Man who filmed himself ‘playing dead’ on TikTok every day for 321 days lands ‘CSI’ part
Never has an aspiring actor gone so far to knab a role. Josh Nalley—or @living_dead_josh as he’s known on TikTok—filmed himself ‘playing dead’ every day for 321 days and managed to secure a spot on everyone’s favourite criminal TV show, CSI: Vegas.
@living_dead_josh ♬ School Rooftop (Intro) [Slowed Down Version] - hisohkah
For almost a year, Nalley provided TikTok with some of the most random, unique—and, let’s be honest, slightly morbid—content it has ever seen, posting daily videos of him lifelessly lying in a new location. The creator made it his solo mission (and dying wish, supposedly) to be cast as an un-alive body on any movie or TV show he could get his hands on. Alas, after entertaining viewers for months on end, he finally got that all-important call offering him a slot on CSI: Vegas as—you guessed it—a dead guy.
@living_dead_josh Tune in to the Season 2 premiere September 29th @csicbs #csivegas #cbs #dreamcometrue #goals #fyp #foryoupage
♬ Who Are You - The Who
After having watched a handful of Nalley’s videos, it’s hard to deny his genuine talent at playing dead. He lies in a number of different positions (more often than not face down) next to his car, in the forest up against a tree, on the pavement—I mean, this man truly knows no creative bounds.
The CSI: Vegas TikTok account was as equally invested as the rest of us, commenting on a number of Nalley’s posts applauding the actor’s dedication to his role. In one video, posted on the day of his CSI debut, the TV show’s account commented: “This one is too real, Josh,” to which Nalley responded “Realism is what I aim for.”
@living_dead_josh ♬ Jaws Theme - Jaws
The Kentucky native told the Courier-Journal that despite having no previous acting experience, he mastered the skill of posing dead by simply practising. Without giving away too many of his secrets, Nalley explained: “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.”
And if anyone was curious about the actor’s top tips, he had this to share: “I originally got this idea after seeing a woman on TikTok posting about hot sauce and then she got offers from a bunch of hot sauce companies. I thought if I was creative enough playing an un-alive person, I could get the attention of a television show or a movie production company, and how about that, it worked.”
Now that Nalley has taken a stroll down the Hollywood Walk of Fame and made his Tinseltown debut, I’m sure there’s a number of other TV networks lining up to utilise this charismatic corpse.
