Sunday was National Tight End Day. On National Tight End Day, a pair of sports-adjacent projects involving tight ends generated a lot of buzz.
One is the portrayal of former New England Patriots’ TE turned media figure Rob Gronkowski on FX series American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez, which has three episodes of its 10-episode run left to go. Another is the upcoming Lifetime Christmas movie Christmas In The Spotlight, inspired by the relationship between music superstar Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs’ TE Travis Kelce, which is set to debut on that channel on Nov. 23.
And the Kelce-esque character there is being played by Laith Wallschleger, currently winning plaudits for his portrayal of Gronkowski in the FX show.
From the outside, that seems amazing. But it turns out this is more in a day’s work than you’d expect for Wallschleger. As Gronkowski told Kay Adams when discussing Wallschleger’s portrayal of him, the two have known each other for about 14 years, and Wallschleger has often stunt-doubled for him, including in the FanDuel “Kick of Destiny” Super Bowl commercials.
And, as Wallschleger told TMZ this weekend, he’s also doubled for Kelce and countless other “big white guys in the NFL” in the past.
The key part of this starts around 3:30, where the TMZ interviewer talks about partying with Wallschleger and Gronkowski in Vegas in the past, and Wallschleger having to suddenly leave to go fill in for Kelce on a shoot. And Wallschleger then confirms that.
“I’ve had the opportunity to stunt double pretty much all of the big white guys in the NFL, Travis Kelce, Rob Gronkowski, Zach Ertz, JJ Watt, T.J. Watt. And this time, we were in the middle of a huge party weekend, probably at Hard Rock Hotel. And I got the call and was forced to leave a little bit earlier than I wanted to to drive off into the Las Vegas desert and record a promo, running routes in the Vegas desert in 110 degrees because, you know, Travis just couldn’t make it that day. So happy to step in and help out and lend a hand where I can.”
Wallschleger then confirms the interviewer’s recollection that before he left, he was in a full-body Red Power Ranger costume in the hotel pool.
“I think on a Monday afternoon at that, yeah. You know, sometimes you’re called to save the day, and you need to dress accordingly.”
That does sound like maybe just a typical Monday at Gronk Beach. But the Lifetime movie is going to be a little different than commercial doubling, or even playing Gronk on FX.
Christmas In The Spotlight focuses on pop star Bowyn, played by Jessica Lord, and how her life changes after meeting a pro football player backstage at one of her concerts. And Wallschleger said (around 5:28) shooting it was intense.
“A lot of hard work went into this one. For those of you who don’t necessarily have a lot of experience in the industry, for example, I was just working on a show here in New York called Poker Face, and typically in a day, you film about three pages of dialogue. I filmed, for my character, 80 pages of dialogue in 12 days when we made this movie. So it was kind of a race to get it done. But so many talented cast on the project, you guys are really in for a treat. And hopefully the Swifties will give their stamp of approval on this. So we’ll see. But it was awesome, such a great experience.”
Asked if that was in order to get the movie out while the Kelce-Swift relationship talk is still hot, Wallschleger didn’t exactly confirm or deny that, but did say he thinks the release timing is great.
“In this industry, you’ve just got to ride the momentum, and it is debuting at the most perfect time, November 23. Bring your moms. We’re going to see if my Travis is as good as my Gronk, I guess.”
If Wallschleger’s Kelce is indeed as good as his Gronk, there might be a lot more opportunities ahead given the crazy amounts of interest in the Chiefs, Kelce, and Swift. It’s worth noting that he isn’t in the separate Chiefs-authorized Hallmark movie Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story, which debuts on Nov. 30 and features a blossoming relationship between a Chiefs’ fan and the director of fan engagement. But who knows how many more of these there could be down the road?
And if not, there will surely be more opportunities to double for “big white guys in the NFL.”
[TMZ]
