Jim Gaffigan lost a role in an M. Night Shyamalan movie because the director saw him in a Sierra Mist ad

Commercials can be key gigs for actors as they start their careers — but one fizzled Jim Gaffigan's role in a major movie.

The comedian has opened up about the time a Sierra Mist commercial cost him a part in M. Night Shyamalan's 2006 film Lady in the Water.

"It came down to me and another guy and the other guy got it," Gaffigan told Variety. "But a week later I got a call that 'he wants to reshoot the scene and do it with you.' It was just one day, but I was like, 'Great, I'm going to be in an M. Night Shyamalan movie!'"

Rich Polk/Getty Images; Dave J Hogan/Getty Images Jim Gaffigan; M. Night Shyamalan

But things took a turn. "So the story goes, [Shyamalan] took his kids to a movie and he saw a commercial I was in before the previews," Gaffigan recalled. "I think it was for Sierra Mist. And he said, 'Well, I can't have that same guy be in a commercial before my movie.' So they went back and swapped the other guy back in."

Losing that particular project may have been for the best, though: Lady in the Water, which starred Paul Giamatti as a stuttering superintendent and Bryce Dallas Howard as a swimming pool water nymph, was critically panned and barely made back its budget at the box office.

Meanwhile, Gaffigan appeared in several Sierra Mist ads in the mid-2000s, some of which featured his future Linoleum costar Michael Ian Black.

Gaffigan's comedy 10th special, Dark Pale, hits Amazon Prime Video on July 25. He's also set to appear in Jerry Seinfeld's Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story on Netflix later this year, and in the upcoming mystery-comedy Providence with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Lily James. Plus, he has a supporting role in Steven Soderbergh's Max series, Full Circle (which drops new episodes every Thursday), and recently played Smee in Peter Pan and Wendy on Disney+.

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