University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Durant Makes Acting Debut
June 27, 2004 | Football
June 27, 2004
by Adam Lucas, Tar Heel Monthly
Carolina offensive coordinator Gary Tranquill always scripts his first 15 plays of every game, so Tar Heel quarterback Darian Durant is used to following a script.
It came as no surprise, then, that when Durant made his acting debut Thursday night at Kenan Stadium, he turned in a flawless performance. The rising senior was drafted as the co-star of Carolina's first football ticket television commercial of the year.
Usually, those types of commercials are fairly standard productions: a few game highlights, some catchy music, maybe the fight song, and a telephone number on the screen at the end. This year, though, the UNC marketing team went in a more innovative direction.
"We wanted to break away from the norm," marketing director Michael Beale said. "You can see that the hot commercials on TV right now use a little bit of humor, and we wanted to tap into that."
The commercial shoot took place in the Kenan training room, directly across from the locker room, where earlier in the evening Durant, Mike Mason, Jason Brown, Chase Page, and Ronnie McGill -- clad in the new 2004 uniforms that include some subtle changes from the 2003 version -- had participated in a photo shoot for the annual team poster, which will be available at Meet the Heels Day in August. Not surprisingly, his teammates were eager to walk across the hall and critique Durant's acting abilities.
Page was immediately drafted to serve as an extra in the commercial, a role he quickly relinquished to McGill. That left Page, Brown, and Mason free to gleefully take photos of Durant with their handy cell phone/camera combinations, shots that are certain to come back to haunt the quarterback at some point in the coming months. His costume choices and the script remain a tightly guarded secret for now, but viewers can catch the commercial beginning July 12 on Time Warner Cable. TarHeelBlue.com will also post the spot online later this summer.
Durant was joined for the 30-second commercial by a special guest star who will be very familiar to Tar Heel fans.
"We want someone to see the commercial and maybe do a doubletake," Beale says. "We want them to say, 'Was that...?'"
oth Durant and his guest star hit every line on the first take, and although there were a few flubs -- delighting his teammates, who were a tougher audience than a stadium full of Philly fans -- it took less than a half-hour to get every angle and every line perfectly. The quarterback even threw in a few ad libs, perhaps preparing for a future endorsement career.
In the end, though, it was McGill with the acting aspirations. After completing his role -- which required no lines and a bare minimum of acting talent -- he was already planning for stardom.
"I'm starting out as an extra," the rising sophomore tailback said with his trademark wide grin. "And I'm working my way up to the Denzel level."
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly and can be reached at alucas@tarheelmonthly.com. To subscribe to Tar Heel Monthly, click here.
