Two Super Bowl commercial actors share how you deliver Super-Bowl-worthy creative: Belief
Making those 60 seconds (or minutes) count
Those that create commercials know how much goes in to making every one of the (up to) 60 seconds impactful. Whether recording solo voiceover in a home studio or performing with a few others on a set as talent know we have to acutely analyze a script, capture the character/message/emotion to convey, deliver a great performance…and then every second is edited to hell so it looks/sounds flawless. Does recognizing an ad will eventually be seen on largest stage in the world — the Super Bowl — change anything? When you’re good at what you do and confident in your abilities, maybe not.
In conversations with two actors who’ve been in recent Super Bowl ads, the stories of their road to the Super Bowl creative glory were different. But their performances, and how they felt about them were very similar. Before we hear their tales, let’s talk for a second about the ‘real’ event — The Super Bowl game itself
60 minutes vs. 60 seconds
Practice most of their life to hone their craft. Work their tail off for opportunities. Should they be fortunate enough to reach the pinnacle opportunity, NFL players seek to turn their practice into perfectly delivered, mistake-free 60 Super Bowl minutes. How? By doing the same things that got them there.
Two roads to the Super Bowl (commercials)
Commercial actors fortunate to share the Super Bowl stage with NFL players share a similar sentiment. Actors Dan Dunlap and Rob Sciglimpaglia couldn’t be more different. Dunlap, who was specifically chosen as the voice of Budweiser’s 2020 Super Bowl ad ‘Typical Americans’ has been a voiceover artist for decades (‘That’s all I do,” he says). Sciglimpaglia is a multi-hyphenate Actor/Voice Over Artist/Attorney/Author whose then-relatively-early acting career hockey-sticked up once he appeared in a 2011 contest ad that initially was not intended for the Super Bowl.
Scratch track road to glory
Working with an LA production house, Dunlap provided a voice alongside potential music for an ad to the agency who was creating Budweiser’s Super spot. While the production house’s music was unfortunately not selected, the agency liked Dunlap’s voice and asked him to sign on to the ad that was directed by Oscar-winning director Katheryn Bigelow (‘The Hurt Locker”). Over the course of half a year, several re-writes and discussions culminated in a week of Dunlap recording in his home studio in Pittsburgh patched in with the rest of the production in Miami.
“There wasn’t a lot of pressure,” said Dunlap. “I’m confident in my abilities. As long as you give them options, they’re gonna be happy.” No stranger to the national stage (Netflix, Brawny), not much changed after the touching, well- delivered Super Bowl ad for Dunlap. He continues to create compelling voiceover from Pittsburgh. Unrelated note: as a Black and Gold fan myself, that location makes me happy too — Go Steelers….ok for now I’ll just say ‘Go Not Tom Brady’ aka Go Chiefs
Would you Like to be my Husband? You Know I’m Married Right?
Conversely, Sciglimpaglia transitioned from solely representing talent to also doing it himself starting in 2005. In 2010–2011, “I had been doing voice over and acting for a while and I did a play with an actress who later texted out of the blue saying ‘would you be my husband?’ ” “You know I’m married right?,” was his tongue-in-cheek response.
Her request was actually for him to play her partner and after a 3-hour shoot (“There was nothing special or different about the shoot. I just came in and did my job,”), their ad was submitted to the London Film Festival for a competition to be part of a Chevy campaign. Chevy pulled it from the festival competition so the ad could be part of a viewer-voting contest to be featured in the 2011 Super Bowl. It won. The spot went on to air during the Grammys and now is regularly featured in annual ‘best of Super Bowl ad’ specials.
“It’s opened a lot of doors for me — put me on the map for sure” Acting and voiceover? Yes and — he also produced/acted in two recent shorts (“Bathub Chronicles”; “Within and Without”) collecting awards on the film festival circuit
The Common Thread: Believe in your talent
My college-aged kids act/write/perform/produce music. While my personal behind-the-mic-ed-ness starts and ends at voice acting (shameless plug: Andysaysit.com), I am also a music industry vet and have shared with my kids that I’ve met and heard world class voices…though only some of those voices were world famous.
To get to perform on the biggest stages takes a combination of talent, drive and luck. This is no different for many disciplines — be it musicians, actors, professional sports, or any role in the business world as a whole. Your talent got you to certain place. Your hard work may or may not coincide with the lucky break to get to your own personal ‘Super Bowl’. As I tell my kids: that does not change that you still have the talent and drive to create amazing, world-class work.
Perform like you practice. To succeed and achieve something great, the key is being confident in your abilities and know that you have the goods to deliver to any audience. And then do it— no matter the size of the stage.
