Ben Stiller revealed that Barack Obama turned down a small half on a preferred TV present. Throughout his March 3 “Jimmy Kimmel Stay” look, Stiller stated a voiceover function in “Severance” that finally went to Keanu Reeves was initially pitched to the previous POTUS. “I did not ask him in particular person. I knew somebody who knew his lawyer,” stated Stiller, who’s an govt producer and director of the Apple TV+ sequence. The “Zoolander” star despatched an e mail to Obama concerning the voiceover gig for the “Lumon is Listening” stop-motion-animation video featured within the Season 2 premiere. “Two days later, I get an e mail again from President Barack Obama saying, ‘Hey, Ben. Massive fan of the present … Do not assume I’ve time in my schedule to make this occur,'” Stiller recalled. Had he accepted the provide, Obama would have voiced the Lumon constructing.

That wasn’t the primary time the staff behind “Severance” thought-about Obama for a component. Main as much as the 2022 Emmys, Dan Erickson, a producer on the sequence, stated he hoped the two-time president could be in attendance. “If he’s [there] I will see if he desires a job on this present,” Erickson instructed The Hollywood Reporter in August 2022.

As soon as information of Stiller’s swing-and-a-miss made the rounds, “Severance” followers mentioned why Obama could not discover time to do a fast voiceover. “He prolly had the time however simply did not wanna set a precedent and have 1,000,000 individuals sending him stuff to do sooner or later,” one X, previously Twitter, person wrote. Others questioned why Stiller’s plan B did not contain one other POTUS. “Discover how he did not ask donald trump,” one other particular person tweeted. Trump really has an appearing profession that is pretty substantial, which exhibits the distinction between how he and Obama view the limelight.

Barack Obama received an Emmy for narrating the Netflix docuseries “Our Nice Nationwide Parks” — which might have made him good for the “Severance” voiceover function — however he doesn’t look like a fan of showing in entrance of the digicam. A fast look at his IMDb exhibits his reluctance to behave in tasks. Donald Trump, however, has gone to nice lengths to look on movie.

Actually, Trump’s “Residence Alone 2: Misplaced in New York” cameo took place on his insistence that he seem within the basic 1992 Christmas comedy. The movie’s director, Chris Columbus, spoke about how Trump pressured his approach into the film again when he was best-known as an actual property tycoon. Columbus and crew needed to movie in Trump Plaza, however that got here with a caveat. In a December 2020 interview with Insider, Columbus recalled Trump telling him, “The one approach you should use the Plaza is that if I am within the film.” Initially, the plan was to movie the long run president however go away the scene on the chopping room flooring. That modified after a take a look at screening. “Individuals cheered when Trump confirmed up on-screen. So I stated to my editor, ‘Go away him within the film,'” Columbus recalled. “However he did bully his approach into the film,” the director added.

Maybe having fun with the response he obtained from the “Residence Alone 2” half, Trump continued to pursue high-profile cameos. He made a quick look on Season 2 of “Intercourse and the Metropolis” in 1999 when he shot a look at Kim Cattrall’s Samantha after ending up a enterprise lunch. A few years later, Trump made a go at Elizabeth Hurley on a 2001 episode of “The Job.”