Wednesday Trivia Question

Who starred as painter Carl Nargle in the 2023 film PAINT?

Wait, you may be saying, I don’t remember this airing on PBS North Carolina. That’s good because it didn’t. I’m asking a question this week about PBS-tangential – about a film inspired by public broadcasting. I’ve always said PBS is so entrenched in American pop culture that it has influenced everything from songs to books to movies and TV. A lot of PBS material has been spoofed and much of it has been lovingly celebrated by homages in various forms.

The 2023 movie PAINT was released in April and didn’t do well at the box office, grossing less than $1 million. But listen to the premise from the Internet Movie Database: Carl Nargle, Vermont’s #1 public television painter, is convinced he has it all: a signature perm, custom van, and fans hanging on his every stroke – until a younger, better artist steals everything (and everyone) Carl loves. Sound familiar. Yes, the main character of PAINT is so obviously based on the late Bob Ross, the painter of happy little clouds best known from his public television series THE JOY OF PAINTING.

The feature film (which I admit I have not seen yet – but it’s on my list) features the lead actor as well as actors Stephen Root, Wendi McLendon-Covey and Michaela Watkins, among others. It currently has a 32% score on Rotten Tomatoes which isn’t great.

The lead, the man who plays Carl, is a well known actor who has appeared in movies and TV shows for 30 years. He’s been seen in Indie films and Hollywood blockbusters and everything in between. Interestingly enough, he has only one Academy Award nomination and that was for co-writing a 2001 movie.

So who is it? Who starred as Bob Ross-inspired painter Carl Nargle in the 2023 film PAINT?