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 go looking Sean Whalen’s identify 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. Typically, any individual 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 simply do not know my identify.”
That’s the lifetime of a profession character actor. Whalen, 61, has been right here, there and in every single place in Hollywood productions, at all times delivering memorable performances, even when his identify isn’t on the tip of the tongue. Otherwise you mistake him for Steve Buscemi, which occurs loads too.
“With my followers, in the event you’re 20 to 30, me from Disney Channel [Wizards of Waverly Place],” says Whalen, whose Instagram describes him as “That Man.” “In case you’re a 30- to 50-year-old girl, me from By no means Been Kissed, That Factor You Do! and perhaps Worker of the Month. In case you’ve obtained tons of tattoos or me from horror, it’s The Folks Underneath the Stairs. The Black group 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 “Received Milk?” advert, again in 1993. It was initially for the California Milk Processor Board, with an advert company given “inventive 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 industrial directed by Bay, the person behind big-budget blockbusters like Unhealthy Boys and Armageddon.
“That industrial obtained him his film profession — and me my performing profession,” Whalen says. “It was well-written and shot superbly. Bay instructed an enormous starting, center and finish story in a minute. However I improvised that function 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 industrial bumped milk gross sales 25%, Whalen says, and consequently, the spot aired on a regular basis. Nonetheless, as a result of it was a neighborhood advert, “You solely get $1,100 1 / 4,” the actor says. “Each three months, I made $400. So I mainly made $125 a month — and this factor was operating day and night time.”
The marketing campaign later went nationwide, making it extra profitable — with an asterisk.
“That is after I made some cash for a short while,” he says. “However I could not get every other commercials as a result of I had grow to be ‘the milk man.’ In case you’re promoting Chevy vans 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 industrial profession, nevertheless it launched my theatrical profession.”
Enter Spielberg. The famend director, who typically used unknown actors, was producing the 1996 catastrophe movie Tornado and forged 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 industrial 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 could as properly simply have enjoyable with it.
“That’s why folks preferred 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 convey up the film to me now, they do not speak concerning 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.
“Folks chortle on the scene the place I am going, ‘Meals, meals, meals’ with Phil. That is how we greeted one another each day: ‘What’s up.’ ‘What’s up, brother,’” Whalen says. “I really 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 — taking part in the perpetually drunk buddy — which was written with him in thoughts. Nonetheless, at his audition, he did what he thought the casting director wished to see as an alternative of delivering his personal interpretation of the character.
“What I lastly realized was: I am Sean Whalen. That is what I convey,” he says. “If you’d like me, nice. But when I am not the man, I do not actually wish to do a lame model. I wish 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 quick he’s on display screen. As an example, he was presupposed to solely have one line in 1999’s By no means Been Kissed, earlier than getting the prospect 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’m going, I believe it is humorous {that a} man thinks he is the Wolf of Wall Avenue. 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 subsequent Tony Robbins. That is humorous to me. They go, ‘Do it.’ I obtained to design my outfit — they obtained me an Armani go well with — and every little thing I requested for. I additionally wrote all my traces: ‘Energy is highly effective.’ ‘This entire workplace isn’t feng shui.’”
Not being on the high of the decision sheet means Whalen nonetheless has to hustle.
“I haven’t got the luxurious of going, ‘I am going to decide on this half or that half,’” he says. “I must pay payments, similar to all people else. … The principle factor is, I simply do what I believe is humorous.”
Whalen wanting ghoulish in The Folks Underneath the Stairs. (Common Photos/Courtesy Everett Assortment)
He’s doing increasingly of his personal tasks lately. 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 unbiased horror-comedy movie Crust, which he crowdfunded to make. It’s a few man in a laundromat who has a sock monster who kills his enemies.
“I obtained my finances inside three days, after which we tripled it,” he says. “Folks saved giving cash. I stated, ‘Why are you doing this?’ They stated, ‘As a result of we such as you. You have been making us chortle for years. We would like you to do larger elements.’”
Now Whalen’s making an attempt to make Swipe, one other horror movie about three feminine slashers.
“I simply desire a recent tackle every little thing,” he says. “I am unable to do regular. That is me and my producing accomplice, Rebekah Kennedy’s factor. If what is going on to occur by midway by way of, we do not need it. We at all times need it to be completely different and bizarre.”
And he’s prepared for extra. Whereas Whalen is blissful to reminisce concerning 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 wish to have my second act. I wish to have my Sean Connery [arc] — , skinny, sizzling as hell Sean Connery within the ’60s to outdated, gruff, bearded Sean Connery. He was two utterly completely different guys.”
“That is what I am wanting [forward to],” he continues. “I would like somebody to return to my desk at a [fan] conference and never simply go, ‘Oh, Tornado, The Folks Underneath the Stairs.’ I would like them to go, ‘Crust. Swipe’ — my new stuff. That is my actual objective. I wish to be related in the present day — not simply within the ’90s.”
