You know him. You do. He\u2019s the guy who pops up onscreen and makes you guffaw, cringe or both at the same time. Yet fans usually have to search Sean Whalen\u2019s name before approaching him out in the wild.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know when someone recognizes me,\u201d Whalen tells Yahoo. \u201cIt’s the walk by, then I look back and [they\u2019re whispering]. I\u2019ll go over and say hi, shake their hand, meet them. Sometimes, somebody might come up and go, \u2018Are you Sean Whalen?\u2019 and I say, \u2018You Googled that, didn’t you?\u2019 They go, \u2018yes\u2019 \u2014 because they know my face, they just don’t know my name.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the life of a career character actor. Whalen, 61, has been here, there and everywhere in Hollywood productions, always delivering memorable performances, even if his name isn\u2019t at the tip of the tongue. Or you mistake him for Steve Buscemi, which happens a lot too.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith my fans, if you’re 20 to 30, you know me from Disney Channel [Wizards of Waverly Place],\u201d says Whalen, whose Instagram<\/a> describes him as \u201cThat Guy.\u201d \u201cIf you’re a 30- to 50-year-old woman, you know me from Never Been Kissed, That Thing You Do! and maybe Employee of the Month. If you\u2019ve got tons of tattoos or you know me from horror, it\u2019s The People Under the Stairs. The Black community knows me from [My Wife and Kids]. And if I’m in the Midwest, forget it. It’s Twister all day long.\u201d<\/p>\n His Hollywood breakthrough is a helluva story, involving milk, peanut butter, Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg. Whalen performed and studied at the Groundlings Theater and Playhouse West in Los Angeles, and commercials became his bread and butter \u2014 until one he did became bigger than him.<\/p>\n Whalen has the distinction of appearing in the first \u201cGot Milk?\u201d ad, back in 1993. It was initially for the California Milk Processor Board, with an ad agency given \u201ccreative carte blanche\u201d to sell milk because sales had dipped. Long before Hamilton\u2019s domination, the pitch was an Aaron Burr\u2013themed commercial directed by Bay, the man behind big-budget blockbusters like Bad Boys and Armageddon.<\/p>\n \u201cThat commercial got him his movie career \u2014 and me my acting career,\u201d Whalen says. \u201cIt was well-written and shot beautifully. Bay told a huge beginning, middle and end story in a minute. But I improvised that role in my audition. They didn’t have an ending yet. [Other actors] played it mad \u2014 smashing and throwing things. I was the only one who was like, My life is over. What have I done?\u201d In the ad, Whalen\u2019s history buff character is unable to speak clearly \u2014 his peanut butter sandwich stuck to the roof of his mouth \u2014 when a radio show calls to have him answer a trivia question. Hence, Aaron Burr comically coming out as \u201cAawun Buhh.\u201d<\/p>\n The popularity of the commercial bumped milk sales 25%, Whalen says, and as a result, the spot aired all the time. However, because it was a local ad, \u201cYou only get $1,100 a quarter,\u201d the actor says. \u201cEvery three months, I made $400. So I basically made $125 a month \u2014 and this thing was running day and night.\u201d<\/p>\n The campaign later went national, making it more lucrative \u2014 with an asterisk.<\/p>\n \u201cThat’s when I made some money for a little while,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I couldn’t get any other commercials because I had become \u2018the milk guy.\u2019 If you’re selling Chevy trucks and you see me in there, you go, \u2018Oh, the milk guy\u2019s in a truck.\u2019 You don\u2019t want that. So it killed my commercial career, but it launched my theatrical career.\u201d<\/p>\n Enter Spielberg. The renowned director, who often used unknown actors, was producing the 1996 disaster film Twister and cast Whalen as storm chaser Sanders.<\/p>\n Whalen, far left, in Twister, with Alan Ruck, Joey Slotnick, Bill Paxton and Philip Seymour Hoffman. (Everett Collection)<\/p>\n \u201cOh God, I was so nervous,\u201d he says. \u201cI thought, \u2018They’re going to find out I’m just a commercial actor.\u2019 But I held my own.\u201d<\/p>\n Whalen had the time of his life chasing storms with Alan Ruck and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Once the actors realized they\u2019d be second fiddle to the special effects, they figured they might as well just have fun with it.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s why people liked us so much \u2014 because we were so relaxed,\u201d he says. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t about us, it’s about the thing. When people bring up the movie to me now, they don’t talk about the tornadoes. They talk about us, because we were having so much fun.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s forever grateful to have an improvised moment with Hoffman, who died in 2014, immortalized onscreen.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople laugh at the scene where I’m going, \u2018Food, food, food\u2019 with Phil. That’s how we greeted each other every day: \u2018What’s up.\u2019 \u2018What’s up, brother,\u2019\u201d Whalen says. \u201cI love that I have that on film forever \u2014 me and Phil doing our little finger thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/span><\/div>\n