So we know that commercials are an important way to earn money, get SAG status, acquire health insurance and gain experience while building your career but it’s great to see that commercials can work as the breeding ground for theatrical work, too. Take Kyle Bornheimer from Worst Week with his T-Mobile ad and the woman in the Glad commercials, Melanie Deanne Moore and now the Old Spice guy, Isaiah Mustafa.
David Hildebrand from the Philadelphia Enquirer did a piece on Kyle Bornheimer when Worst Week debuted back in 2008 about the actor honing his craft doing TV commercials: “If you think you recognize Bornheimer, you’re probably right. He honed his craft in the abbreviated format of commercials. If he wore tattoos of all the products he’s pitched, Bornheimer would be more ink-stained than Tommy Lee.He has lit up spots for Coors, Geico, Staples, Sprint, Imodium AD and Stanley Tools (remember the construction worker jousting in a wheelbarrow?) It was a campaign for T-Mobile that made the actor a household face. Bornheimer played a guy trying to leave a phone message for a girl the day after their first date.”
Earlier this year the Old Spice Guy made a big splash (my manager told me that he knew this commercial would “break someone” – even before the role was cast – he knew that whoever booked it was going to get noticed just because the way it was written). Isaiah Mustafa recently signed a development deal with NBC after being seen on the Old Spice campaign. According to Celebrific.com, “Under Mustafa’s contract he’ll either show up on an already established show or possibly on a new sitcom of some sort.” NBC Universal casting executive VP Grace Wu told Variety that she began meeting with Mustafa after the Old Spice commercial began airing during the Superbowl. “We felt he was a piece of talent worth developing. He’s an attractive guy who’s just as funny and charming.”
It is very cool to see that commercials can be one of the many “roads” to success. . .
Lilas Lane