Seen this commercial? It has a couple of twenty/thirty somethings sitting at a table, discussing the quality of workmanship “nowadays,” while their entire dining room setup falls through a series of floors.
Zach Braff does the voiceover at the end. What’s the matter, Zach, not rich enough from Scrubs yet?
Nope. Why shouldn’t he lend his voice to a commercial product? They pay quite generously for voice-over work, and it’s not like he’s the first (or 101st) star to do it. Garden States don’t get made on their own, you know. It takes money. Wendy’s-sized money.
What’s the big deal? Actors do commercials all the time, especially voice work.
Bah! I have always hated a sellout. Always will. Don’t particularly care if you disagree.
Well, it’s just that we’ve always felt that Braff had a lot of indie cred for the whole garden state thing, but in the end, he’s become a typical hollywood type.
It’s called Show Business, ya know.
Who’s “we?”
Him and me, obviously, if no one else.
How is working for money being a “sellout”? Every performance he does has to be for the love of the art form?
How can you give him cred for that, when his sitcom had already been on for three years?
That’s how GS got MADE. It’s not like ol’ Zach was slaving away AT Wendy’s for the sake of his art before GS put him on the map.
Remember:
Matt Damon: Just take it from “It’s a good course.”
Ben Affleck: Oh, now you’re the director.
Matt Damon: Hey shove it, Bounce-boy. Let’s remember who talked who into doing this shit in the first place. Talking me into Dogma was one thing, but this…
Ben Affleck: Hey look, I’m sorry I dragged you away from whatever-gay-serial-killers-who-ride-horses-and-like-to-play-golf-touchy-feely-picture you’re supposed to be doing this week.
Matt Damon: I take it you haven’t seen Forces of Nature?
Ben Affleck: You’re like a child. What’ve I been telling you? You gotta do the safe picture. Then you can do the art picture. But then sometimes you gotta do the payback picture because your friend says you owe him.
[They both take a beat and look at the camera]
Ben Affleck: And sometimes, you have to go back to the well.
Matt Damon: And sometimes, you do Reindeer Games.
Ben Affleck: See, that’s just mean.
You misattributed that quote.
Crap! Suppose I did. My point holds, though.
Why do YOU assign Braff “indie cred,” then, and what makes him a sellout to you?
Mind oyu, I have nothing agianst Braff- I don’t know him personally and I don’t dislike his work, but calling him a seelout implies that he wasn’t just doing a job like everyone else, which is what I htink he was doing, and nothing wrong with that.
Personally, I wouldn’t do commercials for anything unless a) I felt strongly about whatever it was or b) I really needed the money, and I can’t really understand why people who don’t need the money do it. Britney Spears and the Spice Girls advertising Pepsi is just incomprehensible to me. I guess that’s why they’re stars and I’m not.
Well, that and the boobs. And the fact that they tried and I didn’t. And the fact that I don’t want to. But you know what I mean.
Might I remind those who are calling him a “sell-out” that even Michaelangelo had patrons. No artist can exist for long without selling some product. And I would seriously question anyone who feels that someone who stars on a sitcom is an “artist.” Is Zach a talented actor? Moderately. Is he selling-out by using his talents to make money? Hell no.
If somebody offered me money to do a voice-over for a product, I jump at the chance. Zach didn’t even have to lend his visage to the product. All he had to do is read his lines. It’s not like they’re using him to flog burgers. He’s just reading lines.
Yeah, I have a generally terrible opinion of people who label artists as “sell outs.”
People go into acting or some other art form often times because they love it, but they also need money. Every artist at some point has needed a pay check. The only real exceptions to this rule are some of the classical composers or 19th century poets who were already independently incredibly wealthy. But guys like Dickens needed their works published in serial form, making them a nice income, and their legacy doesn’t seem to have been tarnished by it.
Most of the renaissance artists needed to impress one of the wealthy Italian lords, or they’d never have been able to practice their art.
Art may be an artist’s passion, may be a huge portion of his life, but most artists also still consider it “their job” as well, and couldn’t survive without making money.
Look at how political many of the world’s best painters, writers, composers et cetera have been at trying to get the favor of the wealthy nobles of their time. Mozart is one of the best composers the world has ever produced, and he still had to do his fair share of sucking up to get on the payroll.
How do you know he doesn’t just really like Wendy’s? I like Wendy’s. Don’t you like Wendy’s?
Is a person a sellout if they really like the product they’re hawking?
You’re calling an actor a whore for accepting an acting gig? You may as well call an accountant a whore for doing his clients’ taxes.
shrug
You can always have more money.
But more importantly, even if a star has all the money she could ever spend, she doesn’t want to stop being a star. And you continue to be a star by continuing to make other people money.
As for Braff, it’s probably not any more complicated than a fat paycheck for maybe one day of work. They probably offered him a pretty penny because they’re trying to hit my demographic these days, and Braff is one of our biggest representatives in Hollywood. (See also “Blister in the Sun”.)
He also has another commercial voiceover on the air right now, but I can’t remember what it’s for. He does the voice for a kid or a dog or something.
When I saw “Zach Braff, what are you doing…” on the home screen, I thought someone would be tearing him up over his new movie, which looks really awful. (I’d ask the same question of John Krasinski.)
Is it the making money part that offends you or the Wendys part? Because Braff made some serious money with Garden State too, and what’s wrong with with Wendys?
(now I’m craving frostyfries)