The Day Timothy Olyphant Became 8 Feet Tall
In January I production-managed a commercial for ESPN with the actor Timothy Olyphant.
We spent a few hours setting up lights and cameras in a vast, dusty warehouse. The crew hummed with a restrained excitement to be shooting with a famous actor. Like most sets in Los Angeles, everyone hid their grins but not their glints.
I researched Timothy Olyphant during a snack break. Credits like The Office, The Mandalorian, and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood jumped out first. After seeing a few pictures, I started getting excited myself. This leathery, gruff, all-American looking dude was going to be rifling through inspirational football one-liners for a few hours.
Then he showed up. And he looked a lot like my dad.
I think he was wearing sketchers, and a baggy sweater. His posture was not great. He wasn’t that tall. He greeted everyone softly, with a much smaller voice than I imagined. I was surprised that this was the guy ESPN chose for their commercial.
We briefed Olyphant, prepped the set, clapped the board, and rolled on our first shot. And Timothy Olyphant completely transformed.
The camera angle was low and sharp. The lighting was dramatic. Olyphant puffed his chest, and leaned forward. He stared through the lens as if he were trying to crack it, bellowing line after line after line. The director said “louder!” Olyphant roared. The director said “bigger!” Olyphant grew. He looked 8 feet tall on the monitor.
After an hour or so, Olyphant was done, and he shrunk back to normal size. He shook everyone’s hand, said some soft farewells, and disappeared.
As I packed up the day’s hard drives and shipped them via FedEx to the client, I was struck by something. Olyphant absolutely, unapologetically turned it on when he got on set. This normal looking guy knew exactly the angles and poses and voices to the get the job done. He transformed himself on camera.
Maybe you don’t need to be a genius or a beauty or a star. Maybe raw talent and gifts and luck aren’t needed. Maybe you just need to find your angles and perfect them.
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