Image Credit: Bill Records/NBC
I can say with the utmost certainty that never before had I been upset by a hardware superstore commercial. Shopping for paint samples is annoying, certainly. But upsetting? Rarely.
That is, until I saw a commercial for Lowe’s that involved actor Gil McKinney. Sure, in the ad he’s just a dude looking for some affordable lawn furniture with his significant other, but all I could see was the creeper T.A. from Friday Night Lights who has been corrupting our dear Julie Taylor (Aimee Teegarden, pictured here sucking face with said culprit). As soon as I recognized the actor, it was hard not to think, “How can you be buying furniture at a time like this? Don’t you know what you’re putting the Taylor family through? Have you no shame, sir?!” I’m sure Mr. McKinney is a swell fellow in real life, and it’s certainly a testament to his skills as an actor (any FNL fan can attest they got bad vibes from him immediately), but I instantly saw Derek the Creeper T.A. when I saw him. (Sadly, the commercial has not yet made its way onto YouTube yet, so you’ll just have to wait patiently to see it on the old-fashioned television. Fight the urge to rewind!)
I’ve actually had this happen before, though. As I noted in the trailer for the upcoming Mandy Moore flick Love, Wedding, Marriage, as soon as I spotted actor Michael Weston, it was jarring. This guy wasn’t Kellan Lutz’s best man, he’s the tweaked-out dude who kidnapped David in Six Feet Under! Run! Get away!
I had a roommate who couldn’t even deal with the thought of actor Tony Todd because of Candyman, so suffice to say, Chuck and 24 didn’t get much love on our DVR, even when he wasn’t playing a classic horror villain. But we can’t possibly be the only ones. I’ve got to imagine this happens quite frequently, both with character actors and mainstream actors. PopWatchers, when have you found it impossible to disassociate an actor with a former role? And did any of you think the same thoughts I did upon seeing McKinney in the Lowe’s ad?
Every time I see Bob Gunton (the evil warden from “The Shawshank Redemption) I have a reflexive dislike and distrust of the character. I was convinced that he was going to turn out to be a turncoat/mole in the final two seasons of “24″ just based on his work in “Shawshank.”
Then I suggest you watch at least one episode of the “Greg the Bunny” series starring Seth Green, Eugene Levy, and Sarah Silverman. It was a really fun and funny show, and Gunton’s role will mess with your head.
I can’t stand Bradley Cooper just because of how much I hated his character in “He’s Just Not That Into You.”
I can’t stand Bradley Cooper because all he seems to play lately are douche characters. I just want to slap him and say WHAT HAPPENED to WILL TIPPIN?!?!? Oh Bradley, good guy gone douche.
funny, every time i see him i call him will tippen! hahahaha!
This. I can’t believe Will Tippen has become this huge sex symbol.
Thats weird, because I always give him the benefit of the doubt because of his character on Alias. I cannot hate him in anything.
Sac from Wedding Crashers. But he’s seeing a Buddhist.
Completely agree
Aly, your roommate and I share that Tony Todd problem. I’m 22 years old and whenever I see that man I have flashbacks to that movie and chills run down my spine. He’s pretty much the only thing about the “Final Destination” movies that’s actually scary!
For the most part, this seems to impact me positively. Usually it happens that I like a particular character played by a character actor I either haven’t seen or haven’t noticed before, so I keep an eye out for that actor’s work.
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For instance, the first time I remember seeing Tim Guinee was as an escaped con who couldn’t stand to be away from the woman he loved in an episode of the short-lived Karen Sisco series. Loved the show; loved Guinee’s work as the character; and now I seek him out and usually like his characters.
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The most notable negative instance of this was TJ Miller. I hated his character on Carpoolers, and I related his distinctive voice with that character as opposed to the actor. It took a hilarious appearance on Doug Benson’s Doug Loves Movies podcast for me to snap out of it and enjoy Miller’s work.
T Bag from Prison Break.
Exactly who I thought of while reading this article!
Dean Winters as Mayhem in the Allstate commercials.
I guess beeper sales weren’t going so hot for Dennis Duffy, or he was attacked by a Rat King in prison (after his lovely appearance on To Catch a Predator). Still throws me off.
I recommend you *never* watch the TV series “Oz” then. You won’t be able to see Dennis Duffy in the same light again.
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The same advice goes to everyone who is a Law & Order fan. Chris Meloni and JK Simmons are both amazing in Oz, but the character are complete 180s from Stabler and Skoda.
Yes! JK Simmons will always be Schillinger from OZ, like pretty much everyone else from that show. And there’s the whole “I’ve seen him naked” thing to deal with too, which may make me sound like a perv, but is always the first thing I think when I see Chris Meloni in anything.
I watched OZ on DVD long after I was a huge SVU fan and it is a huge compliment to Chris Meloni that I was totally able to buy his Chris Keller character after loving Stabler as much as I do.
There are so many actors from OZ that I absolutely cannot separate from their characters. Seeing Schillinger as a psychiatrist on L & O always gave me chills. And I couldn’t concentrate on the episode of Dexter because I was so distracted that the actor who played Cyril was one of the detectives.
Something about the “Mayhem” character – I find him oh so sexy. Seriously.
Oh, I agree. I heart the Mayhem fella.
When I see those Allstate commercials I can hear Dean Winters calling Tina Fey, “dummy”!
I just had this reaction when I saw Garret Dillahunt in Winter’s Bone. It’s a serious part, but all I could think of was Burt Chance from Raising Hope. He plays the loveable but dimwitted dad part too well.
See, I have the opposite problem. I’m so used to seeing him in drama that I have a hard time with his Raising Hope character.
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My first memorable exposure to him was Deadwood, ad it made me a fan of him as an actor, but his parts in that and Life are a far cry from the lunkheaded but lovable grandfather.
I totally giggled when he was onscreen. And I watched him as a terminator on the sarah conner chronicles, but still think of him from Raising hope.
every time i see Garret Dillahunt I think “that is the low-life ^@&#sucker that shot Wild Bill Hickock in the back.”
I’ve seen Dillahunt in Sarah Connor, Life, Deadwood and more. He’s always some kind of shady guy. When I saw him in a Raising Hope commercial I was like ‘You gotta be kidding me!’
I associated Terry O’Quinn with his recurring role of ‘The Cag’ on JAG for a very long time. Then LOST premiered…
Same way that Kyle Chandler used to be Gary Hobson to me but is now forever marked as Coach Taylor.
Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell are from Quantum Leap. Enough said.
Every time Allstate comes on my family yells ‘David!’
He’s been a bad guy in so many things I can’t buy the comedy dad role.
In Deadwood he was such a bad guy – just goes to show the wide range some of these actors have. Good for career longevity IF we can move past the ick factor.
I first saw Garret Dillahunt as a guest actor on Flashpoint as a hostage taker. I thought he was a great actor and pretty creepy! The next day, I was flipping channels and I saw the same guy in Raising Hope, and he was hilarious! Just goes to show what an awesome actor he is!
I love the ’06 Shia LaBoeuf thriller Disturbia, and one of the best parts about it is the terrifying turn by David Morse as the next-door neighbor/murderer. But even though Morse has played a host of sweet, harmless characters (his role in St. Elsewhere comes to mind), I simply can’t watch him in anything else! Too scary, haha. By the way, I watch Friday Night Lights religiously and I haven’t seen this commercial yet but it sounds like I’ll have the same reaction haha.
And poor David Morse even played George Washington in HBO’s John Adams miniseries!
I have the opposite reaction to David Morse, I still think of him as Dr. Morrison on St. Elsewhere. It is weird for me to see him as the bad guy.
I never liked Ryan Devlin’s character on Cougar Town, he will always be the rapist in Veronica Mars to me
nooooo! why did you have to remind me of that?! i must’ve blocked that that was him!
Ah now I know why he always looked so familiar. I hate Smith now. You ruined him for me!
Same here! I couldn’t concentrate on Brothers and Sisters because of him!
I’m perpetually unable (or unwilling) to separate actors from the parts they’ve played. Julie Bowen will always, always be Carol Vessey (and while we’re talking about Ed, John Slattery will always be her jackass ex, Dennis Martino). And so on. I think the further I take this discussion, the crazier I’ll sound, so I’ll stop now.
John Slattery, for me, will always be the kinky politician who Carrie dates on Sex and the City.
It’s tought to believe the Dixon character on 90210 after seeing Tristan Wilds on The Wire.
To me, Julie Bowen will always be Happy Gilmore’s girlfriend in “Happy Gilmore.” “HAPPY LOOK OUUUUUTTT—AAAA!!!”
Perfectly put. I always see him and think that damn Dennis Martino. Just thinking about him gets my blood a-boiling.
John will always be the politician who dated Gaby on Desperate Housewives and then got impaled by a picket fence during the tornado.
exact same thought upon seeing that Lowe’s commercial.
THIS ^^^^
Ted Levine completely creeped me out as Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs (“it puts the lotion on its skin”), and it took me a loooong time to be able to watch him as Capt. Stottlemeyer on Monk.
That’s exactly what I was thinking…even though he looks very different in Monk, it’s hard to forget that mirror scene…
Same thing!!! Everytime I watch him on Monk, I keep think Buffalo Bill.
even after all these years, the “why’s the president hawking allstate insurance?” thought sometimes crosses my mind when I see Dennis Haysbert doing his commercials
I think the same thing when I see him on the All State commercials!!! “Awww the president”
Our first black president was our best black president.
My entire family always says this when the Allstate commercials come on.
Doug Hutchison played such a detestable, evil person in the Green Mile that I was convinced that the character Horace on Lost would end up being a major villain
See, I still see him as Tooms from X-Files, so I always expect him to be not only a bad guy, but a creepy mutant bad guy. Regular evil is not enough. Poor guy, he’s probably very nice in real life. Same problem with Nick Chinlund, actually. Once a super-creepy psycho monster on the X-Files, always a a super-creepy psycho monster.
Michael Emerson has always been creepy too. I remember him as a serial killer on The Practice.
Good call on the kidnapper from 6FU–that episode is so disturbing, and afterwards, I couldn’t see that actor as playing any other parts either. Glad I never saw Candyman–to me, Tony Todd will forever be Worf’s brother on Star Trek: TNG (he also played David’s psychiatrist on 90210!)