Actor Luke Wilson will break new ground for his career with an upcoming Super Bowl LIII ad. (Getty Images)
Actor Luke Wilson has had a successful movie career with films like “Legally Blonde” and “Old School.” However, in 2019 he’s trying something totally new and very nerve-wracking, a Super Bowl commercial.
While it may sound like Wilson, who is the new face of Colgate Total, is taking a step backwards going from movies to commercialsm for the actor Wilson, that’s far from the case.
“I’ve never done a Super Bowl ad, and Colgate had never done a Super Bowl ad either. That just seemed pretty exciting to me just because, you know what it’s like with those ads now. When I was growing up there might be one or two ads that would be a big deal,” he told Fox News in a recent phone interview. “Definitely more people are going to see this than any movie I made. It’s exciting, yeah, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t nerve-wracking.”
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The Texas-native noted that he found the ad particularly amusing when he read the script. In his mind, he compared his role in the TV spot, which will run during the big game on Sunday, Feb. 3, to that of a “Saturday Night Live” sketch. However, given the vast built-in audience the Super Bowl has, he had to consult his secret taste judges to ensure quality.
“I had some regular friends from back in Texas that have seen it online say they thought it was funny. They’re always a good barometer of what people think of stuff. They seem to think it was really funny, so yeah,” he said. “Sometimes I have to go outside of L.A. to get what I feel like is a more honest opinion of something.”
Despite the temporary shift from movies to a commercial, Wilson is no stranger to the world of advertising. Many may not know that his father ran a local advertising company when he and his brother, fellow actor Owen Wilson, were growing up. As a result, he takes pride in being in an ad during the most commercial-friendly broadcast of the year.
“He’d just think it was unbelievable that I’m in a Super Bowl ad,” he said through laughter. “It blew his mind that we were in movies!”
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This will be a year of many firsts for Wilson. In addition to appearing in the ad, he’s also hard at work on a move to TV having recently been cast in the upcoming DC Universe superhero show “Stargirl” as mechanic-turned superhero Pat Dugan. In the comics, Dugan pilots a 15-foot robot of his own design named “Stripe” and acts as a mentor to the titular hero.
“As long as I’ve been out here in L.A. I’ve done pretty much every kind of movie. Cop, western, drama, comedy - but I’ve never done a superhero [project.]”
Wilson, 47, admitted that conquering the new frontier comes with its own challenges. Namely, he’s studying diligently to commit all the necessary DC comics lore to memory so that he can better understand the world his character lives in.
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“You would think I was doing a play on Broadway, I’ve never been this diligent about learning dialogue,” he told Fox. “There’ Starman, Icicle, Brain Wave, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, The Injustice Society… When I started reading these scripts I thought, ‘This is going to be so fun!’ Then I was like, “This is like learning another language!’”
“Stargirl” is expected to premiere in late 2019.
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