I was 6 years old and at the audition, with 15 other kids. The casting director came into the waiting room and said he wanted every parent out of that waiting room, and if a parent came into the room to try to help coach their kids, the kid automatically didn't get the commercial.
After all the parents left, the director came out and said, "ok, all we want you to do is come in here and say 'indubitably'". It was a clever plan they had to see how kids would really mispronounce the word. But kid actors are like little parrots. We all went in there and pronounced the word perfectly. So then the director came out and said, "ok we want you to say 'indubally'[sic]". I think that a big reason why I got the part is that I was one of the best at parroting back the different varients they could come up with: indubably, indubidbly, etc. See, on the set, if they make a radical change from "indubably" to "indubally", it can take some 6-year-olds hours to learn the difference, and time is money when everyone on the set is waiting till the kid gets it.
I think there were a few different versions of the commercial. A 60 second, 30 second, and a bit where I put a sticker on some girl's nose that came as a special prize in the box.
The commercial shoot was something like 14 hours long. With hundreds of takes of me stuffing the cereal in my mouth, there was a guy underneath the table who was holding a cup I could spit it into.
The puppets were amazing. The little animal critters were carved from sponges and operated underneath the tables from puppeteers watching it on a monitor. Between takes, the guys operating the goat and rhino would talk to me through the puppets, voices and all. I think Crispy was the only puppet not carved from a sponge.
I hope that helps. Feel free to distort it in any way that you deem
funny."
And there you have it. Anyone who'd like to request Rhett's autographed 8x10 should probably stop by his site first. Thanks!
REPLIES: 20 comments
cool stuff. not as cool as the last article, though! i liked it enough as i was reading through, but completely lost it at the convo between the kids. and then right after that, AGAIN at your made-up villains. by the time i saw the commercial available for download, i was in love. thanks!
Chestnuts roasted by j durante @ 01/24/2003 02:07 AM EST
holy crap, what was RHETT? i saw that guy on junkyard wars. he was fucking cool! wow, small world.
Chestnuts roasted by evin @ 01/24/2003 05:00 AM EST
So what's the story? Is this guy a long time reader of the site, and then saw you did an article about him? That would be so fucking cool to see that Matt did an article about me...
Chestnuts roasted by Chad @ 01/24/2003 09:14 AM EST
Just checked the Christian calendar -- advent actually extends ALL the way to Christmas, it doesn't end on the Winter Solstice as you must have assumed.
Please remember those of us who loyally followed your Playmobil surprises -- or should I say, considering the season, Epiphanies.
Chestnuts roasted by revcc @ 01/24/2003 12:07 PM EST
While we're talking about MIT folk:
www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/events/state/documents/02666920.asp
Chestnuts roasted by Booty Boot Crystal @ 01/24/2003 01:18 PM EST
Hey bro, on a related subject, tell me if the kid in the background of the Fruit roll up commercial (at the end on the left) is Jason Hervey.......
Chestnuts roasted by Draven @ 01/24/2003 01:36 PM EST
woohoo! Matt, f the advent calender, my attention has turned to these NEW and AWESOME features! Thanks for giving us commercials and posting the e-mail from that critters kid. What a GREAT website. w00t.
Chestnuts roasted by wack0 @ 01/24/2003 02:01 PM EST
Matt, tis a sad sad day. It seems billy has gotten himself into more trouble than just feeding the gremlins past midnight...
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/news/12403_ent_gremlins.html
Chestnuts roasted by Draven @ 01/24/2003 02:21 PM EST
Shoplifting is bad. We all know this. But to shoplift a DEEP PURPLE CD? Dear God, how the (once) mighty have fallen.....
Chestnuts roasted by Jeremy @ 01/24/2003 03:17 PM EST
deep purple rock, man.
what would be really good would be an interview from one of those hellspawn psycho kids from the motu and tf commercials. that really would rock!
Chestnuts roasted by tin man @ 01/25/2003 05:39 AM EST
Matt, just read the create-a-villian article. Wasn't there a MOTU contest as well (albeit to create an action figure), or am I remembering dreams again? I had this idea for a guy made of mud who spewed water out of his orifices (or is it orifi? Is there a plural form?).
Chestnuts roasted by Nemesis @ 01/25/2003 10:36 AM EST
Here is the winner of the Masters' create a character contest
http://www.he-man.org/prototypes/photog_proto.shtml
Chestnuts roasted by She-Man @ 01/25/2003 04:07 PM EST
hey, I think that is Jason Hervey!
Chestnuts roasted by wack0 @ 01/25/2003 04:36 PM EST
There have been ome first class articles up recently, well done MAtt. Every now and again there are three or four...less-good articles posted and I wonder if you're running out of energy for this site, (which would be understandable considering how prolific you are), and then you raise the bar once more, KEEP IT UP!
Chestnuts roasted by asruidet @ 01/25/2003 08:44 PM EST
Anyone else disturbed by the fact that they said the CD was hidden "somewhere on his person"?
From Gremlins to a CD up in your crack...
We need an E! True Hollywood story.
Chestnuts roasted by Casey Jones @ 01/25/2003 08:49 PM EST
are you taking commercial requests? remember dunkaroos? i'm dying to see that commercial.."how do you dunk youuuuuuuur dunkaroos?!"
Chestnuts roasted by sara @ 01/27/2003 04:41 PM EST
Matt, if you're interested, I have another commercial for the shitty cereal. It's the puppet giving a press conference. Drop me a line and I'll send you a copy.
Chestnuts roasted by Nemesis @ 01/27/2003 06:56 PM EST
I thought that was Jason Hervey at first, too, but a closer shot revealed that it's Chris Young.
Chestnuts roasted by Christine @ 01/28/2003 09:44 PM EST
Hey guys. I read fark, and saw this posted on fark and was pretty surprised. This site has too much "This page can not be displayed" crap. Anyway, Chris Young had nothing to do with this commercial. I did a Children's Palace toy commercial with Chris Young though. That's on my website.
Yeah, that was me on junkyard wars.
Chestnuts roasted by Rhett Creighton @ 01/29/2003 09:53 PM EST
God, just imagine how boring it would be for a kid today if they were going to do a commercial with the exact same characters... they'd just do the animals with CG now, so the kid would be eating (and then spitting out) cereal for 14 hours in front of a blue screen. Those smaller puppets really are impressive pieces of work, especially considering they were made to be used just once or twice.
Chestnuts roasted by Steve Brandon @ 01/30/2003 12:48 AM EST
Rhett Creighton, who starred in the recently-reviewed 
