You realize him. You do. He’s the man who pops up onscreen and makes you guffaw, cringe or each on the similar time. But followers often have to look Sean Whalen’s title earlier than approaching him out within the wild.
“I do know when somebody acknowledges me,” Whalen tells Yahoo. “It is the stroll by, then I look again and [they’re whispering]. I’ll go over and say hello, shake their hand, meet them. Generally, any person may come up and go, ‘Are you Sean Whalen?’ and I say, ‘You Googled that, did not you?’ They go, ‘sure’ — as a result of they know my face, they only do not know my title.”
That’s the lifetime of a profession character actor. Whalen, 61, has been right here, there and in every single place in Hollywood productions, all the time delivering memorable performances, even when his title isn’t on the tip of the tongue. Otherwise you mistake him for Steve Buscemi, which occurs lots too.
“With my followers, in case you’re 20 to 30, you understand me from Disney Channel [Wizards of Waverly Place],” says Whalen, whose Instagram describes him as “That Man.” “For those who’re a 30- to 50-year-old girl, you understand me from By no means Been Kissed, That Factor You Do! and possibly Worker of the Month. For those who’ve bought tons of tattoos or you understand me from horror, it’s The Individuals Underneath the Stairs. The Black neighborhood is aware of me from [My Wife and Kids]. And if I am within the Midwest, overlook it. It is Tornado all day lengthy.”
His Hollywood breakthrough is a helluva story, involving milk, peanut butter, Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg. Whalen carried out and studied on the Groundlings Theater and Playhouse West in Los Angeles, and commercials grew to become his bread and butter — till one he did grew to become larger than him.
Whalen has the excellence of showing within the first “Obtained Milk?” advert, again in 1993. It was initially for the California Milk Processor Board, with an advert company given “artistic carte blanche” to promote milk as a result of gross sales had dipped. Lengthy earlier than Hamilton’s domination, the pitch was an Aaron Burr–themed business directed by Bay, the person behind big-budget blockbusters like Unhealthy Boys and Armageddon.
“That business bought him his film profession — and me my performing profession,” Whalen says. “It was well-written and shot fantastically. Bay informed an enormous starting, center and finish story in a minute. However I improvised that position in my audition. They did not have an ending but. [Other actors] performed it mad — smashing and throwing issues. I used to be the one one who was like, My life is over. What have I executed?” Within the advert, Whalen’s historical past buff character is unable to talk clearly — his peanut butter sandwich caught to the roof of his mouth — when a radio present calls to have him reply a trivia query. Therefore, Aaron Burr comically popping out as “Aawun Buhh.”
The recognition of the business bumped milk gross sales 25%, Whalen says, and because of this, the spot aired on a regular basis. Nevertheless, as a result of it was an area advert, “You solely get $1,100 1 / 4,” the actor says. “Each three months, I made $400. So I principally made $125 a month — and this factor was operating day and evening.”
The marketing campaign later went nationwide, making it extra profitable — with an asterisk.
“That is once I made some cash for a short while,” he says. “However I could not get some other commercials as a result of I had grow to be ‘the milk man.’ For those who’re promoting Chevy vehicles and also you see me in there, you go, ‘Oh, the milk man’s in a truck.’ You don’t need that. So it killed my business profession, however it launched my theatrical profession.”
Enter Spielberg. The famend director, who usually used unknown actors, was producing the 1996 catastrophe movie Tornado and solid Whalen as storm chaser Sanders.
Whalen, far left, in Tornado, with Alan Ruck, Joey Slotnick, Invoice Paxton and Philip Seymour Hoffman. (Everett Assortment)
“Oh God, I used to be so nervous,” he says. “I believed, ‘They will discover out I am only a business actor.’ However I held my very own.”
Whalen had the time of his life chasing storms with Alan Ruck and Philip Seymour Hoffman. As soon as the actors realized they’d be second fiddle to the particular results, they figured they may as properly simply have enjoyable with it.
“That’s why folks favored us a lot — as a result of we had been so relaxed,” he says. “It wasn’t about us, it is about the factor. When folks deliver up the film to me now, they do not discuss in regards to the tornadoes. They speak about us, as a result of we had been having a lot enjoyable.”
He’s endlessly grateful to have an improvised second with Hoffman, who died in 2014, immortalized onscreen.
“Individuals snigger on the scene the place I am going, ‘Meals, meals, meals’ with Phil. That is how we greeted one another on daily basis: ‘What’s up.’ ‘What’s up, brother,’” Whalen says. “I like that I’ve that on movie endlessly — me and Phil doing our little finger factor.”
So far as taking roles and making them his personal, he stated it was a lesson he realized the arduous means after he flubbed his audition for 1992’s Wayne’s World. It was his half to lose — enjoying the perpetually drunk pal — which was written with him in thoughts. Nevertheless, at his audition, he did what he thought the casting director needed to see as a substitute of delivering his personal interpretation of the character.
“What I lastly realized was: I am Sean Whalen. That is what I deliver,” he says. “If you’d like me, nice. But when I am not the man, I do not actually need to do a lame model. I need to do what I believe is humorous.”
That has led to collaborations with filmmakers to develop his characters and make them unforgettable, no matter how lengthy or brief he’s on display screen. As an illustration, he was presupposed to solely have one line in 1999’s By no means Been Kissed, earlier than getting the possibility to develop the a part of Merkin with producers Nancy Juvonen and Drew Barrymore, who doubled because the star. (He’d go on to work with them once more on Charlie’s Angels, launched in 2000.)
“Nancy and Drew stated, ‘What would you do?’” Whalen remembers. “I am going, I believe it is humorous {that a} man thinks he is the Wolf of Wall Road. He thinks he’s a badass — super-cocky, the spiked hair, the headset — and he’s a copywriter’s assistant and he thinks he is the following Tony Robbins. That is humorous to me. They go, ‘Do it.’ I bought to design my outfit — they bought me an Armani go well with — and every thing I requested for. I additionally wrote all my traces: ‘Energy is highly effective.’ ‘This entire workplace shouldn’t be feng shui.’”
Not being on the prime of the decision sheet means Whalen nonetheless has to hustle.
“I haven’t got the posh of going, ‘I am going to decide on this half or that half,’” he says. “I have to pay payments, identical to all people else. … The primary factor is, I simply do what I believe is humorous.”
Whalen wanting ghoulish in The Individuals Underneath the Stairs. (Common Photos/Courtesy Everett Assortment)
He’s doing an increasing number of of his personal initiatives in recent times. The daddy of two began a manufacturing firm, MSYL, along with his spouse, Sheena Fink Whalen, whom he married in 2021.
Whalen wrote, directed and starred within the 2024 impartial horror-comedy movie Crust, which he crowdfunded to make. It’s a couple of man in a laundromat who has a sock monster who kills his enemies.
“I bought my finances inside three days, after which we tripled it,” he says. “Individuals stored giving cash. I stated, ‘Why are you doing this?’ They stated, ‘As a result of we such as you. You have been making us snigger for years. We wish you to do larger components.’”
Now Whalen’s making an attempt to make Swipe, one other horror movie about three feminine slashers.
“I simply need a contemporary tackle every thing,” he says. “I am unable to do regular. That is me and my producing companion, Rebekah Kennedy’s factor. If you understand what is going on to occur by midway by way of, we do not need it. We all the time need it to be totally different and peculiar.”
And he’s prepared for extra. Whereas Whalen is joyful to reminisce in regards to the ’90s, his eyes are on the long run.
“I did these films in my early 30s, and I am 61 now,” Whalen says. “I need to have my second act. I need to have my Sean Connery [arc] — you understand, skinny, sizzling as hell Sean Connery within the ’60s to outdated, gruff, bearded Sean Connery. He was two utterly totally different guys.”
“That is what I am wanting [forward to],” he continues. “I would like somebody to come back to my desk at a [fan] conference and never simply go, ‘Oh, Tornado, The Individuals Underneath the Stairs.’ I would like them to go, ‘Crust. Swipe’ — my new stuff. That is my actual purpose. I need to be related immediately — not simply within the ’90s.”
