NEW YORK â Jerry Seinfeld has been responsible for more movies than you think.
Yes, he co-wrote and lent his voice to 2007's âBee Movie." But before that, âSeinfeldâ â where going to the movies, with or without the aid of Moviefone, was nearly as regular a destination as the coffee shop â gave birth to dozens of (fake) films. âRochelle, Rochelle." âPrognosis Negative.â âSack Lunch."
But nearly three decades after Seinfeld was, in one episode, cajoled into bootlegging âDeath Blow," he has finally made his first film. Seinfeld directed, co-wrote and stars in âUnfrosted,â a star-studded comedy about the invention of the Pop-Tart premiering May 3 on Netflix.
The film, which co-stars Melissa McCarthy, Jim Gaffigan, Hugh Grant and others, is an outlandish, âMad Menâ-inspired â60s-set satire in which Kelloggâs and Post Cereal are engaged in a cutthroat race to âupend Americaâs breakfast table.â
âWhen you see any scene of it you go, âWhat is that?â And I was very happy about that,â Seinfeld said in a recent interview. âI like that you look at it and go, âI donât know what this is.ââ
For Seinfeld, who has resolutely stuck to stand-up since âSeinfeld" ended in 1998, it's a rare post-sitcom project, joining a short and sporadic list including the short-lived reality series âThe Marriage Refâ and the popular streaming show "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.â
âUnfrosted," though, returns Seinfeld to one of his abiding passions. Remember all those cereal boxes in his apartment on âSeinfeld"? The Pop-Tart is a particular fascination, though. In his 2020 comedy special â23 Hours to Kill,â it formed an extended bit beginning with the childhood memory: âWhen they invented the Pop-Tart, the back of my head blew right off."
For Seinfeld, the Pop-Tart has an almost mythical quality. A movie about Oreos or Milk Duds or even Junior Mints wouldn't work, he says. But the Pop-Tart is different.
âA lot of it is the word. Itâs a funny word," says Seinfeld. âI heard Mattel is trying to do a Hot Wheels movie. That could work. Certain things really got us when we were kids, you know?â
In a wide-ranging interview, Seinfeld discussed subjects large and small.
AP: Is it true that your moments on the âCurb Your Enthusiasmâ finale were improvised with Larry David?
SEINFELD: The idea occurred right in that moment. I said, âHey, letâs talk about the finale right now.â We had been talking about it all day because it was their finale. We were just talking about series finales all day. And I was saying that âMad Menâ was my favorite and I thought âThe Sopranosâ one was great, and obviously ours was what it was.
AP: What does that mean? Youâre happy with it or not?
SEINFELD: Well, I think what we said in that scene. We thought, âYeah, that would have been better.â (Laughs) Itâs very hard to remember. The emotional state I was in after nine years was a little ragged. Maybe we werenât thinking quite clearly. The idea of doing that on his show â the math of it is really amazing. To do that, two people have to have two successful long-running sitcoms and they have to be playing themselves, with a 25-year separation. When I was driving home that night on the 10 in LA, my head was exploding because of the math of what just happened â to set something up in â98 and pay it off in â23. For a joke person like me, I felt like I landed on the moon.
AP: âUnfrostedâ began with an old stand-up bit of yours. Is it surprising to you that youâve made a movie about it?
SEINFELD: It was all (âSeinfeld" writer) Spike Ferestenâs idea. I did not want to do it. I did not think it would work. Whatâs a movie about inventing the Pop-Tart? Thatâs not funny. And (âSeinfeldâ writer) Andy Robin came up with the idea that itâs âThe Right Stuff.â And I went, âOh, thatâs funny.â
AP: I think you have a line about âsplitting the atom of breakfastâ so this is also like a snack-size âOppenheimer.â
SEINFELD: Yes, âOppenheimer.â I think itâs a fun game if anyone wants to play â how many movies we stole from. Obviously, âThe Godfather,â obviously âThe Right Stuff.â At one point, I was going to say, âIâll bury you under the ground, Eli,â from âThere Will Be Blood.â And we werenât even going to explain it. The characterâs name wasnât Eli.
AP: You once in an interview suggested you only say you love Pop-Tarts to make the joke work.
SEINFELD: I probably just said that to make that point. But I do love Pop-Tarts. I had one yesterday. We were doing a social media piece with Jimmy Fallon and Meghan Trainor. I took a bite and I went, âThis is fantastic.â What I like about it is the man-made quality of it. I love great objects that fit in your hand in a nice way. A pack of cigarettes is one of the greatest things you can put in your hand. It just feels great. Dice feel great. I like a nice spoon. I like things. (Laughs)
AP: Were you aware of the recent trend of movies based on products?
SEINFELD: Yeah, but we were started long before that. I was a little disappointed that I suddenly became part of a trend but there was nothing we could do about it.
AP: Do you have any guesses as to why weâve turned our focus to American consumerism? Your film is a big, silly satire of American consumerism.
SEINFELD: For me, I love men in suits talking about something stupid, like cereal and puffs and sprinkles.
AP: Youâve often spoken about your dedication to sharpening and sculpting a joke. Are you still driven by that?
SEINFELD: I started a bit the other night about your kitchen sponge on the sink looking up at you going: âI donât know how much more you think I have. I was done two months ago.â Now itâs just growing and growing into a monologue of your kitchen sponge telling you, âLet me go! Let me die a rectangle, not in pieces.â When I lock on to something like that, I just want to see how far I can go with it, how long will they let me talk about this.
AP: Youâre about to turn 70. Is that meaningful to you?
SEINFELD: No.
AP: Some entertainers turn inward when they reach their 70s, like Steven Spielberg did with âThe Fabelmans.â But maybe this is a very personal movie for you.
SEINFELD: Very much. This is my âFabelmans.â Because Iâm not interested in my life. Iâm interested in eating.
AP: Why have you always avoided topicality or politics in your comedy?
SEINFELD: I donât have the fluency. Your comedic thing, whatever it is, it only works on certain things. My thing only works on these dumb things.
AP: Still, there is a kind of meaning in dedicating yourself to meaninglessness.
SEINFELD: Iâve discussed this at length with my friend Joel Hodgson (âMystery Science 3000â) and heâs incredibly articulate on this subject, which is: The throw-away culture of our childhood was not throw-away to us. We deeply love these things and they were meaningful in their meaninglessness.
AP: You and Marc Maron had a great debate on his podcast as almost diametrically opposed comedians. He believes in baring his soul on stage and you pledge fidelity to the joke. I thought you were both right.
SEINFELD: My attitude, I think, was more talking to comedians. I think comedians, if they want to survive throughout their life doing this, they have to pay close attention to the laughs. No less value in what heâs doing, but I would worry about how long would this last for in your life. But, yeah, thatâs a good point. We were both right, just different.
AP: You've said you want to do stand-up into your 80s and beyond.
SEINFELD: To the end. To the very end.
AP: You still feel that way?
SEINFELD: Yeah. The only hard part of my life is the other things. People do ask me about slowing down and I go, âThe work part of my life is not stand-up. Itâs all the other things.â Stand-up is an incredible, pure experience. Surfing is the great regret of my life that I never really got good at that. I did it for two weeks one time many years ago. But if you were a surfer, you would never stop doing it. Thatâs what stand-up is for me. Feeling that energy, that natural life-force energy under you and around you, I never get tired of that.
AP: Are you thinking about another stand-up special?
SEINFELD: No, Iâm not. Iâm not sure of it as a comedy form for me right now. I would love to think of something else, if I even wanted to do it â which I donât right now. Like, âComedians in Cars Getting Coffee,â the subtext of that is: Iâm really sick of talk shows on TV. Thatâs why I did that. And let me show you why. We donât want to see them sitting on a couch anymore. The people who are doing it arenât having any fun doing it. That was my anti-talk show. So I would want to do an anti-stand-up special if I did one. I envy, sometimes, these little Italian artisans who donât really care if anybody knows who they are or what they do. And stand-up can be like that. Any writing work is very lonely work. Stand-up, in a way, is kind of a private, lonely world. Iâm going to Dayton, Ohio, on Friday. No oneâs going to know what happened there. Iâm very attracted to that. Iâm more attracted to that than, âHey everyone, I made a movie.â My way, if I had my choice, is that I would like to do this work very quietly and privately.
AP: It's interesting you'd say that as someone who had one of the biggest TV shows ever. Maybe you had your fill of it.
SEINFELD: Thatâs possible. But it never felt like me. Larry and I, when we first started to do the show thought: This will be a really fun, little boutique thing that will just get our people that like this kind of quirky, off-beat thing, and that would be cool. What it became was never on our radar. Then, suddenly, youâre a big wave surfer. I think it was tougher on Larry than for me. Because you feel the pressure. I never minded the pressure.
AP: Have you experienced younger generations finding âSeinfeldâ on Netflix?
SEINFELD: That age around 10 to 12, they seem to find it. They have no idea what it is at first. (Laughs) I think the credit all really goes to Jason (Alexander), Michael (Richards) and Julia (Louis-Dreyfus) â what they did with those characters, the color that they found in all of those characters. Larry and I, we were just doing these silly conversations, but they made it so accessible. They deserve the credit for the success of the show.