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He buckled down and took Hollywood
BY STORM
BY THOR JOURGENSEN
Director Bryan Buckley with Haruan, Ali, and
Mino Jarjoura. Haruan and Ali were in Buckley's
2013 Oscar-nominated short film, "Asad."
February's
first week was a
busy one for Bryan Buckley.
The award-winning filmmaker
who lived in Swampscott as a teenager
and whose parents and stepfather live in
town, saw his latest Super Bowl advertisement
debut Feb. 2 and donned a tuxedo for the Oscars.
Bryan Buckley with his wife, Kiana Madani.
For Buckley, a busy life is business as usual. The New
York Times described the director as the "king of the Super
Bowl" with director titles, awards and business success to his name.
The father of two lives in Los Angeles and gets back East whenever he
can to see his father, artist Richard Buckley; mother, Joan Dion, and stepfather,
Ed Dion.
Born in Cambridge, he spent parts of his childhood in Sudbury, Massachusetts, Maine
and New Hampshire and lived in Swampscott from the eighth grade through high school. He
graduated from Swampscott High School in 1981 in a class that included state Rep. Lori Ehrlich.
Buckley's success is no surprise to his former classmate.
"Bryan has creativity in his genes. His father, Dick Buckley, is an incredibly talented local artist
and he's always had a wicked sense of humor, so with that combination, I'm not surprised by his
success.
Ehrlich said Buckley's most recent Super Bowl ad, titled "Smaht Pahk," shows Buckley's
love for the Boston area and New England.
"Just hit the clickah, cah pahks itself," explains actor/director John Krasinski in the ad.
Highlighting self-parking technology featured in the 2020 Hyundai Sonata, the ad was
an Internet sensation before Super Bowl watchers viewed its television debut.
The ad was filmed in Boston's South End, and it is Boston through and through. The
three Massachusetts actors — Rachel Dratch (Lexington), Krasinski (Newton) and Chris
Evans (Sudbury) show no mercy in inflecting every shred of dialogue with "ahs" as Evans
and Dratch react to Krasinski's ability to park the Sonata in a tight space using remote
technology.
The ad gives a shout out to Swampscott and Saugus and other Massachusetts
communities.
Buckley shot the ad last November on a chilly, rainy day that he said perfectly
captured the hearty New England atmosphere he was after.
"It could have easily been shot on a lot in LA, but it wouldn't have had the
same vibe," he said.