What it was like being a bushel of grass in Unhealthy Bunny’s Tremendous Bowl ‘area of desires’

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LISTEN | Full interview with grass man Andrew Athias: As It Occurs 6:36 What it was like being a bushel of grass in Unhealthy Bunny’s Tremendous Bowl ‘area of desires’

Should you squint actually onerous, you'll be able to see Andrew Athias performing throughout Unhealthy Bunny’s Tremendous Bowl halftime present.

The Philadelphia digital marketer was none apart from B93, certainly one of lots of of people dressed as bushels of grass who helped make up the sugarcane area setting of the Puerto Rican pop star’s epic efficiency on Sunday.

“The loopy factor is that typically the blades of grass get into your nostril and your mouth and your ears, so you've blades of grass which might be simply in orifices the place grass ought to by no means be,” Athias instructed As It Occurs host Nil Köksal.

“However apart from that, it is truly fairly comfy as a result of it is very well-padded.”

‘We could not inform anyone’ Requested how he stumbled on this function of a lifetime, Athias quipped: “Unhealthy Bunny truly referred to as my private cellphone in the midst of the night time and requested if I needed to be grass for the Tremendous Bowl,” earlier than rapidly clarifying, with a chuckle: “No, there was an open casting name.”

That casting name, he says, was extraordinarily imprecise. They needed individuals who had been between five-foot-seven and 6 ft tall, and the photographs and measurements to show it.

“That is actually all it was,” Athias stated. “I did not know that I used to be going to be grass till like, you realize, I flew on the market and went to the third rehearsal.”

<img loading="lazy" alt="Several tall bushels of grass, from which can be seen human faces peeking out at the top, and shoes at the bottom." srcset="https://i.cbc.ca/ais/60c81935-3b6b-42de-96a4-8744ed2e244a,1770757637169/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C0%2C6000%2C4000%29%3BResize%3D796 796w,https://i.cbc.ca/ais/60c81935-3b6b-42de-96a4-8744ed2e244a,1770757637169/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C0%2C6000%2C4000%29%3BResize%3D1083 1083w,https://i.cbc.ca/ais/60c81935-3b6b-42de-96a4-8744ed2e244a,1770757637169/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C0%2C6000%2C4000%29%3BResize%3D1280 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 762px) calc(100vw - 32px),730px" src="https://i.cbc.ca/ais/60c81935-3b6b-42de-96a4-8744ed2e244a,1770757637169/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C0%2C6000%2C4000%29%3B" style="aspect-ratio:1.5" data-cy="image-img"/> Performers dressed as sugarcane grass step on stage in the course of the halftime present. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Photographs) He came upon he made the minimize two weeks earlier than the Tremendous Bowl, and rehearsal started instantly.

“My downside was that the Tremendous Bowl is out in California," he stated, "and I’m on the east coast."

A snowstorm delayed his first try to fly out of Philadelphia, inflicting him to overlook his forest rehearsal. However as soon as it handed, he hopped on the primary seven-hour flight to Santa Clara and acquired straight to work.

<img loading="lazy" alt="A man smiles while dressed as a large bushel of grass, sitting on a white folding chair next to others in the same costume" srcset="https://i.cbc.ca/ais/7257d82d-5181-4608-906f-19a3e23fc927,1770757882488/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C132%2C960%2C989%29%3BResize%3D796 796w,https://i.cbc.ca/ais/7257d82d-5181-4608-906f-19a3e23fc927,1770757882488/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C132%2C960%2C989%29%3BResize%3D1083 1083w,https://i.cbc.ca/ais/7257d82d-5181-4608-906f-19a3e23fc927,1770757882488/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C132%2C960%2C989%29%3BResize%3D1280 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 762px) calc(100vw - 32px),730px" src="https://i.cbc.ca/ais/7257d82d-5181-4608-906f-19a3e23fc927,1770757882488/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C132%2C960%2C989%29%3B" style="aspect-ratio:0.9706774519716885" data-cy="image-img"/> Andrew Athias was certainly one of lots of of individuals dressed as grass at Unhealthy Bunny's Tremendous Bowl 2026 halftime present (Submitted by Andrew Athias) The very first thing he needed to do, he stated, was signal a non-disclosure settlement.

“We could not inform anyone that we had been doing Unhealthy Bunny’s halftime present,” he stated. “My household and pals had been like, ‘What are you doing on the market?’ I used to be like, ‘The Tremendous Bowl.’ They usually're like, ‘You have got tickets?’ I used to be, like, ‘No, however I am right here for the Tremendous Bowl and that is all I can say.’”

A part of one thing larger Unhealthy Bunny wasn't round in the course of the early rehearsals, Athias says. He was busy with different issues, like accepting the Grammy for Album of the 12 months, the primary one ever awarded to a wholly Spanish-language file.

“There was a stand-in for him,” Athias stated. “So as a substitute of calling him Unhealthy Bunny, we referred to as this man Good Rabbit.”

LISTEN | Unhealthy Bunny writer reacts to Grammy win: As It Occurs 7:21 'Unhealthy Bunny is a determine of resistance,' says Chicano and Latino research professor

At the same time as they had been rehearsing, he stated, there was a whole lot of secrecy.

His placement on the sector was subsequent to the pink home often called La Casita, from which stars Pedro Pascal, Woman Gaga, Ricky Martin, Jessica Alba, Cardi B, Karol G and Younger Miko emerged.

“Which, by the way in which, I didn't know that each one these celebrities had been going to be there till I waddled previous them on sport day,” Athias stated.

<img loading="lazy" alt="People dance and sing on and next to a pale pink white house on a football field" srcset="https://i.cbc.ca/ais/7436c182-b6e4-49c2-9fee-3b0fb4b83883,1770758011232/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C0%2C4000%2C2668%29%3BResize%3D796 796w,https://i.cbc.ca/ais/7436c182-b6e4-49c2-9fee-3b0fb4b83883,1770758011232/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C0%2C4000%2C2668%29%3BResize%3D1083 1083w,https://i.cbc.ca/ais/7436c182-b6e4-49c2-9fee-3b0fb4b83883,1770758011232/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C0%2C4000%2C2668%29%3BResize%3D1280 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 762px) calc(100vw - 32px),730px" src="https://i.cbc.ca/ais/7436c182-b6e4-49c2-9fee-3b0fb4b83883,1770758011232/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C0%2C4000%2C2668%29%3B" style="aspect-ratio:1.4992503748125936" data-cy="image-img"/> Celebrities emerged from a pink home throughout Unhealthy Bunny's Tremendous Bowl halftime present. (Neilson Barnard/Getty Photographs) Ultimately, Athias stated he made California minimal wage for his a number of 12-hour rehearsals, and the massive day itself, totalling roughly $1,000 US. It was not fairly sufficient to cowl the price of his lodge and flight.

Nonetheless, Athias says he would have carried out it at no cost.

To begin with, he’s actually having fun with his quarter-hour of fame.

“I lastly really feel I do know what the left shark felt like when he was in Katy Perry's halftime present,” he stated.

What’s extra, regardless of the chaos, onerous work and secrecy, he says he is glad to have been a part of such a stupendous second.

“What the artistic director was telling us virtually proper earlier than we went onto the sector on sport day was that we're representing a area of desires, and that Unhealthy Bunny's dream was to not solely simply be the celebrity that he's, however put Puerto Rico in entrance of billions of individuals,” he stated.

“As a result of 10 years in the past he was simply Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, you realize, bagging groceries and now he is a celebrity and the face of Puerto Rico, and sharing that with the world.”