How ‘Neagley’ Got Jerry O’Connell to Sell Its Very Questionable Miracle Drug
What To Know
- Jerry O’Connell makes a comedic cameo as himself in Neagley.
- Showrunner Nicholas Wootton praised O’Connell’s performance and enthusiasm, describing his involvement as a dream come true for the production.
If you’re going to sell a questionable and somewhat dubious miracle drug to the masses, apparently, you need Jerry O’Connell to do it.
O’Connell makes a surprise cameo in Neagley Episode 5 “Trip” as the celebrity spokesman for Tranqlara, the experimental drug at the center of the season’s conspiracy. Rather than playing a character, O’Connell appears as himself in a hilariously cheesy pharmaceutical ad promoting the supposed benefits of the drug.
Tranqlara is a high-dose, pharmaceutical-grade psychedelic that pharma bro and garbage human being Pierce Woodrow (Matthew Del Negro) has spent four years developing and testing. It is designed to bring traumatic memories to the surface so patients can confront them with guides in a controlled environment. The problem? Pierce and his partners have secretly been using people at Echo Canyon Farm as human test subjects, with dangerous and sometimes deadly results.
O’Connell’s commercial presents a much sunnier picture. He describes Tranqlara as a clear, flavorless, and odorless liquid that can be added to a beverage. “Come and join us in the light,” he says.
The joke gets darker because the ad plays while Neagley (Maria Sten) is experiencing Tranqlara herself after killers secretly spike her cereal milk. As she begins hallucinating and reliving traumatic childhood memories, O’Connell pops up to explain how the drug is supposed to work.
So how did O’Connell end up becoming Neagley’s resident pharmaceutical pitchman? According to showrunner Nicholas Wootton, it really was that simple, and getting O’Connell was a dream come true.
“Amazing! Amazing! Amazing!” raved Wootton about working with O’Connell. “We just thought of it! ‘What if Jerry O’Connell was…’ Perfect! And we called him, and he said, ‘Absolutely! I’ll be there.'”
“I mean, [what a] firecracker of a human being! He came in and killed it,” raved Wootton. “He was so great. I have nothing but great things to say about Jerry O’Connell. He was so fun, totally got it, and was just like, flawless. We have a second career in making advertisements for pharmaceutical companies. But he was great.”
Neagley, Season 1, Streaming Now, Prime Video
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