Man Pretends To Be Dead For 321 Days And Gets Acting Role On CSI

TikTok has been a stepping stone for several budding actors to work in the industry. And with enough dedication, they might just bag their dream role. This is the story of a man who used TikTok to film himself pretending to be dead for 321 days straight. And what did it result in?

The man got an offer to play a dead body on CSI: Vegas. Needless to say, the world doesn’t just need dedication and hard work anymore. One also has to learn the subtle art of playing dead- something that could morph into a TV show. Sure, the TikToker will not be playing any of the detectives. However, for someone with no formal training or background in acting, this is still a huge deal. 

The TikToker, @living_dead_josh, pretended to be dead on film for 321 days. After this, he finally got his wish as the TV show took notice of him. The show’s runners got in touch with him and offered him the chance to play a dead body in an episode that will go on air in a few days. In an interview with Courier Journal, the individual stated that he had absolutely no experience in acting.

However, he had learned how to play dead on camera. And, it goes without saying, he also had the practice.

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Man Playing Dead On TikTok Lands Role In CSI: Vegas

“I don’t like speaking on camera, but I can lie there and act like I am dead pretty easily. Having done more than 300 of these posts, I have progressed and gotten better. At first, you could see me breathing, or the fake blood looked really bad. I have gotten rid of using the blood and gotten better at holding my breath.” Josh also smartly noticed that the devil was in the details. So it would be better for him to not shoot a still image of him lying dead. Rather, he figured to film a video that had him lying still, but the rest of his surroundings were mobile and active.

The idea to play a role in CSI came to this TikToker after he found out that a woman who had been posting about hot sauce on the social media platform was getting a bunch of offers from other retailers to promote their stuff. This had him wondering if he could pull it off as well- with the dream job being a corpse on TV. The CSI shoot also wasn’t smooth sailing for him, as a mishap took place during a take. Rather than shutting his phone off- as people usually do during a shoot- his phone was on and a telemarketer chose that moment to call him for one of their products.

@living_dead_josh Tune in to the Season 2 premiere September 29th @csicbs #csivegas #cbs #dreamcometrue #goals #fyp #foryoupage ♬ Who Are You – The Who

Nevertheless, he managed to nail the other takes- which was the culmination of hours and hours of practice. It should be mentioned that a role in CSI as a corpse has somewhat catapulted him to stardom in the “playing a corpse” community. Although he has no plans of leaving his day job as a restaurant manager, he has been offered to play corpses in several other TV productions. He has also not stopped being dead on TikTok for his fans. So we never know- never say never. 

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