January 7, 2025

Tyler Poelle

TYLER POELLE

Barney (the Patient)

Director’s Note: Tyler brought the perfect blend of sweet sincerity and fall-down funny (without being obvious about it). Halfway into his audition, we knew we had our Barney!

We were all so worried about whether Tyler would be OK having to wear the lip retractor for so long day after day. In the end, he told us the lip retractor wasn’t the problem, it was that blasted chair. It didn’t seem so bad at first, but by the end of the five days of shooting, that chair had taken a toll on his back and neck.

I apologized to him on the last day, saying I didn’t realize how physically gruelling this would be. Tyler’s response: “Neither did I.”

Fortunately, he’s still talking to me! Am I forgiven? I don’t know, you’d have to ask him.

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