The resemblance between actor Chris Pratt and Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen has been talked about for several seasons.
The team ran with the comparison last week in its annual schedule video as effectively as Allen runs for touchdowns.
The three-minute video in which Allen emulated Pratt’s “Parks and Recreation” character Andy Dwyer by playing golf, fishing and gardening at the construction site of the new stadium has attracted thousands of views on YouTube and received rave reviews on social media.
They both have winning personalities.
Allen’s appealing personality is on display in local and national commercials.
Pratt has such a winning personality that he was originally billed as a guest star in the first season of “Parks” playing an unemployed slacker, but became a series regular as Dwyer became a popular character.
Like Allen, Dwyer is a movie fan. The character had an amazing ability to remember movie lines word for word.
Dwyer also is a huge football fan. He was such a fan of the Indianapolis Colts that he wore the jersey of receiver Reggie Wayne at his wedding.
And now both Allen and Pratt have lived in tents in the pits of construction sites.
Pratt’s awkward character famously lived in a tent in a pit near his girlfriend in the first season of “Parks and Recreation.”
Allen lived in a tent in the Orchard Park construction pit for a few hours in the schedule video having awkward discussions with workers on the construction team.
In one humorous moment that illustrated the quarterback’s acting chops, Allen asked workers if they had watched a sporting event the night before.
After one said he had, Allen deadpanned: “I didn’t.”
In an interview, Jeff Matthews, vice president of media and content for the Bills, said the video was filmed in about two to three hours in early May. He explained the creation of the video was a team effort after a brainstorm meeting.
The team of about 20 behind the shooting of the annual schedule video included producer J.J. Territo, director of videography Kevin Carges, videographers James Acton and Josh Pohlman, editors James Wrobel and Alex Odachowski and photographer Bill Wippert.
“One of the things that really kind of stuck out this year was to do something with the construction site,” Matthews explained.
They presented two other concepts to Allen involving the construction site. In one concept, Allen was going to record podcast guests at the stadium site. In another concept, he was going to be undercover at the construction site, talking to the workers.
“But it’s a little bit difficult to have Josh Allen undercover for some obvious reasons,” said Matthews.
He added Allen has always been cooperative with the creative team and likes being part of the videos.
“He liked the one we did that was inspired by Andy from ‘Parks and Recreation’ the most,” said Matthews.
Allen is a big fan of pop culture, and used to review movies for the podcast, “Kyle Brandt’s Basement.”
However, Matthews said the resemblance between Allen and Pratt was only part of the reason for sending the quarterback into the pit.
“It was definitely in the conversation, but that’s not why we landed on it,” said Matthews. “The theme made sense more than Josh looking like Chris Pratt. It was a nice extra piece, a bonus, that he kind of looks like Chris. And he did a good job acting it out a little bit, too, kind of like Chris did.”
The video was scripted, but allowed for Allen to ad lib as he does on the football field.
The conversation with construction workers about watching a game allowed for some improvising.
“There were a couple lines for him to choose from how he wanted to … just kind of trying to fit in with the construction workers,” explained Matthews. “That was meant to feel a little awkward and that’s the one that worked best. Because Andy is so awkward. Josh played that role really well. He was awkward like that on purpose.”
Matthews didn’t know if Allen had to practice being like Andy, whose spirit is captured by many of his famously silly lines.
Dwyerisms include: “I take my shirt off because the bad feelings make me feel sweaty.”
“When they say 2% milk, I don’t know what the other 98% is.”
“Butter is my favorite food.”
Allen was as smooth as butter delivering his lines.
“I don’t know if Josh went back and watched any episodes to be better,” said Matthews. “I know that he was aware of the show and the character, and I think he knew how he wanted to play it like Andy would have been in the show.”
The video included cameos by Allen’s buddy on car commercials, Steve Tasker, and Bills tackle Spencer Brown (who was called by his locker room nickname “Spenny”). At the end of the video as Allen prepared to leave the site, Brown read the schedule to the quarterback.
Matthews isn’t aware of whether Allen has taken any acting lessons.
“That’s just his personality,” said Matthews. “He’s been in several of our TikToks … He’s got a great sense of humor. Without his cooperation on a lot of these videos, they don’t obviously turn out as well. He’s been great.”
It helped that Allen would seem to be somebody who would go onto a construction site and talk to the workers.
“You’re 100% correct,” said Matthews. “He’s definitely that kind of person. He is as he appears, whether it’s doing a press conference or in these types of videos or some of the work he’s done with Oishei and the hospitals. He’s not putting on a persona, he’s not fake. I mean, that’s just his personality how he is. He’s just a good person.”