‘The Studio’ Mispronounced Josh Duhamel’s Name, He Was Still Flattered

I get pretty lucky with my last name. Sanford is spelled how it sounds. Every so often, someone will add an extra D when spelling it, but it’s rarely pronounced that way (though it can happen). Some people in the entertainment industry have changed their names to avoid mispronunciation, often before they gain fame, with the newly monickered Rob Mac doing so far after he was established. Meanwhile, the Grand Poobah of this site, Dustin Rowles, has had to deal with his name being mispronounced often. Not by me, though! Never by me! Although I have frequently mispronounced Josh Duhamel.

To be frank, there were years I thought he and Timothy Olyphant were the same person. That’s not even a joke! Olyphant was on The Office, and they made a joke about how he looks like Josh Duhamel, and I thought the joke was that he was Josh Duhamel (sidenote to add to my embarrassment, they pronounce Duhamel’s name correctly in said episode and that never clicked to me either because I’m a dumb-dumb). Getting mistaken for another handsome actor isn’t the worst thing in the world, but having that happen on top of your name being said incorrectly has gotta sting. Regardless, Duhamel seems to take most of it in stride.

The actor recently appeared on Michael Rosenbaum’s Inside of You podcast, and, toward the end, Rosenbaum wanted to make sure he was pronouncing the actor’s name correctly. This led the Transformers star to reflect on an episode of The Studio. “There’s a whole episode with me being cast as the Kool-Aid Guy,” he recalled. “Yeah, somebody who was watching it told me about it. And I was like, ‘Yeah, it’s cool, I love Rogen and all those [guys]. But you’d think they would have called me and said like, ‘Hey, do you mind if we use your name and likeness for this?’”

That seems to be a gray area that The Studio operates in. They’ve gone to great lengths to get people to appear as themselves, but references likely don’t take precedence. That said, Duhamel thought they could have at least asked how to say it, noting, “Or at least, ‘How do you pronounce your name?’ Because they pronounced it wrong.” Rosenbaum then wonders if the show purposely mispronounced the actor’s name as a joke. “They might have. Maybe,” Duhamel mused, “I don’t care. I’m kind of flattered by it.”

I’m sure it gets annoying, but it’s nice to see that Duhamel takes everything in stride. Pronunciation is important, and I’ve never faulted anyone for being upset if their name isn’t said correctly. It can probably feel like a bit of a burden at a certain point. Being able to let it roll off your back (at least on a podcast) feels like a healthy way to live. Not like Dustin, who still won’t let Mike cover Batman 2 anymore until he, “says it correctly with his whole motherf***ing chest,” (allegedly) even though Mike only writes for the site. How can you allege someone is mispronouncing your name when they’re just spelling it, Dustin?!