Celebrity interview—Wally Ben: On smiling, modeling, and iPhones.

Sherman Hospital ICE App model Wally Ottenhoff is winning an army of fans as smiley-baby John Appleseed’s son in ads plastered around the area, but his mom is none too pleased. Wally, 18 months, broke into a wide grin and said of his mother Mollie: She calls and tells me to stop letting it go to my head, stop hanging around the hospital offering to sign autographs. She says to come on home and eat my PBJ already.

Fresh-faced Wally stepped into the advertising modeling scene as the smiley baby of the man, John Appleseed, who downloaded the Sherman ICE App so he’d have his emergency contact information displayed on his phone in case of an emergency. Wally plays the baby whose picture was so sweet, his dad John just had to use it as iPhone wallpaper.

In an exclusive interview with MeetTheOtts.com, Wally talked about his life and being Sherman’s happy baby symbol.

Smiling
He said: That’s a tough role to play on days when you have teeth coming in or your nap was too short. Luckily on the day of the shoot, I found Buttercup, my dog, chasing her tail. I laughed, the photo was taken, no big deal.

So will we be seeing a lot more smiling? If that’s what the viewers want, Wally said with a laugh. I’m up for anything.

After a small role in a political ad spoof during the 2010 campaign season, Wally was in a silly baby cleans spot on YouTube. There, he became good friends with Elmo (who also auditioned for the role), who he says is a great guy who is really in love with his fish, Dorothy, but who has an obvious problem with pronouns.

Now he is really enjoying this biggest modeling appearance since signing on with Demi and Cooper Advertising as a baby model in January. Plus, I have a lot of respect for iPhones, Wally said. I like to pick them up to my ear and say, “hi.” Over and over. It’s really fun.

And while not giving anything away, he is continuing to look for gigs where he can smile, since smiling is his favorite.

So download the Sherman ICE App today (which his dad designed, and which displays your important emergency contact information on your phone in case of an emergency). Wally said: I take how many downloads there are as a direct correlation to my cuteness.

And if you don’t have a iPhone or Android, at least enjoy Wally Appleseed’s smiling face on banners and table tents around the hospital, newspaper post-its and ads.