Thomas Rhett Reveals The Most Surprising Thing About Making A Fritos Commercial - Exclusive
Tonight in Las Vegas, the Academy of Country Music's reigning Male Artist of the Year Thomas Rhett will find out if he's snagged the award yet again as the 2022 ACM Awards Show airs at 7 p.m. EST on Amazon Prime. While millions of eyes will be on Rhett as he learns his fate, millions of other viewers will be seeing the Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter undertake a very different adventure: Starring in the first Fritos national TV commercial in 20 years. From walking down the red carpet to strolling through the chips aisle of a grocery store,–you could say that Rhett is in new territory for sure!
So what was it like to star in a Fritos commercial? In an exclusive interview with Mashed, Rhett confessed that his previous endeavors as a performer did not quite prepare him for the rigor of producing the 30-second television spot. "I've done bits of, I guess you could call it, acting," Rhett said. "I thought, 'How hard could it be to say two lines and look at the camera?'" But that's where the country legend was wrong. As it turns out, all of those years writing, performing, and recording songs offered him absolutely no preparation for how to correctly hold snack foods when the cameras were rolling. "Understanding how to properly hold a bag of chips, or how to properly eat one, or how to properly scoop — I didn't know that there was that much that went into it," he said. "Not only was it a blast, but it was a really big learning process for me, too."
Rhett was most surprised by how much time it took to make the 30-second clip
Thomas Rhett's previous experience with TV commercials was only as a viewer–– and, like him, we all know that the typical commercial break allows us exactly enough time from start to finish to grab a snack (like his favorite Fritos Scoops) before the program comes back on TV. So, Rhett was shocked to discover how much work it was when he was on the other side of the screen. "We shot the commercial for two straight days, and two days turned into a 30-second clip. I was like, 'Wow, 20 hours of footage turns into a 30 second clip!'"
So why does it take so long to shoot a TV commercial? Rhett was happy to explain. "Now, looking back at it, you have to have all that stuff to be able to have options for the editors to be able to really hone in on what the great takes were and what the great pieces were," he told Mashed. "[I'm] mind-blown, honestly, at how much went into making a spot like this. I thank Fritos for trusting me with that because I think it turned out really cool."
Watch the 57th Academy of Country Music Awards tonight at 7 p.m. EST exclusively on Amazon Prime. You can see Thomas Rhett's Fritos commercial on YouTube.