Actor Sean Whalen who credits his 1993 “Got Milk?” Commercial for changing the course of his life, shared the story behind it on its 30 year anniversary. The actor, who is a Montgomery County, Maryland native and 1982 graduate of Sherwood High School also starred in various television shows including Shannon’s Deal and Grace Under Fire, as well as movies, including The People Under the Stairs and Twister. The story he shared regarding the milk commercial (as well as the commercial itself) can be seen below:
“30 YEAR ANNIVERSARY: On this day in 1993 a regional milk commercial came out that changed the course of my life. I went into an audition just a few weeks before where they gave me peanut butter and told me to try to answer the question of “Who shot Alexander Hamilton?” With my mouth full. Then they told me to improvise an ending. They said I got the job because everyone else screamed, yelled, got angry, and threw the phone! I was the only one who looked at the phone and essentially said, “My whole life led to this moment, and I failed… “ When I got to the set, they just said… “Do what you did in the audition” and Michael Bay shot it over and over for 12 hours. This job killed my commercial career, branded me as “the milk guy” for years, but was loved by Spielberg which got me the gig in Twister, which gave my theatrical career a huge boost. Less and less people know what I’m talking about when I mentioned it so it is fading out of the zeitgeist. But that’s OK. I really haven’t been able to eat peanut butter since but it was a good trade off.”
