Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/10/20/scared-actor-pretends-he-likes-riding-on-rollercoasters-to-shoot-an-ad.html
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And that man was me.
Okay, not literally. But clearly he feels about roller coasters the way I do. Which is, as little as possible and with abject terror once shamed into boarding one for any reason. I am just terrified, unless I’m in one with the cage that comes down over your shoulders and I’m in the middle of a row.
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Ahhhh I felt his feels so hard. I know those faces he’s making so well. I love rollercoasters but am also terrified of them. I have to force myself to ride them, but am always glad I did.
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Same. Although I pretty much can’t get on the open car ones like this video has. But yeah, I do try to push back against my fear of heights and coasters once in a while. Always good to face your fears, even if you wind up at the end going “still scared, never doing that again.”
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This clip with the excellent use of music and slowing down for his reactions was a literal emotional roller coaster.
All credit to the actor for (mostly) keeping it together.
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I’ve worked on some commercial shoots where they cast people who apparently had no idea what they were getting into. Often entertaining, but sometimes very frustrating for the crew. One shoot with a “family” of extras who had no idea whatsoever how to paddle a canoe, or even convincingly pretend that they were paddling a canoe come to mind. But the casting agents usually just base their decisions on the head shot photos and call it a day.
The roller coaster guy has my respect because he clearly knew what was coming and did his level best to hold himself together. But I love this news clip from a few years ago because the reporter clearly didn’t have any idea what this ride experience was going to be like, even though some basic research would have let him know what was coming.
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I’m not sure, but at 1:05, it looks like he actually fainted, and then woke back up ten seconds later.
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His facial expressions are priceless, what a rollercoaster of emotion!
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Hmm I suspect it may be less of that and more of “gotta take whatever gig I can to pay the bills.”
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The real commercial missed its chance - it could have easily switched the footage and used the Esurance process as the thing you wish you could do “again and again”, and then used the real rollercoaster fear footage as what you wish you could “only do once”. “Esurance - a better experience than so many other things in life.”
That would have been really fun.
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Implied!
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Now that would have been savvy advertising. I came to say that I bet this guy would rather buy insurance 20 times a day than go back on that torture device. 
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There’s a great Youtube channel that probably won’t help with this fear as he covers various disasters including fatal roller coaster failures. But I’m with you in terms of being shamed into going on coasters – particularly embarrassing was in the era when my niece was about 12 and wanted to go on all the coasters at a park with me.
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Here’s a video of the ad’s first take
First take. Poor guy. I wonder how many it took.
“We’re going to keep doing this until you look like you enjoy it!”
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Imagine getting paid to go on a roller coaster over and over again. It would be a dream job for some people, including myself
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Kids always make it harder. I wanted SOOOO much to take my sons on all the rides. I did convince myself to go on the Wild Mouse at Hershey Park one time. It looked innocuous enough. Long climb up, then a back and forth contained coaster ride down with some tight curves and a few little bumps.
Never did it a second time. More scared then I’d been my whole life. You spend the whole ride blasting full speed at these 90 degree corners, seemingly turning only at the last instance, whipping you left and right in the car with only a lap restraint holding you in. I was freaked the f*** out the whole time.
Got a great pic of me at the bottom on the camera, though. Sheer terror, one arm tossed across my son to “hold him in” (he was in no danger of course) while he was laughing like a happy madman. I should have bought it, but I had to go change my pants.
EDIT: here’s a video of it. And uh… it felt a lot faster and scarier at the time than this looks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNzDq-dlzts&feature=emb_logo
And some of us refer to those types of dreams as “nightmares.” No, seriously, I’m always happy to meet folks who love them, it’s delightful watching their faces light up. I understand the joy, and love other, less… vertically challenging, shall we say?.. rides.
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Yeah, I love rollercoasters but rode the WIld Mouse once & never again.
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His face reflects what’s went on inside of me when I’ve ridden a rollercoaster.
There’s no experience quite like trying to fake a smile at the same time you expect imminent death.
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They have? So much for me clicking on the parts of the video that show abject fear or dissociative episodes or disorientation (NO EXIT etc.) as a CAPTCHA.
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Looks like an epic coaster. Any ideas where it’s located? Doesn’t appear to be Cedar Point. Maybe a Six Flags somewhere?
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