A longtime YouTuber and comedian recently shared why his leap to the silver screen didn’t quite stick the landing.
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Dax Flame has been posting on YouTube for nearly two decades and boasts over 760,000 subscribers. He recently appeared on Smosh Alike with host Anthony Padilla, where the comedian, whose real name is the much tamer Theodore Patrello, admitted he was disappointed with how his acting career had turned out after appearing in high-profile films like Project X, 21 Jump Street (both released in 2012), and 22 Jump Street (2014) after his early internet fame.
“I acted in Project X,” he recalled. “That shot for about three or four weeks, like two weeks after high school, then the 21 Jump Street one shot, like, a year later, when I was 19. And that one probably shot for about three or four weeks in New Orleans.”
“Then I thought that since those were successful, I would get to keep going with things, but my opportunities just dried up, and I wasn’t able to act longer, but I definitely wanted to,” Flame admitted.
“That was very disappointing for a while, because those two movies came out March 2012, so that felt like, ‘Oh, cool. I’ll definitely have a career in movies.’ Yeah, because it was like, two hit movies in one month,” Flame explained.
Dax Flame Recalls Scooping Ice Cream Shortly After Major Film Roles
The comedian confessed that his stagnant acting career was made more disappointing by a few near misses.
“I got really close on a couple of movies, like We’re the Millers (2013). Oh, yeah, and Ryan Gosling’s directorial debut (2014’s Lost River). I think both of those, I was second place. I was the runner-up. Oh, if I had gotten We’re the Millers, then I would have kissed Jennifer Aniston and Emma Roberts,” he joked.
Flame’s early brush with stardom quickly transitioned to entry-level food service jobs.
“So then I was really disappointed. And then I had to, like, start working at an ice cream shop and stuff, yeah. And then that sucks. They started to cut my hours, and I worked at a sushi place,” he detailed.
Flame even recalled customers occasionally recogniozing him from his film roles.
“I remember one guy being like, ‘Oh, this is crazy. You, I was just watching you in a movie, and now you’re scooping me ice cream.’ And then he was like, saying that to his girlfriend, and she was like, ‘Why are you saying it?'”
While his film career never quite took off, the comedian is still going strong on YouTube. His interview show on the channel MAXIMUM DAMAGE, The Hot Seat, nets him hundreds of thousands of views per episode.