Ed Helms Shares His Nuts

Bon Appétit recently came out with their Southern Food issue and I’m pleased to be a part of it as I love barbecue and soul food. Alex Pollack assigned me to shoot Ed Helms, who grew up in Atlanta but now works out of Los Angeles. The picture was to accompany a Q & A that focused on his taste for boiled nuts, which are heavily salted peanuts, boiled until the shells get soft.

Ed was shooting The Office that day so we had him super early – our wrap time was 8:45 AM! The whole crew, and props, including a big green tractor, arrived promptly at 6 AM, we all worked hard and fast to be ready for the talent. His Call Time arrived and…nothing. A number of nervous calls from the publicist later and he arrived.

His time with us was brief but we had some mutual history (having both lived in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in the nineties), a mutual friend (in comic actor Brian Huskey – also from the south – North Carolina), and well, he’s truly a pro. Ed gave us precious little time but he hit his mark and delivered the goods in record time.

After photographing him in a tub of boiled peanuts (thank you Prop Stylists Mark Helf & Kim Pretti) he was off to his day job, and we were left with eight pounds of boiled nuts and not a southerner in sight to take them off of our hands.

Top Image: Ed Helms, as shot for Bon Appetit.

Bottom Image: We took advantage of the Green Screen (no, we didn't). iPhone snap by Ice Lee.