Sports360AZ
By Jeff Metcalfe
While playing the female lead in “Romeo and Juliet” during middle school, Caitlin Duncan couldn’t imagine the meaning that Shakespeare’s famed question what’s in a name would take on in her life.
Or that the Arizona native’s acting experience, continuing at Phoenix North High School and later expanding to improv classes, would one day pay off with a national TV commercial.
Much would need to intervene along the way including the birth and evolution of Caitlin Clark into college basketball’s career scoring leader. And Duncan taking Kyle Clark’s last name when they married in 2011. Eventually their paths would intersect once Iowa’s Clark became famous at a time when she could capitalize while on college with name, image, & likeness deals.
Like with Xfinity, a major internet company who before the Super Bowl in February put out a commercial about the differences between San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey and Belvidere, Ill., restaurant manager Christian McCaffrey.
That spot went over well enough for Xfinity to essentially do it again with basketball star Clark and Scottsdale city planning specialist Clark in time for the NCAA Tournament.
“Not all Caitlin Clark’s are the same,” as AZ Caitlin proves in the 30-second spot with less-than-stellar dribbling, footwork and ball spinning skills.
“Shoot from here?” she asks incredulously while just inside the mid-court logo. “That’s kind of my thing,” says Iowa Caitlin, whose record-setting basket on Feb. 14 to surpass Kelsey Plum as NCAA women’s career scoring leader came from that range.
“Seeing the commercial and knowing many may be viewing it is a mixture of emotion,” Clark says. “It’s exciting but incredibly nerve-wracking. I hope everyone has a good sense of humor and can laugh at it. I know I can. For the most part, it’s had positive comments because the whole point is it’s supposed to be light-hearted.”
“I make fun of myself all the time. You have to. Life already is hard enough.”
The Caitlin Clark Xfinity commercial is great pic.twitter.com/EG98X4uYRG
— Yeah Mo! (@MotownInMotion_) March 30, 2024
Whirlwind selection to filming
Caitlin and Kyle had a standard Saturday of household duties planned March 9 when she checked her LinkedIn social media account and found a message assessing her interest in the commercial. There were some basic questions to answer and a request for a short audition tape.
“I thought the video was horrible,” says Clark, who first imagined something more elaborate than a selfie tape from her office. “Then I realized why not do exactly what they’re asking. The worst they can do is say no. I don’t want to regret not trying.”
Turns out, Clark learned later, that numerous other Caitlin Clarks also were contacted but didn’t follow through or weren’t chosen. Three days later, she was in Los Angeles shooting her scenes to be paired with those shot in Iowa.
The commercial first aired March 23 and is still showing with Iowa’s Clark going into the WNBA draft Monday as a lock to be the No. 1 overall pick by the Indiana Fever.
Scottsdale’s Clark says the commercial has elevated her understanding of this historical moment for women’s sports, with record TV ratings (18.9-million average for the South Carolina-Iowa NCAA championship). That’s the most for any basketball game regardless of gender or level since 2019.
“In many ways I felt like this dropped in my lap so part of me feels this was too easy,” Clark said. “Not that I didn’t work to go from that point A to point B to further on. I really had to see when I was agreeing to this, what good can come from this even though I’m such a small portion of the commercial. But it’s a bigger conversation. And it’s not just Caitin Clark in many ways, it’s what she’s symbolizing. All the women that have come before her and a those who will come after her.”
Right amount of acting experience
Samuli Haavisto directed the McCaffrey-McCaffrey commercial, giving him what he calls a “proof of concept” calling card in the cold-call search for a second Caitlin Clark.
There were 25-30 candidates in all, he says, for criteria including proximity to LA for shooting simplicity and enough physical resemblance to pass for a shorter cousin of Iowa’s 6-foot Clark.
“She seemed very sweet and pleasant,” Haavisto said of 5-2 Clark’s audition tape. “She had the perfect amount of (acting) experience but not too much. She wasn’t a capital A actor.”
“I did mention that so I wonder if that was a deciding factor for them or helped them make their decision,” Clark said. “I wanted them to know if I were presented with the opportunity, I would be able to deliver lines and take direction and I’m OK with having the lights on me. At least I had a tiny bit of confidence in doing something out of my comfort zone in front of people.”
Clark, 36, wasn’t certain she looked enough like her 22-year-old counterpart. She played some basketball and soccer into her 20s but admits to being “really that bad” at hoops.
“Any time the director would say try your absolute best, I would say I am. Then when they’d stop rolling and I’m just playing around with ball, he’d say that was better. I was getting quite out of breath. I need to up my cardio.”
Caitlin Clark of Scottsdale on being in Xfinity commercial with basketball star Caitlin Clark pic.twitter.com/Xv9Y6TX7TU
— jeffmetcalfe (@jeffmetcalfe) April 15, 2024
Will there be another commercial?
Caitlin’s married name might not even be Clark if not for what she calls her “selective photographic memory.”
In 2010, while at a club on Mill Avenue in Tempe, she approached Kyle Clark, saying I think I know you from somewhere. “He thought I was hitting on him,” she says. “I’m not really the type to do that. I’m not that smooth.”
Turns out, Caitlin had seen Kyle on Sundays at 24 Hour Fitness and Trader Joe’s and recognized his face. She would learn about her future husband’s love for the Phoenix Suns and how now the softball engineer is happy to serve as “agent-in-training” for her.
“Once I got it, Kyle was jumping up and down with excitement, which I think reassured me this is really happening,” Clark said.
Clark has yet to meet Iowa’s Clark, but that could happen June 30 when Indiana comes to Phoenix to play the Mercury. The Clark’s already have tickets for that game, likely to be a sellout.
There also have been “whispers,” Haavisto says, of another Clark/Clark commercial, perhaps this time flipping the script with the basketball star attempting city planning. Or maybe given basketball Clark’s successful appearance last week on “Saturday Night Live,” a new commercial could center on the two women doing improv impersonation of the other.
“She killed it,” Clark says of Clark on SNL Weekend Update, poking fun at Michael Che for sexist jokes about women’s basketball.
Haavisto feels the same about Scottsdale’s Clark.
“We loved her job,” the director said. “It was evident that even if basketball wasn’t her thing, she specialized in something entirely different that Iowa’s Clark probably knew little about.”
