It’s not like it’s just Braff that’s doing it. Just the other night I heard George Clooney, Stockard Channing, and Kelsey Grammer all doing voice-overs for commercials. It’s pretty common.
That’s part of it too. His new movie looks terrible.
I, for one, will never watch this sellout’s popular and internationally syndicated primetime sitcom ever again. I’ll also be sure to boycott any Disney movie he does voiceover work on.
You gonna answer my question? I’m curious.
I say good for him for making money while he can, I hope he’s putting some away for retirement. At least he’s not overexposing himself, a la Spears and Hilton, and making everyone sick to death of him. If or when he does that, then I’ll complain about him making commercials.
Probably not. It’s not really something I feel I have to defend.
It’s not something you can defend. You can have that opinion if you like and nobody can stop you, but the rest of us have an obligation to deride it.
Braff worked long and hard to get to the point where he could make some quick money by doing commercials. Almost every major name in Hollywood history has done commercials. You can make some kind of fetish of those who decide not to (although how do you know they’ve turned them down instead of having never being asked?) but it’s simply a fetish, not an artistic judgment.
Nobody who makes a movie has “cred.” If you want to make something of actors who work on stage only, that might be defensible. But indie movie cred? And for a sitcom star? Give me a break.
I’m a big fan of underground music. One of my favorite bands is Opeth, a progressive metal band from Sweden. After they had been together for 15 years and released 7 albums of AMAZING music, they got a deal with Roadrunner Records and released a new album. They got some radio play on satellite radio and some gigs at places that hold more than just 200 people. Suddenly, a whole bunch of people are calling them sellouts. These are the same people who, just a few years earlier, were wondering why they weren’t selling more records and weren’t better known.
I guess there’s just no pleasing some people.
Go right ahead. I can take it.
I don’t know about Ogre, but I like Wendy’s.
Heaven forbid someone try to earn money honestly.
Hot dog! A bandwagon!
I agree with everybody.
No. Hamburgers.
It’s called making hay while the sun shines.
I like Braff on “Scrubs,” but from what I’ve seen of him elsewhere his range is limited and he’s not terribly good looking, so the truth is that as of right now there’s a good chance he is at the very pinnacle of his career. So his voice will never be worth more than it is now, so why not cash in? If Wendy’s offers him two million bucks to do thirty minutes of voice work he’s fucking crazy to say no, because the odds are eight to one they won’t be calling ten years from now.
Acting is Zach Braff’s job. You get paid for jobs. It’s not some holy calling and he doesn’t owe anyone anything unless they’re paying him.
“Sell out” is an interesting slur. To sell out, you have to have something to sell.
For every time it’s used by someone with equal “cred”, it’s used 1000 times by people who never had the reputation to begin with.
So which is better? To have done something notable for a cause or not? (Not that I even remotely understand what the “cause” is here) The charge automatically acknowledges the deserved cred (he’s being called a sellout, not a hack) and it’s doubly ironic if the accuser doesn’t have Braff’s (apparently) national level cred.
I’d do a voiceover for Wendy’s. They’re meh, but I’ve never heard one that said anything I personally found objectionable. So apparently, having no cred nor Braff’s money, I’d be both virtuously doing a job, and entitled to rag on him because of his good work in Garden State.
Which I’m guessing is some sort of film.
Everybody needs burgers sometimes- even Spider-Man.
I always thought it was interesting that the music in the Wendy’s ads sounds similar to- even though it isn’t- the theme song to The Colbert Report. I wonder if Stephen Colbert likes Wendy’s?
Well, he certainly likes ice cream.
:shrug: It’s not even his first commercial. He’s done the voice-over for the little Lab puppy in the Cottonelle toilet tissue commercials for several years now.
1…2…3:
Aaaaawwww
Well, this puts him in the company of The Clash, The Police, The Buzzcocks, New Order, and The Sex Pistols.
Pretty good company if you ask me. I’m not sure why Zach Braff is afforded the “voice of a new generation” hype. I slept through Garden State and I’ve never seen Scrubs, but I would wager that the true “indie” types probably never get a series on network TV. And knowing a few folks in the film industry who have “cred” for their independent film work and acting workshops, most of them would leap at the opportunity to “sell out.” It’s how they pay bills and feed themselves.
A friend of mine, ART-trained, had a small role in Prison Break. He still does theatre, but trust me, he’s happy every time the show is in re-runs.