Actor Chris Waters is finding himself in the middle of a couple controversial projects lately.

In an ironically accurate commercial, Waters stars in a spot for Beats by Dre opposite the polarizing NFL player Richard Sherman. The ad positions the Seattle Seahawks star as himself getting grilled by reporters, including Waters, in the locker room. Of course, no one knew the commercial, which premiered the same day as Sherman’s real-life outburst, would be so timely.

Waters explains, “This all happened so quickly. The spot came out and I was obviously excited about it. Then Sherman makes the...