Who is Isaiah Mustafa? Since prompting people across America to pay attention when a commercial for Old Spice comes on, he’s become an overnight sensation. Things you didn’t know you wanted to know, after the jump.
As the new face of Old Spice, going to the website allows us more access to Isaiah goodness.
2. The whole ad started as a joke.
The LA Times‘ Ministry of Gossip blog is just as obsessed with the commercial as we are, so the writers tracked down Mustafa for an interview. The magically cheesy delivery was Mustafa’s own creation:
The Old Spice body wash audition was like any other except …
… the night before, he called a college buddy, quarterback Jake Plummer, most recently of the NFL’s Denver Broncos, to shoot the breeze. Jake wasn’t home, but Jake’s answering machine was — so Isaiah, schooled in improvisation, did an over-the-top mini performance of the script he had in hand. […]
“I just did it for him, and I did it extra big, and then when I hung up, I thought, ‘Maybe I should try it that way and see if they like it.’ “
They did. (They aren’t alone.) It then took three days of shooting, many dozens of takes and an astonishingly tiny amount of digital special effects to capture a spot that takes Mustafa from a shower to a boat to a horse on the beach in one flowing shot. Yes, the horse is real.
3. This commercial may have been his big break.
Mustafa has held a variety of small roles on various shows. He’s been a bailiff on Ugly Betty, a cop on Days of Our Lives, and, uh…Moses. His next small role is on the ABC series Castle, where he will portray “Team Leader.” However, if there was any justice in this world, he’d be on The Woman Show, bouncing on a trampoline.
4. Dating Mustafa comes with an unexpected bonus prize.
How he maintains that body is a mystery – especially considering his mother runs a popular spot called Just Barbecue in Ventura, California.
5. Sadly, he’s taken.
The LA Times breaks the bad news:
Ladies (and a select few of you gents): Isaiah does indeed have a girlfriend. She’s a dancer — “professional, not pole,” he is quick to note — whom he says is fantastic and funny.
And if that “he’s taken” thing isn’t made very clear? “She will kill me, she will be after me, high heels in hand,” he says in mock terror, adding a good-natured chuckle. “Let that be known, I have a girlfriend!”
6. Even worse, in order to see more, we have to buy Old Spice.
