Sean Whalen Spent Years Working at Costco When Acting Wasn’t Working Out. Then, Teaching Brought Him Back to His Craft (Exclusive)
- - Sean Whalen Spent Years Working at Costco When Acting Wasn’t Working Out. Then, Teaching Brought Him Back to His Craft (Exclusive)
Angela AndaloroDecember 30, 2025 at 1:38 AM
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Sean Whalen -
Sean Whalen was early in his career when he was cast in the first-ever "Got Milk?" commercial in 1993
Whalen enjoyed some great successes because of the ad, but it also made pursuing certain work challenging
Whalen tells PEOPLE about struggling through different stages of his acting career and finding his path
Sean Whalen has been on a journey throughout his acting career.
Whalen was doing commercial work in the early 1990s when he booked the original "Got Milk?" commercial, directed by Michael Bay. Speaking with PEOPLE about the experience, Whalen explained that while the ad was a hit, "It ended my commercial career, essentially."
"No one wanted the milk guy selling your lawnmower because you go, 'I don't want to think of milk and lawn mowing. I want to think of lawn mowing. That's it,' " Whalen explained to PEOPLE.
"So that was really hard for me to get work after that commercially. But the good news was a girl in my acting class who worked at Amblin said, 'Your life's going to change,' and I said, 'Why?' She goes, 'I work at Amblin and Steven Spielberg loves this commercial.' "
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The commercial led to Spielberg getting in contact with Bay and deciding to work together on Twister, which Whalen was cast in.
"That started my theatrical career because at the time, the buzz around town was, 'This is the hot new young actors out of LA and New York that Spielberg cast.' Because that's when he was using a lot of people, unknowns in his movies."
And though it was thrilling to be in the arena with bigger names, it also brought some insecurity.
"It was pretty intimidating because they all had ... obviously, Alan Ruck was in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. He was just in Speed. So it was intimidating, but then I proved I was worthy of being there."
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It led to a busy time in his career, with Whalen remembering "working steadily" until the film's release. When Twister also enjoyed huge success, he continued to book work.
"But I still had to fight to not be 'the milk guy,' so that became a personal goal," he explained, admitting, "There was a time where I couldn't get out from under it."
"It wasn't like any of the other campaigns that have recurring characters because these guys did dozens and dozens of commercials and personal appearances and branding and all this, and they made millions of dollars. I only did one and made less than $100,000 over the entire run of the campaign," he noted.
The commercial still continued to follow Whalen outside of his professional life.
"My ex-wife was a really private person and it was not easy to go out and have everybody yelling in your face," he says.
"On my 30th birthday, I was with my family and waiters brought milk to the table. Then they were all laughing in the corner. And I was like, 'Couldn't you just come over and say, "I enjoyed your work?" ' Because dropping the milk, it wasn't for me. It was for them," he recalled.
Whalen recalls really beginning to struggle professionally in 2001.
"After 9/11 and the corporations buying the studios, they said, 'No one gets their rate anymore. People only get scale, except for the leads,' " he said.
"We used to be craftsmen that got quotes. We'd build a quote. And when all the corporations bought the studios, they got rid of all of that and the only people who were making money were the stars. Everyone else became minimum, union wage."
As financial troubles mounted, "I went back and sold blenders. And I did demonstrations for blenders and cookware at Costco for eight years while I was working for Nickelodeon and Disney Channel, because they don't really pay that much. I couldn't make a living off that stuff."
Whalen found a new perspective on his career when he turned to teaching.
"I have friends who teach classes and they have me come in all the time to chat with people. I directed sketch comedy. I loved directing sketch comedy. It was so much fun. And now I just do privately one-on-one," he explained.
"It was after a pretty bad depression after my divorce. That's when I actually wrote my first movie, Crust came out of that depression, and also when I started to get into teaching because a friend said to me, 'You know more than you think.' "
Whalen had his doubts but his friends assured him, "You've been doing this for so long since the '90s that you're 25 years in. You know more than you think."
"And so when I started, it was crazy. He was right. I did know more than I thought. I did know how to communicate what was working, what wasn't working."
It's a part of his life he came to love. "It's the best to teach. It's the best to watch someone grow. And my students know who I am. That's when I started to think, 'Oh, I should start coaching,' and then I really got into teaching in 2015 and worked with Playhouse West for a while. It was great. And they appreciate that I'm honest because it's a collaboration between the student and me to get their best work."
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Today, teaching and directing fill his cup, as well as motivational speaking, which has offered Whalen a new way to share some of the gems he's learned along this journey.
Whalen now looks at his "Got Milk?" moment with different perspective, thanks to the way his life has unfolded in the two decades since.
"It got frustrating for a little bit because [at that point], I'm making no money. Everyone's yelling in my face. I can't get any more commercial work. It was hard. It was scary. It was like a scary curse. But the woman came up to me and she looked rather sickly and she said, 'I just want to let you know that I went through the hardest cancer fight for six months, but your face on the TV and that commercial made me smile and definitely had something to do with me pulling through because it made me laugh every time I saw it,' " he shared.
"And that's why you do it. That's literally why you do it... Whenever I get down or something, I go, 'Dude, your whole career is because you trusted yourself 100%.' And that's what I have to remind myself of, is you just got to trust yourself. I had to know that I just have to dig back into that well and go, 'You have to trust yourself because look what it's brought you when you did.' "
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Source: “AOL Entertainment”
