David Harbour has demonstrated a mastery of social media in connecting with fans — and, at one point, even penguins.
It all started with a 2018 tweet, which featured Harbour jokingly asking Greenpeace how many retweets it would take to send him to dance with emperor penguins in Antarctica. Greenpeace responded with a tweet, telling Harbour if he could muster 200,000 retweets, he could join an upcoming mission. But, as Vanity Fair reported, Harbour’s legions of fans ensured he received those retweets. As a result, he embarked on an epic 16-day excursion to the Antarctic aboard a Greenpeace vessel that, he joked, led to multiple bouts of seasickness. During the trip, Harbour encountered whales, aggressive seals, and, as planned initially, penguins.
In addition to giving him a deeper connection to the natural world and providing some significant perspective on his infinitesimal place within that world, the whole experience also taught Harbour an essential lesson about himself. “I am not a bad*** explorer dude,” he told Vanity Fair. “I am a dude who is meant to be on a couch in New York City thumbing through magazines.”
