Super Bowl Ad Reveal: Rob Gronkowski and Jeffrey Tambor Are the Odd Couple
This story originally appeared on People.com
Picking up, please!
In a new Super Bowl commercial for Tide, Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski portrays the owner of a dry cleaners aptly named ‘Gronk’s Cleaners.’ His only customer? None other than Transparent actor Jeffrey Tambor!
The unlikely odd couple has an awkwardly hilarious exchange when Tambor brings in a jelly-stained shirt and Gronkowski continually calls him the wrong name. Their quirky on-screen relationship (described by Gronkowski, 27, as an “old married couple”) comes out to play in the bit.
[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwJVbaGZggI]
“We’re kind of an ‘odd couple,’ if you will,” Tambor, 72, tells PEOPLE. “Rob’s big personality and sense of humor was a nice counter to my more reserved personality and dry sense of humor. Hopefully other people find the dynamic that plays out on screen as entertaining as we do.”
The 6-foot-6, 265-lb. athlete and the actor became close off set, when Tambor accidentally walked in on Gronkowski during some self-reflection in the makeup trailer before the shoot.
“He caught me flexing… as a joke,” explains Gronkowski, whose favorite Tambor character is George Bluth, Sr. from Arrested Development. “I called him Jerry and the banter started rolling from that point!”
“He kept calling me Jerry or Jeff, anything but Jeffrey,” adds Tambor of filming the bit for America’s #1 detergent Tide, who is promoting their offer for a better Super Bowl Sunday solution. “We also talked about Tom Brady, I learned that he really is a nice guy!
The two became fast friends — but have promised to stay in touch only if Tambor starts rooting for Gronkowski’s Pats.
“We’ll stay in touch as long as he doesn’t go all soft on me moving forward… and if he cheers for the Patriots on Sunday,” says Gronkowski.
“I’m actually from San Francisco, so I’m a 49ers fan!” quips Tambor.
