When it comes to male fashion supermodels, there are only 2 people whose name come to mind and at the top of that list was Tyson Beckford.  Tyson has since retired from modeling and has now directed all of his energy into his burgeoning TV (Make Me a Supermodel) & acting career (Kings of the Evening, Hotel California).

I wasn’t sure what to make of Tyson Beckford before our meeting at the W Hotel in Westwood, California. Surely someone with his success and supermodel looks, had every right to be “stuck” on himself and uncharismatic, right?  To my surprise, it was just the opposite, I’ve never met a more well mannered celebrity that was open to talk about anything, from his feelings about leaving the Supermodel world, to the Wendy Williams rumors that he’s gay, or even how he feels about dating.
In a somewhat un-orthodox interview, (Tyson and I, with knees on the ground, each took a corner of a Queen sized bed and lay across it) I asked him a few questions.

Were you surprised at how big you became?
Yea, I was really surprised because it wasn’t nothing that I was really like… OK when I leave high school, I’m gonna be a model. It was never really thought of.  I mean, when I was 13, my mom would put me in local fashion shows, but as a kid you just do it, cause the girls were there, so I’m just gonna go. It was just a way to get closer to the girls so I just did it, but I never took it seriously, like this is what I’m gonna do for a living.

That’s interesting, cause when you think of male supermodels, you can really only think about maybe 2.
Yea I mean, I think of it but it’s like no big deal.  It’s one of the things that I’m not really proud of.

Huh?
I mean not that I’m not proud of it, but it was like just something I did in my life, but I’m not impressed by it.  I’m more impressed by the acting and the music, cause it’s stuff that I’M into. The modeling was more stuff that everybody else wanted me to do.  Then when I officially left the modeling world, people thought I was crazy.  I don’t wanna stand around doing one dimensional pictures when I know I got the talent to do 3 dimensional things like movies and music and things that are bigger than that, I just tell people that modeling was cool, but just watch me with this acting thing. There was nowhere else to go with modeling.

Well I think it’s because you’re one of the black people that’s not just a celebrity but you’re a first!  By that I mean you’ll go down in history along side the Althea Gibson’s,/ and the other first black people to be successful at something. That’s why they didn’t want you to retire.

Yea, I understand, I just think that I have more to offer.

Tyson says he’s passion now lies with acting. He’s done a couple of films recently HOTEL CALIFORNIA (a dark organized crime drama about the dangers of the drug game), KINGS OF THE EVENING (an ex-con finds that life outside of jail is more dreary than the back breaking chain gang of prison. When he’s released during the depression era, he finds that putting on his best attire for music competition on Sunday nights can garner him the biggest prize of being named King of the Evening). In 2010 he’s filming a movie called SHADY CREEK, (A prisoner -- out on weekend furlough -- becomes acquainted with the young son he has never met after returning to the town of Shady Creek where he was convicted of a terrible crime ten years earlier. When the daughter of the only witness to testify against him turns up dead, fingers immediately point to him, and only his son holds the keys to his absolution)
In real life Tyson is a loving single father to his son Jordan.

How do you go about choosing your acting roles?
I don’t know. You don’t know until you read it, How I pick roles is how the script moves me. I’ve only had one script that made me cry and one script that made me feel bad about myself.  The one that made me feel bad about myself is Hotel California. When I read it, I was like this is hot. And the one that made me cry was one I did called “Kings of the Evening”, it’s about this guy who’s a trumpet player back in the 1930’s. It was moving.

As a single father and a famous celebrity it must be difficult to date. So when you do go out where would you take a girl?
A museum, the automobile museum on Wilshire.  Actually it doesn’t matter what museum, just take them to a museum cause what you really trying to do, is get to know the person, you take them somewhere where you can talk. People always think, let’s take them to the movies. The movies are not a good date. You’re watching, you’re not paying attention. You might hold her hand but there’s no conversation being said really, unless you’re one who talks through the movie which no one likes that person.

In 2005, Tyson had a near fatal car crash that changed his views of life forever, when a Mack truck rammed his red pickup off the road on a NJ interstate. Tyson found himself trapped inside the burning vehicle, which took him more than 5 weeks to recover from.

"He just pushed me right into the light pole and then the engine burst into flames," Beckford recalled. "My lip was busted, one of my teeth was knocked out and my eye was swollen shut. My nose was fractured and the blood was squirting out of my face. You don’t wanna remember it cause you almost lost your life. It’s not so much to loose your life, it’s a scary thing, but to leave without saying bye, and try to leave things on a good note in life.  That day I got up and was doing errands and one of things I was doing was for my son, he was coming to see me for the summer.  I was going to get his bike fixed for him and man you just get up and you never think that today I might come close to being dead. It’s something I don’t like to be reminded of.

Ok we’ll leave that subject alone. I’m gonna say a name and you tell me what comes to mind?

Ralph Lauren
Man, some of the best years of my life.

Toni Braxton
Good Video, damn good video

Your parents
Man, life! (big smile on his face) man without them… just seeing how hard my mom worked  so many jobs and to have her be able to say “My son’s an actor”, My sons a famous model, that to me means a lot, if I were to leave this world today my mom could still say, I’m Tyson Beckford’s mom and for all the years and trouble that me and my brother put her through, for her to be able to brag about that, to me that’s cool. I don’t  like to brag about me and what I do, I let my work speak for itself but if my momma wanna brag…she gave birth, so I can’t stop her.

Wendy Williams
She’s a NUT job! All these Wendy Williams and Perez Hilton’s, these people actually make a living about talking about other peoples lives. Whether it be the truth or whether it be a lie, I just don’t understand it. Like HOW DO YOU SLEEP AT NIGHT! 

Probably very comfortably, cause they make a lot of money doing that.

Yea they can have all the material things in the world, but deep down inside, something is wrong with those people. It’s sad, I feel bad for them, cause I personally will no longer give those people that energy. So if they want to talk about me, fine!

Tyra Banks
Love her! Love her! Powerful black person. That’s the next Oprah Winfrey right there.
The way she’s going, her work ethics, I remember when she first started, as this skinny little person from Inglewood. She came up!

What’s something that people would be surprised to know about you?

I’m not GAY!  Just know that I believe in having a good time and not causing anyone any harm and living life my way. I think sometimes people have a misconception of who you are because of some of the stuff or work you’ve done in your life, makes you a bad person. Like you never seen any scandals of me in the tabloids or drugs, DUI or things, but I notice in life that those are the people who get all the attention. So if that means I’ll never become a bigger actor because I never got pulled over for being drunk or never went to rehab, then that’s cool with me.  What people don’t understand is that I can walk away from all of this and get a job at Jiffy Lube changing your oil and wouldn’t even think twice and still be as happy and cordial as I am now.