It’s safe to say Kieran Culkin‘s efforts were a job whale done! Personal finance company NerdWallet dropped a teaser for its unique new 2025 Super Bowl commercial on January 26, using a fun approach to highlight offerings that help users make smarter financial decisions. The 30-second spot features a man named Richard on a boat tour, seemingly the only person able to hear and communicate with a Beluga whale approaching the vessel. Though the voice of the sea-bound creature was initially kept under wraps, it’s been revealed that the Succession alum is the man behind it all.
Culkin, who is now an Oscar nominee thanks to his efforts in A Real Pain, shared exclusively with PEOPLE about his role selection process and what intrigued him about lending his voice to what he dubs a “genius” Beluga whale. “I really don’t know until I can actually see it, and even when I see it’s hard to see it. So when this comes, it’s like, ‘Do you want to be a Beluga whale?’ I’m like, ‘I don’t even know what that means. Show me,'” the actor, 42, recalls. “So they had to put it together and show me what that meant. I think I’m always a little bit apprehensive when it comes to any kind of job, if I’m on it, but I always like the idea if I’m going to do something like this and I’m trying to get better at voice acting because it’s tough.”
Culkin elaborates further on his pursuit of voice acting, stating, “I started pursuing it a few years ago thinking that I can apply my 30-plus years of acting into it, but I couldn’t. It’s like a completely different muscle that I don’t have, that I’m still working on.” He admits to being interested in voice acting but noted that straight narration or commercial roles haven’t been his strong suit. “So I’ve said, ‘If something like this comes up, let me know if there’s a character.’ This came to me with the idea of a character. So I was like, ‘Okay, well, let’s see.’
“I never expected to be a whale here, but here it is!” he adds, expressing his surprise at the unique opportunity. So, what makes Culkin’s portrayal of the Beluga whale so intriguing? “He’s a genius,” the Scott Pilgrim vs. the World actor remarks. “We got to play around in the booth, so we got to find out who the Beluga sort of was,” he explains. “I think he started off as kind of a jerk. That was what we were first finding. Then, it sort of turned into something else; he actually kind of wants to be helpful to this guy. He’s partially messing with him, but also trying to inform him and help him. I’m like, ‘Oh, this is fun,’ the way that this evolved in just a couple of sessions in a booth.”
Fans will likely enjoy the actor applying his signature humor to the part, and Culkin expressed that he was proud of how his efforts resonated with his wife, Jazz Charton. “I showed my wife it to see what she thought, and she actually laughed really hard,” he recalls. “I had to pause it, which I’m really happy about, because it was something I wasn’t sure that I could do that they put in the script,” he says, referencing the moment when the aquatic mammal tells the man he’s communicating with to “stop going, ‘Ah ah ah ah ah.'”
“But they said, ‘Do it kind of like a dolphin or whale,'” he explains. “So I gave it a shot and they used it. I go, ‘Ah ah ah.’ And that made my wife keel over. Whatever writer came up with that, that was pretty clever.”
The excitement around the Super Bowl is palpable as the game approaches, set to take place on Sunday, February 9, at 6:30 p.m. ET in New Orleans, airing on Fox. NerdWallet’s official 30-second ad spot will air during the third quarter of the Big Game, and the extended 60-second version can be viewed on NerdWallet’s YouTube channel. To learn more about NerdWallet’s services, you can visit their website.
The delightful combination of Kieran Culkin’s voice and the creative concept behind the Beluga whale commercial promises to captivate audiences during this year’s Super Bowl. With the ad’s quirky yet meaningful approach to personal finance, it presents an engaging way to connect with viewers while promoting smart financial decisions. As fans eagerly await the full ad, the fuse of humor and insight embodied by Culkin’s portrayal leaves much for audiences to look forward to.
