Much like the iconic Flo from Progressive, Paul Marcarelli saw his net worth soar thanks to his Verizon campaigns. “[I] could pay my bills, and had the freedom to pursue other creative endeavors like writing and producing independent films,” he told Time in 2015.
In 2011, around the time he stopped working for Verizon, Marcarelli wrote and produced his first feature film, “The Green.” The semi-autobiographical film was about Michael (played by Jason Butler Harner), a gay man who moves from New York City back home to Connecticut. Marcarelli used his extensive commercial work to pull the independent project together on a budget under $1 million. “I’ve spent hundreds of days on commercial sets in the last ten years. If I didn’t learn something along the way, I wasn’t paying very close attention,” he told Interview in October 2011.
A couple of years later, Marcarelli wrote and produced another feature film, “Clutter,” released in 2013. The film was made by the former Verizon guy’s Table Ten Films production company and starred Carol Kane and Natasha Lyonne. Marcarelli enjoyed being able to work with veteran actors. “They’re more seasoned human beings,” he told the CT Post in 2014. Similar to his first feature film, Marcarelli was inspired by a real-life experience when he wrote the script about an elderly woman who was a hoarder. Both movies were filmed in Connecticut, which is where Marcarelli spent the next chapter of his life.
