Eddie Steeples almost turned down his big break. The actor still remembers the day he received a phone call from a friend in casting, asking if he would come in and audition for a new OfficeMax spot. "She told me that they were having auditions for this character and they were on their second day of auditioning and they hadn't found anyone yet," recalls Steeples. "My first response was, 'I don't want to do commercials.' She pleaded with me: 'I think you would be good at it.'"
Turns out she was right. Steeples nabbed the job, and the resulting 2004 spot, featuring an energetic office-supply distributor known as "Rubberband Man," went on to gain cultlike popularity, leading to more spots and a heightened profile for Steeples. One of Rubberband Man's many fans was Greg Garcia, a television producer who was creating a new sitcom called My Name Is Earl. Spurred by the OfficeMax campaign, Garcia called Steeples in to audition for the part of the title character's laid-back, good-natured friend Darnell. He got the job, and now he's part of one of television's most popular comedic ensembles. "[After I got the part, Greg] told me that he liked the character and he loved the commercial and he thought they were the funniest things in the world," remembers Steeples. "He even said he wrote to OfficeMax once. He read on a website somewhere that someone had said something—that they thought the commercial was offensive and degrading. He wrote back, 'What are you talking about? Those commercials are funny!' So he was definitely a fan."
It just goes to show: You never know what jobs are going to get you noticed. And these days, commercials seem to be prime ground for attracting attention to actors; the variety and cleverness of many of the spots currently gracing the airwaves has not gone unnoticed. "There are some commercials out there right now that I enjoy more than a lot of the television shows," says casting director Kevin Scott, whose credits include The West Wing and Half & Half. "They're funny and they just catch you. If [an actor] interests me in a commercial, then it opens my eyes to, 'Oh, I want to meet that person. I want to bring that person in and give them a shot at something.'"
Of course, the medium comes with its own set of pros and cons for the up-and-coming actor. "The advantages of doing a commercial campaign or a series of commercials that becomes recognized is that directors, producers, writers are home during the day, and a lot of times, while they're waiting for a casting director to cast their project, they're watching TV," says manager Phil Brock, president of Studio Talent Group. "Almost every day in Breakdown Services, there will be a request for, let's say, the guy who was in the Miller Lite campaign as the referee with glasses; will they please call the head of casting at Paramount? Because a director or producer or writer saw them and said, 'Hey, that may be what I'm looking for!'"
But there's always the chance that you could become too associated with the product or company you're advertising. Brock points to International House of Pancakes spokesman Cliff Bemis and Dick Wilson, aka "Mr. Whipple" from the Charmin commercials, as examples. "They became so identified with their products that if they had done a TV show or movie, every single person would have gone, 'Hey, that's the Charmin man!'" says Brock. "And it became a downside."
Steeples isn't the only actor who has benefited from being the focus of a commercial or commercial campaign. Certainly, such a gig can up your visibility considerably and may keep you on a CD or producer's mind. Scott, for instance, recently cast actor Matt Cedeno in a guest spot on sitcom Half & Half. He knew Cedeno but was reminded of the actor thanks to the ubiquitous El Pollo Loco commercials in which the actor plays "El Caliente, Master of the El Pollo Loco Flame."
"I knew he was talented as an actor, but as an example of what commercials can do, I was casting a role last season on one of my shows, and I was looking at Latino, African-American, and white actors," remembers Scott. "I thought, 'Hmm, which Latino actors [can I call in]?' I thought of a couple, and then I came home that night and I saw the El Pollo Loco commercial, and I was like, 'Oh, my God—Matt.' And he got the job."
Additionally, a favorably received ad or series of ads may give you an extra edge when it comes to auditioning. For example, you may not know the name "Brian Baker" right off, but chances are you'll immediately recognize the guy when he walks into the room: For about six years, Baker played the helpful, trench-coat-wearing "Sprint guy" in a wildly successful series of spots for wireless service Sprint PCS. "There's something about having the recognition when you walk in the room that piques people's interest," says Baker, who has guested on such TV series as The West Wing and Miss Match. "I mean, I just think: If you see someone on the street who's famous, you may not be a fan of theirs, but you go, 'Hey, that's that guy from that thing.' I think that that was really good…. And I have to say, I think the spots were well-received. Even if you didn't care about a cell phone, they were entertaining and hopefully there was nothing I was doing that was annoying. So by the time I got in a room, at least the interest was positive."
Like Baker and Steeples, Margaret Easley has a number of fans out there thanks to her work in a series of commercials for satellite internet service HughesNet. The commercials air constantly on direct broadcast satellite company DirecTV. "People who have DirecTV know who I am, but people who have cable have no idea," she says, chuckling. "So it's an interesting fraction of the population that is sick of me."
When Easley read for a pilot last year, one of the creators recognized her immediately. "It was a married couple, and [the husband] said, 'Ah, I see you on my TV all the time,' and I started laughing," she remembers. "And his wife said, 'Honey, obviously she doesn't want you to bring that up.' He said, 'What? I love her.' And she turned to me and said, 'He does—he loves you.'" Easley, who has also appeared on such series as Alias and The King of Queens, booked the role. She also recalls her agency getting a call from someone looking to cast "the DirecTV girl" in another commercial campaign. "I was very flattered by that, and I went home and told my boyfriend. I said, 'Honey, they're looking for the DirecTV Girl,'" she says, laughing. "And he looked at me and said, 'Oh, I hate that girl.' Because the character I play [in the ads] is very upbeat and very happy, and I'm definitely much more dark and bitter."
Similarly, Gregg Binkley, who has played "Dan the Del Taco Guy" for almost six years, recalls being specifically requested for a plum guest role on Malcolm in the Middle. Bryan Cranston, who plays father figure Hal on the show, was directing an episode and asked to see the guy from the Del Taco commercials. "I [played] the assistant night manager at an electronics store, and my character was a total jerk," remembers Binkley, chuckling. "When he cast me in it, I asked why he requested me for this role, and he said he thought, 'A good actor is a good actor.'"
And as with any project, sometimes just being a part of it can lead to opportunities in unexpected ways. Jane Lynch, who was Tilex's "Bathroom Specialist" in a series of commercials and has also appeared in spots for Washington Mutual and Sprint PCS, is probably best-known these days for her scene-stealing work in such projects as The 40-Year-Old Virgin and The L Word. But it was a commercial spot that landed her a breakthrough role as competitive dog trainer Christy Cummings in Christopher Guest's mockumentary Best in Show. The commercial in question was directed by Guest himself. "He did a campaign for Kellogg's Frosted Flakes, and I got one of those commercials, and he did it just the way he did Waiting for Guffman and the subsequent movies that I ended up being in," she says. "It was improvised—he kind of gave us some suggestion of what the scene [was] about…. But he really let us go, and I had a gas—we had a really, really good time. It was a dream job. When it came time to do Best in Show, it was about six months later, and I ran into him at a restaurant, and he said, 'Oh, I have an idea; come to my office.' By the end of the day, I was going to do Best in Show."
While being recognized for a certain commercial can pay off, the other side of the coin is the looming specter of typecasting: There's always the chance you could become too associated with the company or product you're selling, making it tougher to book other work.
If you find yourself in a situation where you are getting some attention from a certain spot or series of spots, it's important to clearly establish with your reps what your goals are and make sure you're always working toward those goals. "You've got to make sure your reps know what you're looking at, and commercially, they absolutely need to know what your endgame is," says Brock. "Is your endgame just to book commercials? Or is your endgame 'Look, I'll book a couple commercials because that gives me enough money to pay for my acting classes and my headshots'?"
These goals will vary from actor to actor. Baker certainly doesn't have any regrets about being known as "the Sprint guy." He says he is often asked if there's a downside to being known for the commercials or if he fears typecasting. "I can't possibly see a downside to being a working actor," he says. "I just can't. It's very valid and people ask it all the time and I sometimes question it myself, but I always come out with the same answer: Thank God I got this job. I can't change what people think about it. If it's good for [you]—if you're happy and proud of it, and I am—that's great, and I wouldn't trade that for anything. I certainly wouldn't trade [it for] auditioning and not getting the part."
Did he ever encounter resistance on the part of casting people because of his commercial fame? "I would have to guess that that happened," he says. "I'm sure that I was not considered for things because of it, but I don't know those things, because no one ever said to me, 'Oh, we're not gonna bring him in because he's the Sprint guy.' I probably just never got the call. But I have to say, every time I did go in, I think at first they were expecting that I only spoke in a monotone and that I wore a suit all the time, so as soon as people accepted that that wasn't the case, I think I was given a very warm reception every time. I never felt like anyone was holding on to this thing—but I think maybe it took some time for them to turn the corner and realize, 'Okay, this is also an actor.'"
Actors and industry insiders alike speculate that the stigma of being associated with commercials is perhaps less than it used to be. "I think there's been so much crossover between movie stars and commercials, and TV stars and commercials, and movie stars and TV that it's all sort of blurring now," says Easley. "Catherine Zeta-Jones is doing phone commercials and has an Oscar. It certainly doesn't seem to be impeding her career. People have—especially in the past 10 years—become much more open-minded about high visibility."
There are a few things you should keep in mind if you land that high-profile commercial or campaign. Many of the actors interviewed for this piece suggest treating your commercial roles as you would any other acting job. "Every job for me is an opportunity to create a character…. I look at it the same way I look at doing a movie or a television role," says Lynch. "If you are doing your job and doing your work and you do it in a commercial, I can't see how that would stigmatize you, because it's [about] the quality of your work, I think."
Lynch notes that actors can't fully control whether or not they are typecast, but they can make sure they are always practicing their craft and approaching each role from a real place. "A casting person in television and film might not want to look at someone they recognize from commercials because what [the actor did in the commercial] was very commercial-y—maybe it wasn't very real," she says. "There's a certain acting style that you do kind of get away with in commercials—in fact, they almost encourage it. As an actor, I had to kind of resist that kind of a note, that kind of a direction."
After all, successful commercial characters tend to pop because the actor brings a certain amount of dimension to it. "The scripts that we've had over the years for the Del Taco commercials have given me a chance to show that I am an actor; to set up the joke and pay it off requires acting ability," says Binkley, who has guest-starred on My Name Is Earl and Gilmore Girls. "It's not just a personality, I think. They had the one a couple of years ago where I was in an elevator with a tall, beautiful woman, trying to work up the courage to talk to her, and then as soon as she looked at me, I fainted. Stuff like that helped show that I was an actor, but the overriding thought that's always been in my mind with this campaign is to [portray] Dan as a person—remember his humanity, that he's a real person and not a caricature. That's always something that's on my mind as an actor."
Similarly, Steeples had a major hand in shaping the Rubberband Man character. "[They would] step back and talk to me and say, 'Well, here's this shot we have to do next, here's this particular scene. What could Rubberband Man do here?' That was the advantage for me as an artist: It allowed me to create a character that they may not have created in the boardroom…" he says. "I had a lot of creative control to just be me, and that is what I think people latched on to."
In addition to taking care in how you approach your commercial characters, there are other things you can do to help your career progress and to at least attempt to avoid being typecast as your commercial persona. Keep your goals in mind and make sure you're working toward them. "I think one of the big problems is people get comfortable," says Easley. "If you've sort of reached the pinnacle of your commercial career, it doesn't mean you're done. I think [for] a lot of people, it's more comfortable to stay at the top of one game than to try conquering another."
Adds Steeples, "You have to ask yourself when to pull back. You get comfortable with the money, and then it's hard for you to break away from that…. If you're doing one commercial, go for another commercial that's completely different from the other character. I would then treat the commercials as if they were small film projects: I would look for [different] characters and look for different ways I can play a character…. Try to pick the best roles that are going to show some diversity in who you are as a person. Otherwise, we turn the TV on and see the same guy speaking the same way. He's good at what he's doing, but there's no range."
Steeples even went so far as to turn down roles that were too similar to his OfficeMax persona. "I did the OfficeMax commercial, and after I did it, I had people who wanted me to do other projects where, in a way, it was kind of the OfficeMax character, and I refused to do it…" he says. "I don't mind just saying no to something. I don't have a problem with not making some money on a project. I don't have a problem not working for a while and having to struggle a little bit."
Binkley recommends keeping things diverse by doing theatre, and "staying in class to continue to work on other characters. You will get other opportunities if you're really pursuing your career, but if you're so involved in [one character], when you get that opportunity to read for something else, [you won't have] developed that part of your ability as an actor," he says. "You've got to continue to work on yourself as an actor and do scenes that help you stretch, so when you get the opportunity, you are prepared for it."
Something as simple as experimenting with your look can help. "I've always said that the guy who does the 'Can you hear me now?' [Verizon commercials], if he took off his glasses, we wouldn't recognize him, and he could do anything," says Easley. "I personally try to change up my look. I'll wear my hair in a different way or wear glasses. We're actors; we're supposed to be chameleons. So explore that if you're trying to show a different side of you."
And be sure you're communicating with your reps to ensure that they're working for you and submitting you in the best way possible. "Get a reel together which shows the versatility [of your talent]…. Hopefully, the agent of the talent will know the capability and the versatility of the talent and not just pigeonhole them, and [will] submit them for other things that are not directly associated with the kind of character that they're known for by a specific TV commercial," says agent Rick Miller, president of Rick Miller Agency Inc.
And finally, remember: If you're lucky enough to gain that bit of commercial fame, enjoy it while it lasts. Hopefully, it will lead you wherever you want to go. Like Steeples, Binkley was initially reluctant to be pegged as a commercial spokesman, but he's grateful for where it's taken him. "They brought me back and they brought me back and they kept doing creative spots," he says. "So I was like, 'Well, I'll just continue to do it,' and here we are over five years later. It's one of those things: I didn't want to do it, but sometimes the things you don't want end up being really good for you."