And you thought the world was full of them? Well, think again.
When we inquired about the making of the latest Walgreens flu shot spot, aptly titled “Ellen and Edith,” we found out that identical twins of a certain age who can act — but aren’t actors, if you get our drift — aren’t exactly in plentiful supply.
That revelation came from Jim Schmidt, creative honcho at Downtown Partners/Chicago, who developed the new Walgreens spot touting the drug store behemoth’s perennial fall flu shot service.
“The casting director came up with about 20 pairs of potential candidates for the roles,” explained Schmidt.
Fortunately, despite the slim pickings, Schmidt found what he wanted — twins who just naturally knew how to perform. The twins in the new commercial are called, as you may have guessed, Ellen and Edith, and the fact they are blessed with a ton of personality leaps out at viewers almost instantly.
Their seemingly effortless way in front of the camera also makes it hard to believe they haven’t done this type of work a ton of times before. But they haven’t. The stars of the commercial no doubt got a big shot of confidence from Schmidt’s choice of director for the project, Lisa Rubisch.
“She’s done a lot of work with ‘real people’ in commercials,” noted Schmidt.
It also helped, Schmidt said, that these two ladies had a natural affinity for finishing each other’s sentences. It certainly helped make the rhythm and pacing of the spot fall into place. And it made Ellen and Edith seem just a bit more charming, which never hurts.
The spot was shot in a very classily-decorated brownstone in Manhattan. And though the shoot lasted longer than expected, Schmidt said the energy level of his two leading ladies never waned. “It was amazing,” said Schmidt.
It’s also amazing how something like a national commercial for a high-profile advertiser such as Walgreens can catapult two heretofore unknown real people into the very unreal world of showbiz.
Shortly after the spot’s debut, Walgreens got a call from the producers of the new “Rosie Show.” They wanted to book the two Walgreens troupers. Ain’t showbiz sweet?
Downtown Partner credits: Creative partners, Jim Schmidt and Joe Stuart; art directors, Grant Simpson and Amy Ditchman; executive producer, Will Meyers, producer, Stacy Miller.
Production company: Park Pictures, New York; director, Lisa Rubisch, executive producer, Justin Pollock; line producer: Nina Shiffman.
Postproduction: Beast; editor: Angelo Valencia; executive producer, Melissa Thornley, producer: Lauren Scheuer. Music by Peter Himmelman.
Contact Lewis Lazare at LewisL3@aol.com
