Prophets, Presidents--and the King of Beers

On Super Bowl Sunday, Charlton Heston became the fourth target of Johnny, a character who achieved cult figure status in Budweiser Light’s fabulously successful “I love you, man” advertising campaign. In the 30-second spot which is still being aired, the tuxedo-clad actor fends off the advances of the super-unctuous gate-crasher intent on “bogarting” his beer.

After years of playing presidents, generals, prophets and kings, Heston said it was a chance to show new colors. “I’ve portrayed Thomas Jefferson, Brigham Young, Cardinal Richelieu, Henry VIII . . . major stodge. A lighthearted ad like this provided some balance in that I allowed the audience to laugh at me,” he said.

When the actor was approached by beer manufacturer Anheuser Busch in November, he was guaranteed creative control.

“They originally had me telling some admiring fans, ‘ . . . So I told the director maybe I should direct the scene’--a hideous thing for an actor to say,” Heston recalls. “Laurence Oliver once told me, ‘It’s a mistake to tell stories in which you come out on top or you’ll seem to be boasting,’ so I changed it to, ‘Just be sure you stay in the chariot, Chuck--I’ll guarantee you win the dang race.’ That’s a comment Yak Canutt, the director of the ‘Ben-Hur’ chariot race sequence, actually made.”

The “I Love You, Man” commercials, in which actor Rob Fitzgerald plays a sad soul going to any lengths to get a Bud Light, boosted sales 12% in the year since the ads were introduced, according to Anheuser-Busch.

“Since the viewers already know the punch line, we knew we needed to take Johnny’s character someplace bigger . . . ,” said campaign creator David Merhar of DDB Needham Chicago, who came up with the line after an emotional chat with his dad. “Everything leading up to that line had to be the funny part. We decided to rely on the ‘Leslie Nielsen-”Airplane!” ’ syndrome in which a serious actor is placed in a comic situation. Heston, who did an over-the-top Moses voice in our Bud radio ads, has tremendous awareness of how he’s perceived and was open to parodying himself.”

Public image notwithstanding, Heston says he felt little conflict signing on. “If it were Moses holding a staff in one hand and a beer in another, that would be different,” he said. “But I’m an actor, for heaven’s sake. You have to compartmentalize. And, as long as the product is inoffensive, the stigma of doing TV ads decreases as the price escalates. They spent a bundle on this Super Bowl ad--well into the six figures. I don’t come cheap and neither do the networks.”

In July, Heston will appear as a poacher in Castle Rock’s “Alaska”--the story of a pilot who crash-lands in the wilderness and his children’s attempt to rescue him. At Christmas, he returns to “stodge,” playing the player king in “Hamlet,” which Kenneth Branagh directs for the same company.

“[Castle Rock President] Martin Shafer said that the greatest thing about producing a Shakespeare film is that they can get any actor they want and don’t have to pay them much,” the actor recalls. “We don’t get that many chances to dance with that old gentleman and when we do, we don’t pass it up. Robin Williams, Gerard Depardieu, Jack Lemmon . . . we all worked for 1,000 pounds a day. Poor Kenneth Branagh got even less.”