New TV commercial about to hit the airwaves!
There’s a distinct irony to being a voice over talent and landing an acting role for television that requires you to be silent on camera!
I don’t mind the SOC roles at all. Television is television and with this new spot going national across Canada the exposure is excellent. I’m only on camera for a few seconds but I’ll take what I can get when it comes along. It’s always a fun way to spend a day and it beats the heck out of heavy lifting.
Let me tell you about the process before I tell you about the product. Alright, the product is TIDE laundry detergent. Ya know, ‘Gets dirt out!’…or ‘Stronger than dirt!’…or one of those I think. Anyhow, the orange box with the bold, black letters. That stuff. Now, the process in actually getting the gig. My agent calls to give me details about the audition. I’m playing the part of a soccer coach or soccer dad (a 2-in-1 audition…I like these because they’re casting for two different roles but looking for the same type of person and that means my odds just went up. The same can be said for any of the guys going for the part(s). We all like these.
I felt pretty good about my audition as I pretended to be calling plays and encouraging the girls on the soccer field (coach part) or welcoming my 11 year old daughter home from her soccer game (dad part). I thought I was quite convincing as the coach because I was pacing back and forth ala the sidelines, while clapping my hands and barking out messages to the (pretend) girls out on the (pretend) field. However, I announced a couple of girls’ names with confidence (Logan & Taylor) because they’re a couple of the sweetest girls you could ever meet that actually play soccer and are friends’ daughters. I went to see them play soccer last year. An absolute riot watching 6 & 7 year olds playing soccer. That’s another blog entry altogether. I don’t know how imEdge-related it would be…but they sure are funny to watch!
As I mentioned, I thought my faux coaching skills were commendable. Well, I impressed them enough for a call back. It wasn’t as the coach. Seems I played the dad more convincingly. But so did some of the other actors because I wasn’t the only one that got called back.
I think I’ve stated this in a previous submission that I used to get excited when I would get a call back from an initial audition. It does mean they liked you enough to see you again as they whittle down the candidates but it’s certainly not a guarantee that you secured the role. They might audition 20-40 people for a specific part. A call back could have as many as a dozen back for a second crack.
I thought I did pretty well in the call-back for two reasons. The producer for the spot recognized me from a commercial I had done for him before. It was a Campbell’s Soup spot with NHL superstar Mario Lemieux
The other bonus was that my call-back audition made the director laugh. Unfortunately, I was attempting to be serious. Eddy (director) was watching on video conference from L..A.
I had two aces in my corner but didn’t have it locked. It’s when your agent calls after the call-back to say you’ve been put “on hold” that you start to get a little more confident.
However, being put “on hold” is still not a guarantee by any stretch that you’ve got the part. You see, “on hold” is a nice way of saying “we’d like you to get excited and block that day off in your daytimer and put YOUR life ‘on hold’ until we absolutely decide that we want to use you. We’re pretty sure we do. But don’t want to commit. And if we don’t use you…nothing personal….but we think we do.”
Guess what? That’s right. I’m about to be a real father for the first time in less than 2 months and I now find myself in the role of pop-for-a-day for an 11-year old girl that I meet at the wardrobe call for the first time. I find that she sort of has my eyes and she’s very cute. Chip off the ol’ block 
Shoot day! I start practicing the proud father role as I look at this little 11-year old actor and fast forward to what it might be like as I welcome my own 11-year old girl home from soccer. Sad part is I have to fast forward my own age that same 11 years down the road and that will put me at 53! Yikes!
I also hit the old rewind button on father time and realized that this adorable young girl, Samara, is around the same age I was when I first got into the industry. I was 13 when I landed my first commercial. It was for Heinz ketchup. It was a lead role with legendary Canadian actor/comedian/awesome human John Candy. That was, like this Tide commercial we were shooting that day, an outdoor shoot. A 1-day shoot turned into a 2-day experience on that debut for me because the weather didn’t cooperate.
Funny how things happen. The weather for this outdoor shoot didn’t cooperate either. That’s the understatement of the summer of 2005! It’s been one of the hottest, driest, sunniest summers I can ever remember. In the last 3 months I believe we had 4 days of rain. Our shoot day happened to be the 5th day. And evidently Mother Nature had saved up her resources and unleashed the skies in a Biblical fashion on the morning of our commercial. We waited it out under tarps and umbrellas. The torrential downpour finally let up. Even though it was still overcast and dark for a summer morning, the lighting crew worked their magic and you’d never know it had poured buckets over the past 2 hours!
The shoot went really well. I was beaming with pride as I got set to use Tide (now there’s some branding magic!)
I may be silent-on-camera for this Tide commercial but I can assure you I won’t be silent when my boy or girl (didn’t want to find out in advance) is born. I think you can pick up on my energy that I’m really excited about becoming a new dad in October. I hear that I’ll need plenty of laundry detergent. Good thing I worked it into the contract
Tide spot airs across Canada soon. Tide removes spots. Tide doesn’t remove irony.