This is the most unusual commercial/film project I have ever been in. It was Charles Schwab’s new commercial campaign, titled, “Talk To Chuck,” in which seemingly ordinary people talked to the camera about investing with Charles “Chuck” Schwab.
They flew me to Austin for the shoot and it went well, in and out in a couple of days. But this is when I found out that the director was a guy named Bob Sabiston and the spot was going to be animated. Bob Sabiston created a program for a style of animation called rotoscoping which he used in collaboration with film maker Richard Linklater on two films, “Waking Life,” and “A Scanner Darkly.” Rotoscoping involves drawing on film and Bob’s program automated the process for computers.
So, they filmed me and the five other actors involved in this first “Talk To Chuck” campaign, separately, and then worked with Bob’s program to animate each of the films. Each commercial had a different look, some more realistic looking than others, and mine, I thought, when I saw the commercials, was the most cartoon-like. I got calls from friends all over asking if that was me, and we’d laugh about it.
The commercials were unlike anything else on TV, so unusual, and a lot of fun to be in. But commercials, in general, are noticed by a lot of people, including industry people, and are lucrative as well. Early on in my career I was kind of in that theatre-only mode, and if there’s one thing I would do a bit differently it would be to be more open to TV and film, and especially to doing commercials. Ah, well, water under the bridge. But here’s a list of regional, national, and international commercials that I did do, over time: Wells Fargo, Conoco Philips, Mass Mutual with John Mahoney which ran for a long time, Shell Oil MasterCard, Verizon, Verizon International. Also, one called “Macau,” or “The Audition,” which is the most expensive commercial ever made. To find out more about that, see “The Audition” further on in my grid.
