Beyond beer: Meet the new Robert Peters

Robert Peters has created belly laughs in a couple of popular beer commercials. Now the Tulsa native has directed his first feature film, an independently made picture that shows Friday at the deadCENTER Film Festival in downtown Oklahoma City.

"There are more people like me who are taking the bull by the horns and making their own films, and this was done very guerrilla-style, with most of the filming in Germany," said Peters, a former senior class president at Edison High School and a University of Oklahoma graduate, in a recent phone interview from Los Angeles.

"Half Empty," a musical mockumentary about a motivational speaker who has sold only one copy of his self-help book in the U.S. but who learns that he's a hit in Germany, will screen at 8 p.m. Friday at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.

Peters, whose credits range from brief roles in films like "Go" and "American Pie 2" to appearing in the Oklahoma-made cockfighting drama "Round and Round," stars as the lead character of "Half Empty" and co-wrote the script. Despite dozens of credits, he might still be best-known to audiences for brewing up guffaws in a pair of competing beer commercials.

There was the Coors Light spot in which a fellow holding a few brewskies states that he's "looking for a happy home for these," and Peters — holding up his shirt to expose his stomach — volunteers "I've got one for you," with the ad-lib, "It's got a skylight," pointing towards his belly button.

Then there was the Budweiser ad in which a foul ball is headed toward Peters' character, who, holding a beer in each hand, must decide: Get hit in the head and hold onto his beloved brews, or duck and spill the suds.

"I just take it right in the head, and when they wheel me out, I'm still holding onto the beers," Peters said in recalling the award-winning ad. "Those were both when I was heavier. I'm a little leaner now after those days."

Michael Smith 581-8479
michael.smith@tulsaworld.com

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