Jerry Seinfeld has finally become a director, with the premiere of his feature debut, Unfrosted. This star-studded comedy, sponsored by Netflix, tells the fictional story of Pop-Tart’s creation of his toaster pastries. In a new interview with GQ magazine, Seinfeld reflected on his experience diving into filmmaking for the first time late in his career.
“It was all new to me. I thought I had done something great, but it was nothing like the way they worked,” Seinfeld said. “They are so serious! They have no idea that the movie business is over. They have no idea.”
When asked to elaborate on the more serious point, Seinfeld continued: “Movies don’t occupy the top of the social and cultural hierarchy as they have for most of our lives. When a movie was released, if it was good, we all went to see it. We all talked about it. We quoted some of our favorite lines and scenes. We’re walking through a fire hose of water and we’re just trying to see what’s going on. ”
So what will replace film? “Depression? Depression? I should say confusion. Disorientation has replaced the film business,” he replied. “Everyone I know in show business is asking themselves every day, ‘What’s going on? How do we do this? What should we do now?’
“I’ve worked enough that I have what I want to do, and it’s worth more than ever,” Seinfeld said of his career outside of the film industry, which has been more turbulent. I talked about this. “Stand-ups are like cabinetmakers, everyone needs someone who is good with wood. … There’s wood everywhere, but it’s not that easy to make a nice table. Having good technology and craftsmanship means you are not influenced by the whims of the industry.”
“Audiences are flocking to stand-up now because it’s something you can’t fake,” he added. “It’s like platform diving. You can say you’re a platform diver, but you can tell in two seconds if you’re a platform diver or not. That’s what people like about stand-up. They love it. You can trust it. Everything else is fake.”
Seinfeld recently appeared in the series finale of Larry David’s HBO series “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” The two co-created the iconic sitcom “Seinfeld,” reunited in the finale of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” and starred in the controversial “Seinfeld,” which landed the main characters in prison. It recreated the ending of “Seinfeld”. He admitted to GQ that he had been “a little” curious about the ending of “Seinfeld” for years, even though many people have criticized it over the years.
“I don’t believe in regret,” Seinfeld said. “It’s arrogant to think you could have done something different. It couldn’t have been done. That’s why you did what you did. But me and Jeff Schaefer and Larry stood around and said, ‘You know what? We were talking about the TV finales that I thought were great. I think ‘Mad Men’ was the best. There are a lot of people like Bob Newhart. ‘ “Mad Men” was the best series finale I’ve ever seen. I’m very satisfied. very interesting. And they said they sat and watched the final episode of “Seinfeld” trying to figure out what went wrong. And it was obviously about the final scene that left them in prison. ”
“Unfrosted” will be available on Netflix starting May 3rd. To read Seinfeld’s full interview, visit his website in GQ.
