The Peloton ad actress has something to say. Monica Ruiz had no idea that the Peloton commercial she starred in would create such a stir (and such good memes). The actress appeared on the Today show Thursday morning to finally tell her side of the story, including how she ended up in another commercial for Ryan Reynolds’s Aviation Gin. “Last week, I started getting all these messages from friends and family and it was just like links and screenshots,†she told Hoda Kotb. “Everyone’s really upset.†So, her first instinct was to stay away from the critical responses and let it blow over. “It didn’t really blow over as quickly as I thought it would,†Ruiz laughed. The ad was quickly read into as a cry for help from the Peloton Wife because who would really, actually want an exercise bike for Christmas? That’s a gift you buy for yourself post-divorce, not pre! Ruiz thinks she knows what turned the commercial from a happy family moment to a disgruntled-housewife redemption arc: her eyebrows. “My eyebrows looked worried,†she laughed. “People are like, ‘You look scared!’ I’m telling you, it was my face. That was the problem.â€
The concerned eyebrows came in handy for Ryan Reynolds’s Aviation Gin commercial. The spinoff stars the Peloton wife and two of her friends at a bar during Christmas, in desperate need of gin. Reynolds, who was actually on the show for something else entirely, surprised Ruiz and explained why he opened up the Peloton Cinematic Universe. He and his creative partner saw the ad go viral and wanted to contribute however they could. “I said, ‘Can we just send her a year’s supply of gin? She doesn’t have to film herself.’ And that sort of evolved from there.†Stay tuned for when the Peloton and Aviation Gin ads inevitably cross over with that weird Brazilian Subway sandwich ad.