I started to make some commercials, which was a way for me to finally make a living at last. But it was only really a couple of films in that it looked like a viable career option.
I was modeling since I was four and acting in commercials since I was five – this was when I was in New York. I then moved to LA when I was 16… but before that I had done a play on Broadway.
In England, there are so many TV commercials with nudity in them, and there are so many TV programs that show nudity on a regular basis. It’s becoming more of a norm.
The 12 years that I was improvising are why I got the number of commercials I got when I was in New York and why I got ‘The Devil Wears Prada,’ and it’s why I even got in the door for ‘Mad Men.’
I would like to have the best of both worlds and still enjoy doing fashion shows and shooting for commercials.
I grew up watching people and companies commercialize Black History Month. I watched old McDonald’s commercials, and they’d blacken up the commercials for 28 days then go back to normal in March. It got annoying to me.
I was in a play called ‘Hood.’ I was an extra in ‘Passion of the Christ.’ I did corporate videos, commercials, little university short films. Just anything that I could be a part of, really.
My sister pursued acting, and one day, I was like, ‘Hey, I want to do acting, too’ – this was just in commercials – and then one day, I got an audition for my first movie, ‘Smurfs 2,’ and I did it.
When I went to L.A., I started modeling, hoping to travel and learn from photographers. It led to auditions to do commercials.
It’s wrong to make a living off the theater. Theater should be supported, like redwood trees. You should make your living – whether you’re a writer or an actor or a director – in movies or commercials. But you do theater out of love.
I think people really appreciate clever commercials, as do I. I think they’re very entertaining. You just have to wade through all the garbage. That’s one of the reasons people watch the Super Bowl. A lot of them watch it to see the commercials and not the actual game.
Commercials led to TV, and TV led to movies here and there.
The first time I was paid was with ‘The Lobster,’ because with the Greek films, we just had to pay ourselves – work for free while making commercials in order to survive.
I’ve wanted to be an actor since I was 6 years old. I was literally picked off the streets of Paris… while I was modeling there. I was asked to audition for Oliver Stone’s ‘Alexander.’ I didn’t get the part, but that led to commercials and roles in South Africa.
When I first auditioned for ‘Stranger Things,’ I was just living in Chicago. Just looking for a job. Working at a restaurant, doing commercials and bit parts on shows. I honestly would have been happy booking anything.
I like listening to my playlist on the iPod. I don’t want radio with commercials.
So many things for me are unfortunate in the commercialization of something that is special. It’s like when Led Zeppelin appears in Cadillac commercials. There’s something that is taken away from your love of this thing and your connection to it.
The question for me was, could TV actually teach? I knew it could, because I knew 3-year-olds who sang beer commercials!
When I started out in Canada, I did a lot of voice-overs and commercials.
At the time of Polaroid – and I did a couple of other commercials just before I stopped doing that stuff – at that point I was at the level where they respect you and your opinion and all that sort of thing.
Sometimes when I’m reading a script, I can’t quite believe that this is going on television alongside cereal commercials.
You can’t watch ‘Dr. Strangelove’ with commercials. That would be sacrilegious.
I’d say, specifically after ‘Get Smart,’ people now know me either as The Guy from ‘Get Smart’ or ‘She’s Out of My League’; when that came out on DVD, everyone was recognizing me from that. But as far as the amount of people in a time, nothing touches when those Capital One commercials were playing.
A lot of consumers actively enjoy advertising, especially fashion print ads and clever TV commercials. The nostalgic cable channel TVLand features not only vintage shows but also vintage commercials.
I did commercials since I was 16, and that’s kind of acting, depending on what you’re selling.
I was ballet dancing at four, playing piano by six, and doing commercials by 12. When I was 21, I was on the number one live comedy show in Puerto Rico. I told my parents, ‘I’m going to New York to become a performer.’ And I left.
Growing up in Seattle, I had the opportunity to take classes since I was 7 years old. I did theatre. I auditioned for film, television, commercials, and built up not just a resume but also some confidence. I learned how to master my craft before arriving in Los Angeles.
My mother and father definitely encouraged me. People used to tell my mom that I should be in commercials, and then everything kicked off from there, and my first gig was some print work.
Political commercials encourage the deceptive, the destructive and the degrading.
My favorite commercial I did was my Verizon campaign, which I filmed a series of three commercials. My favorite movie I have done was ‘House Under Siege’ because it was my very first movie at 5 years old. My favorite TV show I have filmed was ‘The Night Shift,’ which is one of my favorite shows.
A picador is the guy in a bullfight who helps make sure the matador doesn’t get killed by distracting the bull. That’s what TV writing is. You’re just distracting the bull long enough to stick around for the next set of commercials.
In my career, I have done more than a thousand voice-overs in commercials, cartoons, and radio shows, so I’m very familiar of my voice capabilities and its range.
I did a couple of American Express commercials.
I haven’t done many commercials, and I’m very picky about it because it comes down to creative control.
We all understand the economics of the Super Bowl – 10 or 12 minutes of the ball in motion will be stretched into three and a half hours or more of money-making commercials.
I did two commercials, one for Porsche, but I was definitely not the type of child one would cast in a commercial or any TV that you’d typically go out for as a young kid. I wasn’t the type of kid who would be in stuff that kids watch. I wasn’t cutesy.
This is the good thing about commercials, is one week I’m working with Derek Cianfrance and the next week I’m working with another really good friend.
I’m either shooting for films or commercials, attending events, or meeting people, so on and so forth.
I always wanted to be an actor and started modelling for various commercials when I was 16 and when I was in Class XII, got ‘Issaq’ through auditioning.
I started with commercials – for shampoo, pancakes, insurance, Volvo. I did a Lux soap commercial with Sarah Jessica Parker. And I got a role in an indie film called ‘Satellite’ that did well in festivals.
My first acting job – I used to do commercials, and I had done a couple music videos – but my first job job was ‘ATL’ with T.I. I auditioned for that, like, five times. I didn’t have an agent. And then, from there, my life changed.
Actually I love acting in commercials and I see no shame in that.
Commercials were once TV’s version of the church. Which is to say, you couldn’t offend the sponsor; therefore, certain values had to be underscored in the subject matter.
Most sermons sound to me like commercials – but I can’t make out whether God is the Sponsor or the Product.
I always loved films, and when I decided to go to film school, it was with the excuse that I would go into making commercials, because that would be a proper profession, and people wouldn’t think I was crazy.
I walked in thinking, ‘I have ten movies under my belt and now they want me to go back to making commercials?’ I said, if I do that, I want it to be funny.
I suddenly got magazine covers, TV commercials and advertising campaigns. Finally after two years I could show my mum and dad that modeling was lucrative.
I have to be careful of what TV shows I choose, particularly ones that have commercials in them, because it’s going to be a different kind of television show.
I would say my first golf memory was asking who Arnold Palmer was when he was always on the Pennzoil commercials. When I was a little kid I watched a lot of sports, but I didn’t watch a lot of golf, and this guy was always on a tractor.
Back in the day, if you did any commercials or were affiliated with a company you were a sellout. Now it’s kind of normal to do that.
I’ve always been a fan of advertising, I’ve always been a fan of television, I’ve loved commercials, I’ve loved all the jingles, I loved all the stuff.
In Chicago it’s really a case of the play’s the thing – people are just so happy to be acting, you know? We were all actors – not like in New York or Los Angeles, where everyone says they are actors but they are actually waiting tables and hustling for spots in commercials.
I learned how to get rid of the Southern accent when I was, like, 11 years old and living in New York for the summer doing modeling and commercials and auditioning for Broadway. The mother I lived with for the summer taught me how to drop my Southern accent.
