Why Steven Ogg revived Old Spice role after portraying troubled characters

The Old Spice Shopping Network is back, and Steven Ogg, who has played some troubled characters in his time, is happy with the relative simplicity of being an infomercial pitchman.

In the new work from Wieden+Kennedy, Ogg plays a somewhat less frenetic version of pitchman and “esteemed sweat analyst” Bob Giovanni, a role he originated six years ago for the Procter & Gamble Co. brand. The over-the-top spots include one in which Giovanni/Ogg offers Sweat Defense Dry Sprays to guard against the sweat that pours out in a high-intensity stream from a man’s armpits.

Playing Old Spice’s faux pitchman is easier than the sort of villainous, sometimes unhinged and complex roles Ogg has come to be known for, from his voiceover work on “Grand Theft Auto V” to TNT’s post-apocalyptic dystopian world of “Snowpiercer,” he said in an interview with Ad Age. Check out the interview below.

You have a pretty amazing body of work. How does representing Old Spice stack up?

To have the opportunity to revisit the Bob Giovanni character was a no-brainer when they asked because it was such a fun character that we had established. Back when we started I was probably portraying some darker characters. And so it's always nice to do different characters.

You do have a reputation for playing bad guys with a lot of depth. Is it a relief to be a good guy, or somebody who doesn’t need to be quite so complicated?

It's really cheesy, and I've said it before, but I love to act. I'm not a method actor. I don't take the work home. Lighter, funnier characters are generally I guess, easier on the head, because you're not spending so much time in the dark. But personally, I spend a lot of time in the dark. So it's like, you know, a second home to me. But then I also like to have fun.

Have you done other commercial work beside Old Spice?

One of my first commercial gigs was for Tennent’s Lager. And it was one of the best gigs of my life. We went to Prague. And of course we shot in a place that could have been a studio anywhere in the world, but I'm so glad we went to Prague, because I spent 10 days there and just had an absolute hoot.

And then I also did a car commercial where I had to wear a wig because they didn't realize I had shaved my head for something. We actually shut down part of the L.A. freeway. The last time they’d done that was for Charlton Heston in the Omega Man. So I was the second person to get the freeway lockdown.