or I was choking
him too tight, wed say, Free James Brown, which would make us laugh so we could loosen up. When I
hit his nose, he goes, I thought you loved me. What about James Brown?
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5.
Here is Hulk Hogan on the art of throwing the perfect fake punch: [In wrestling], a lot of guys throw punches to
the shoulder. Then there are guys like Triple H and Randy Orton, who are really good at throwing punches directly
between the eyes to the forehead. I prided myself on being the first guy to throw a perfect punch. Even Stallone
freaked out when I played Thunderlips [in Rocky III]. I threw the first punch and went right between the eyes, and
he freaked out even though I barely touched him. It was like a feather once you get your coordination and timing
down. So I always prided myself on being the best guy throwing that straight-into-the-face punch.
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In case you missed it: Hulk Hogan and Tiny Listers safe word was Free James Brown.
While No Holds Barred flopped at the box office and was ravaged by critics Roger Ebert called it a
disgusting film it provided a built-in angle for a main-event feud in the World Wrestling Federation.
A few weeks before the film debuted, Lister appeared on WWF programming as Zeus, the No Holds
Barred character, claiming that Hogan had prevailed in the movie only because the fight was staged. It
was meta before meta. The Hogan-Zeus program main-evented three WWF pay-per-views in 1989.
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At first, Lister wasnt interested in wrestling. I aint really into putting my hand up in between some
dudes legs, he says today. The money, however, towed him into the ring. Nearly 25 years later, Lister
can recite the exact paydays: $56,000 for SummerSlam, $17,000 for Saturday Nights Main Event,
$40,000 for No Holds Barred: The Match, and $35,000 for Survivor Series.
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Vince McMahon was a
great negotiator, Lister says. He would already wire the money into my account before he even
started [negotiating]. Whos going to say no? Youre going to take 56,000 out of your checking
account?
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He wrestled sporadically after leaving the WWF, earning $22,000 in 1990 for wrestling Abdullah the Butcher in
Puerto Rico and $17,000 for a one-shot deal with World Championship Wrestling in 1996.
Listers wrestling sojourn didnt damage his status in Hollywood in fact, it led to the defining role of
his career. When casting the South Central L.A.based comedy Friday, Jaki Brown sought a Goliath for
the neighborhood tough Deebo. Ninety-eight percent of the people we saw for Deebo were football
players, really gigantic football players. They all thought they were actors but none of them could do
it, says Brown, a veteran casting director. Since [Deebo] had to be so big, we talked about wrestlers.
Tinys name came up and it was like, Wow, hed be perfect.
Theres a chilling nihilism to Deebo, from his indiscriminate hit list neighbors, women, old men
to how he dictates through ruthless intimidation, calmly seething, almost nudging his victim until he
gets his way, the threat of horrific you-got-knocked-the-fuck-out violence always lurking as his backup
plan. A breezy stoner comedy for the most part, Friday almost sobers up whenever Deebo emerges; his
presence adds real stakes to a film that otherwise couldve gone the way of Dude, Wheres My Car?
A brute like Deebo could have only originated in a place like Compton, and Lister drew upon his own
experiences, specifically modeling the character after local Rollin 60s Crips leader Eugene Big U
Henley.
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Big U taught me that he imposed his will on the subject and he was relentless, Lister says. I
grew up in that element, and so I mimicked it.
8.
After serving 13 years in prison, Henley is now a music event promoter; CEO of Developing Options, a community
group dedicated to empowering youth; and a cofounder of Uneek Social Media, an online marketing group.
Though his formative years preceded the 1980s crack boom that transformed Compton into one of
Americas failed states, Lister says he dodged gangs, drug dealers, and shootouts while growing up.
There were bullies as well, like an older kid named Lawrence Adams, who would chase Lister home
from school. One day in fourth grade, his mother shut the front door on her son, forcing him to
confront his fears. Lister says he turned around, closed his eyes, and began swinging.
He later found solace in track and field. Shot put was his event. A loner by nature, Lister abhorred team
sports, viewing them with contempt based off his almost objectivist principles he thought it was
unfair for the superstars when they had to cover for weaker teammates. I love the shot put because
you win or lose by yourself, he says. Either I get exposed or I dominate. I always dominated because I
trained to dominate. The hard work paid off at Cal StateLos Angeles, where Lister broke the school
record seven times and became the 1982 Division II national shot put champion.
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Which was also where the nickname Tiny originated. When I was in college, you would be a counselor and part
of my scholarship was dealing with handicap kids in the summertime. Youd watch their reaction when they found
out my name was Tiny and theyd see how big I am, Lister says. I was like, Let me keep this nickname.
Lister beams with pride recounting his athletic accomplishments. Were now backstage at the Monster
Pit Party, sitting on shipping containers, watching the roadies unload equipment. A DJ nearby blasts
an endless Turn Down for What remix. Every so often a fan approaches. Lister has dropped the
Deebo act for now.
Can I get a picture?
Yeah, where you from?
Boston.
Clam chowder, Donnie and Mark Wahlberg.
His mood turns once he begins addressing his family. Lister, the second of four children born to a truck
driver and housewife,
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cut off contact with his immediate family about five years ago, after the birth of
his daughter Faith Grace.
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The rift began 30 years ago, when Lister first began to pursue his acting
career. A lot of people didnt believe in what I was doing. They said, Get a real job, Lister says. My
father used to speak death on me. He would say, Youll never be nothing. Youre weak.
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His grandmother was Lucille Balls maid.
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He met his wife, Felicia, 10 years ago while on location in South Africa.
Hes reluctant to share details. I made a decision that I think is best for me, he says. A lot of times
you try and please your biological family and you cant please them. I dont care if you give them
money, they want more money. After a while I stopped trying to please them. I said, Im tired of being
pimped.
I ask if he still speaks to his mother, now a widow living in Texas. She allowed my father to speak
death on me, so Im cool, he says. Watch me on TV, you know what Im saying?
The mortgage fraud scam is another delicate subject. The scheme, which ran from November 2005 to
June 2007, was both convoluted and crude. Lister conspired with an accountant and other accomplices
(a former mortgage loan officer, real estate agent, former bank manager, and former escrow officer) to
fraudulently acquire four properties he couldnt afford; he magnified his income on mortgage
applications, fabricated bank statements, and falsified escrow records to trick lenders into thinking he
made obligatory down payments. He then cashed out $1.146 million from the home equity lines of
credit before defaulting on the four mortgages. As a result, banks lost another $2.6 million.
He accepts some of the blame. I had some bad people in my life bad managers, real estate people,
he says. I should have took a stronger look at it. You live and learn. You get scar tissue and it makes you
a better person in the end. I just want to be there for my daughter.
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I ask for specifics: Take a stronger look at what? Just critique people harder, he says.
Though conspiracy charges carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison, Lister, who cooperated
fully with federal prosecutors, the IRS, and the FBI, anticipates he will have to owe restitution
payments and perform community service. Sentencing is scheduled for January 26, 2015.
Once the rain begins falling at MetLife Stadium, Lister decides to cut his workday short and return to
his hotel in nearby Hoboken. A Monster employee arranges for a taxi to collect us near will call.
Theres one problem with the plan: Fans bombard Lister in the march out of the Pit Party. He keeps
moving, elegantly dodging photo and autograph requests, and we eventually flag down a cab in the
parking lot.
Our driver is clueless. Dangerous, even. After missing our exit, we edge toward the Lincoln Tunnel
tollbooths. Where are we going? I shout.
Shit, says the driver. Its OK, its OK. We make a hard left, plow over some traffic cones, and linger
perpendicular to traffic in the median. Its OK, its OK, he repeats, this time more calmly than
before. He pats down the corners of his lush mustache with his right hand.
Its not OK, Lister thunders from the backseat. Youre paid to provide a service and youre not
providing it. The driver quickly finds his way to Listers hotel.
Later, when the cab attempts to drop us off around the corner from the hotel, Lister rumbles again.
Ay, ay, does this place have a front entrance? he says. Drop me off in front of the front entrance. We
paid for that. Im a movie star, man.
Now upstairs in his room, Lister is still fuming. Hes a bad dude. Hes a bad guy. Hes not good at
anything in life. He takes off his shirt and settles into the couch. A tattoo of the Bible verse Luke 10:19
covers his massive left bicep. His stomach, a firm, protruding mass, is mesmerizingly spherical.
Im 55 years old, Lister says. I wear down. He has type 2 diabetes. Remember how I was when I got
started? Look at me now. You saw how much energy I spent? Its been a long week. Prior to arriving in
New Jersey, Lister was in Albuquerque shooting his latest film, Money Is King. Once again, hes the bad
guy.
I think he has the tendency to get stereotyped, absolutely. I dont think people realize that he can
really act and he can really be a sensitive guy and hes actually very funny, says Jules Stewart, who
directed Lister in the 2013 indie K-11, in which he played a child molester named Detroit. I love that
he just keeps going. Thats sort of the secret in Hollywood. A lot of people give up, and when you give
up, youre finished. Tommy keeps going because he keeps trying to convince people he can do other
things, and when hes allowed to do other things, people are always amazed.
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Lister as President Lindberg in The Fifth Element.
Listers rsum proves hes not a one-note performer, more than just an intimidating bruiser. His
comic timing is apparent in his turn as the president in Luc Bessons 1997 sci-fi epic The Fifth
Element.
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He says his best performance is Hegai, the royal eunuch, a mentor role of sorts, in the 2006
religious film One Night With the King. At this point in his career, he says a project must fulfill one of
three criteria: a good script, a good director, or a good check its that thinking that led to a
memorable cameo in The Dark Knight, but also to a slew of direct-to-DVD and low-budget features. Its
an adjustment for Lister.
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Tiny Lister had strength and power and humor and he filled the space. He had a lot of command and presence.
He came out of left field in a sense, says Lucinda Syson, the films casting director. He brought something different
to the role. Instead of having someone mundane like, Oh, yeah, thats the president, he woke you up in a way.
Recently he ran into problems on the set of the forthcoming The Human Centipede: Final Sequence;
he even asked to be fired. When I did Human Centipede III, they had to take all the homosexual stuff
out. I couldnt have it in no scene I was in, Lister says. I wanted them to take out anything I didnt
like. If there was another man naked in my scene, they took it out for me.
He also didnt like being at the end of the centipede. So he Deebod
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his way to the front. Im getting
all that waste? Oh, heck no, Lister says. I was real hard on them in that movie because I said, Youre
not going to mess up my brand for your brand. Tom Six, director of The Human Centipede trilogy,
declined to comment for this story.
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Deebo (dee-bo), verb to get ones way through intimidation.
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As did costar Eric Roberts. I cant say a word, Roberts says. I was talking a little bit too much about it in
interviews and they told me to shut up.
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According to IMDb, Lister currently has eight projects in addition to the Human Centipede follow-up
in production or development, but the long-rumored fourth Friday film is not one of them. Last
Friday has been written, he says. I dont know if its ever going to happen. We all want to do it, but Ice
Cube is so successful he dont need to do it. Wed all love to do it because its a huge paycheck. I would
like to ride that bicycle one more time.
Lister is now slumping into the couch. His good eye is nearly shut. Goo oozes from his right eye I
dont point it out to him. It feels much later than 7 p.m. Yeah, Im whupped, Lister says. Im gone.
Im about to doze off on your butt.
They can make a movie of your life, I tell Lister when we talk on the phone a week later. Despite his
remarkable life, Listers recent crime weighs heavy on his mind.
Because of the redemption, Lister says, before launching into a long, uninterrupted monologue
marked with sniffles and sobs. Everything is about redemption in the end. He fills the next 25
minutes with examples of his penance. He visited prisoners at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in
Angola; reasoned with gang members in Tampa, some of whom, he remembers, were wired on crack,
to lay down their guns; he rallied the troops at Dover Air Force Base, home to the nations largest
military mortuary; and he urged kids at San Pedro High School in Los Angeles to strive for greatness, to
soar with the eagles and not be a chicken stuck in the mud.
I came there and started crying and I told them how God got me through everything, Lister says.
Thats when it hits him. He has this platform because of the crime he committed. Without the specter
of mandatory community service looming, Lister wouldnt be on the road nearly as much, sharing his
story of how he escaped Compton, how he made mistakes, and how his faith (and his lawyers) helped
him through it. God will turn something negative into something positive God was looking for a
bigger playing field for me to tell everybody how gangster he is. Thats all he was doing. He was setting
me up.
Then, without warning, that deep voice begins to it sounds like hes almost squealing. For a moment
I think hes speaking in tongues. I had cops put guns to my head when I was a kid and tell me, Turn
around, we dont want to shoot you in the back, he cries. Do you think I fear anything? Man, I had an
asthma attack and lost half my energy at the nationals. I told God, I didnt come here to be second. I
came here to win. And God made me the national champion. God showed them a rose can come out of
my city a rose, an eagle! I seen the wonders of God, man! You think I fear anything?
He regains his composure. Plus, hes hungry. You got to stop making me cry, man, he sniffles. I
have to eat. I think I hit it out of the park with that one. I think you felt that, right?
Thomas Golianopoulos (@Golianopoulos) is a writer living in New York City. He has contributed to
the New York Times, BuzzFeed, Vibe, and Complex. Previously he wrote about Varsity Blues actor Ron
Lester.
Illustration by Jungyeon Roh.