A longtime Nintendo fanboy had his big break when he got to act in the Nintendo Switch’s trailer video. And his retelling of the shoot reveals some interesting facts about the production.
Last Saturday, Twitch streamer Nicky, who goes by “Dickhiskhan,” posted a video recounting the story behind his first acting gig: playing “European Splatoon team captain” in the Nintendo Switch trailer. He’s the red-haired guy who’s drawing up plans for his Splatoon team’s match and running into the stadium with an eager high-five:
Nicky, who is based in Vancouver, is not an actor. He heard about a casting call for a “commercial for gamers” through the girlfriend of his bandmate (his band is called MissingNo). Apparently, the ad solicited charismatic game-playing personalities. He and his bandmates thought it’d be a good opportunity to get the word out about their band.
When he arrived at the Vancouver audition, he was surprised to see several actors who had brought agents and head shots. He and his bandmate “did our best,” he said, “but we were sort of fuckin’ around.” He had no idea it was a Nintendo commercial.
At the second audition, he was asked about his gaming experience. Nicky said he just told the truth: That he’d been playing Nintendo consoles since he was four and has played every Mario and Zelda title. On his Twitch channel, Nicky speedruns Banjo-Kazooie, Mario Maker levels and other Nintendo titles with regularity and enthusiasm. He was thrilled when he got the part, but still didn’t know what the commercial was for.
What tipped Nicky off was something subtle. In his wardrobe trailer, he noticed jerseys that said “Gen 7.” When he connected the dots, he realized that the so-called “NX” would be Nintendo’s 7th console.
In the commercial, Nicky says he got to hold the controllers and touch the console. His phone was taken away and locked up for twelve hours, so nothing would leak. Understandably, he is not allowed to talk about “anything that isn’t blatantly obvious in the ad already,” he explained in his recent video. That being said, his retelling revealed some fun details about the trailer:
- Every piece of hardware or equipment had a code name, typically a person’s name
- Allegedly, nobody who acted in the commercial played any Switch games
- One of the Japanese Splatoon competitors had his hair bleached blonde for the shoot
- He said the controllers are “very comfortable”
- After a while practicing drawing Splatoon tactics on a chalkboard, Nicky got bored and started drawing dicks. He says that “There might be a scene in the ad where there’s dicks on the chalkboard and you can’t see them.” Kotaku could not locate the alleged dicks
- He said some Nintendo higher-ups were present in person
When reached for comment, Nicky declined to speak with Kotaku. In his Twitch video, he says he’ll buy the console and every game out for it on day one, regardless of the price, which he says he does not know. That being said, he did not get to keep a “Gen 7” jersey.