The first “whassup!” commercial aired on december 20th,
1999, during Monday Night Football.
(funny thing is; I had no idea the commercials had
started airing, until the phone started ringing that night…and everybody that
called said the same thing; “dude, there’s this guy in this commercial who
looks just like you!” …no one thought it was actually me …probably because I
did’nt tell anyone, outside of a handful of close friends, that I had shot the
commercials …I felt like this: the fewer who knew, the fewer I would have to
explain to if it all went wrong, know what I mean?)
By january, we were already becoming famous. And I knew there was an opportunity to
parlay this into more. So, I wanted to
get an agent. Since I did’nt know
anyone, I turned to jodi collins, the casting agent who cast the
commercials. She was so kind and
helpful. She asked; “just you, or
do all the guys want agents too?”
paul did’nt seem very interested, but fred was. Jodi set us up with 4 or 5 NYC talent agents, she called and set up appointments, put in the good word, n’
everything. Me and fred went up to NYC
on a Monday and went over to jodi’s office where she gave us the info and some
pointers…we did’nt even have headshots or anything, so, she took a couple of photos
she had from our audition, and sent us to a nearby kinko’s so we could make
copies. She really went the extra mile
for us. We hit all 5 agencies that
day, I think all of them would’ve signed us (we were that hot at the time). Eventually I chose to go with CED (now;
CESD)…I really just liked their vibe, particularly carrie morgan, the woman in
my interview who seemed to do most of the talking. Now, at the time, I had no clue they were the number 1 commercial agency in the business, or that carrie was their top agent. I just liked them. I was so naïve, I actually called them up
the next day and said; “ok, I’ll sign with you guys” …not even realizing
I was supposed to wait for them to call me.
carrie just chuckled, and agreed.
...i wish she had never retired, the business was'nt the same without her...
The next thing I had to do was join SAG (screen
actors guild – the union for actors).
When you work as an actor, if you build up a certain amount of credits,
you’re eligible to join SAG, and, if you keep getting work, you have to
join…unless you want to relegate your career to non-union work. (ie;
low-budget, low pay, crappy, “independent” stuff) They’re like the mafia in that way….”pay us a cut, or you’ll
never work in this town again.”
As luck would have it, in april 2000 there was a major SAG
and WGA strike (writer’s guild of america – the union for writers). So all worked stopped. No new TV shows, movies, or commercials
could be shot. So, 4 mos. into our
career, we were stalled. Thank god we
were so famous and had a full schedule of personal appearances around the
country, otherwise we would’nt have been able to work or make money until the
strike ended -- which ended up being in september -- 6 mos later.
It was during this time that we got a call from walter… the
budweiser exec handling our campaign.
He told us that they wanted to offer us a deal… they wanted us to go to
canada, and shoot a new commercial, and they would pay us $100,000 each. For whatever reason, I
immediately smelled a rat. I called
carrie, I told her what was up. Her
first question was; “will this new commercial be used only in canada, or do
they intend to show it here in the states?” I asked why, and she told me; SAG laws do not apply in other
countries, so we could go to other countries and shoot new stuff, BUT, only if
those commercials only aired in foreign markets, not
america. She said SAG was VERY strict
about enforcing the rules…she said they have people who do nothing but watch
“hi-profile celebrities” -- like us -- and make sure they don’t try to sneak off
and do work under the radar (ie; try and claim “we shot this before the
strike”). She told us the story
about shaquile o’neal; how he had just gotten in a lot of hot water for
shooting a TV spot during the strike, and they threatened to blackball him from
the union, which means he would’nt be allowed to make any more TV commercials
or movies or anything…ever. Instead,
he agreed to pay a huge fine (several hundred thousand, I believe). And we were new, we did’nt have shaq’s
clout…if we got blackballed, they would'nt have cut us that same slack. (hell, we probably would've had to use that $100k just to pay fines)
I forget what city we were in, but, I called a meeting with
the guys. We got together in paul’s
hotel room, I told them what carrie said.
We called the front desk and had a speakerphone brought up to the room,
and I called carrie. I put her on
speaker, and she explained the situation to all of us. Now, this is how cool carrie was… the
industry was on strike, there was no new work coming in, so she was’nt getting
any commission, and she was’nt paul or fred’s agent, BUT, she still took the
time to talk to all of us and give us career advice. Carrie was the best.
After that call, we all agreed I would talk to walter and see what he
said.
That monday I called walter. And I asked him straight out; “if we shoot this commercial,
will you guys sign something stating you will only show it in canada, or other
foreign markets?” There was a long
pause. Then he said; “dook…I can’t
promise you that once they have it, they won’t air it in america.” That’s all I needed to hear. I told him I would not shoot the
commercial. I immediately called paul
& fred and told them what he said.
They both agreed they would’nt shoot it either. And we never did. And, oh boy…was Anheuser-Bush ever SALTY.* But, whatever.
You see, nobody knew how long this strike was going to be,
and A-B was shitting itself because it could’nt make new ads, so they figured
they’d wave this big money deal in our faces, and we’d jump at it, never
reading “the fine print”…and if I had’nt talked to my agent, we never would’ve
known, and we would’ve been in big trouble, and possibly ended any potential
for a career in the business. And the
thing is; they had to know this...they just did’nt care...all they cared about was
getting a new commercial. Walter's response said to me; they always knew they were going to show the commercial in america, they were just gonna try and sneak it in through the back door, and not tell us. Ok, so, let’s say we did’nt know better and took the deal… eventually, the
day would come when budweiser would end the campaign, no more “whassup!”… after
they dicked us over, when they did’nt have any use for us anymore, would they
have taken care of us? Nope. So, we had to do what was in our own best
interest. Sure, an extra $100,000 in
my pocket would’ve been awesome…but, it's 10 years later, that money would've been spent long ago, at least now i can still work. Know what i'm sayin'?
*A-B was notorious for doing
this kind of thing… from day one, they wanted to control us and have exclusive
access to us. There were multiple
instances of TV shows, producers, and casting people calling A-B (we did’nt
have a manager yet, so people would call them to get in touch with us), but
A-B would turn them down, without telling us, because they wanted us to
do a week of bar appearances in some podunk city. They only wanted us doing the TV shows they wanted us to
do. They did’nt want us to have any kind
of career outside of them. They tried
to get us to sign an exclusive deal with them, but, our manager read it and
strongly advised against signing it…he said; “basically, they will own you,
you won’t be able to do anything except budweiser stuff.” We eventually agreed to sign a limited
deal, which allowed us a lot more freedom.
There were a couple times when they actually had meetings about me, and
I got in trouble, because I chose to go host a TV show or something, rather
than make appearances for them. (that’s why there are 2 or 3 commercials that
only feature paul & fred, because i was “on punishment”…they really
had a shit fit when i went on howard stern!!!) When we were on oprah, backstage before the show, paul was
saying how he wanted to cut his hair; and one of the bud execs “joked”; “oh
no, you can’t cut that hair, we own that hair.” None of us thought it was funny. That’s mainly why I eventually chose to pull out and not do
promotional appearances anymore…I was burned out from the constant travel, and I was tired of them trying to make us their bitch. And they kind of had to put me back in the
commercials, because too many people were asking; “uh, where’s dookie?” Yes, I am grateful for the opportunity
they gave us by casting us in their commercials, but, that did not give them
the right to dictate what we did with our fame, and our lives. Ok, well, except for that morals
clause…they could dictate that stuff…
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