In a recent interview with GQ magazine, Jerry Seinfeld claimed “the movie business is over” ahead of the upcoming premiere of his feature film.
The prominent stand-up comedian and actor will make his directorial debut with “Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story” — a star-studded comedy about the creation of Pop-Tarts. It’s a semifictional telling set to stream on Netflix on May 3, per Variety.
“It was totally new to me,” said the 69-year-old comedian to GQ about being a director. “I thought I had done some cool stuff, but it was nothing like the way these people work.”
He then added, “They’re so dead serious! They don’t have any idea that the movie business is over. They have no idea.”
Jerry Seinfeld says ‘disorientation replaced the movie business’
Seinfeld suggested to GQ that film “doesn’t occupy the pinnacle” of social/cultural significance it once did. “When a movie came out, if it was good, we all went to see it. We all discussed it. We quoted lines and scenes we liked.”
“Now we’re walking through a fire hose of water, just trying to see,” he said to GQ.
When asked what has replaced film, Seinfeld said, “Depression? Malaise? I would say confusion. Disorientation replaced the movie business,” per GQ. “Everyone I know in show business, every day, is going, ‘What’s going on? How do you do this? What are we supposed to do now?’”
Fox Business argued the comedian isn’t worried about an industry collapse “due to his prolific career in comedy.” “Seinfeld” ran for nine seasons as one of the highest-rated TV shows, while years later, his “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” show ran for 11 seasons.
“I’ve done enough stuff that I have my own thing, which is more valuable than it’s ever been,” the comedian shared to GQ.
Seinfeld claimed to GQ that audiences are now “flocking” to stand-up comedy because it allegedly can’t be faked. “It’s like platform diving. You could say you’re a platform diver, but in two seconds we can see if you are or you aren’t. That’s what people like about stand-up. They can trust it. Everything else is fake.”
What is ‘Unfrosted’?
“Unfrosted,” according to Netflix, is set in Michigan in 1963, as Kellogg’s and Post race to create the Pop-Tart “that will change the face of breakfast forever.”
Seinfeld had been thinking about Pop-Tarts for a long time, as he first spoke about Pop-Tarts on a 2010 “Late Show” appearance, per Netflix. He had also spoken about the breakfast item as a part of his stand-up routine, as previously reported by the Deseret News.
“How did they know that there would be a need for a frosted fruit-filled heated rectangle in the same shape as the box it comes in, and with the same nutrition as the box it comes in?” Seinfeld joked with The New York Times in a 2012 prerecorded interview.
In 2018, he brought up the idea of a Pop-Tart movie in a post to X (formerly Twitter). And in a post made out to X in 2021, he provided information about the upcoming semifictional film which he was directing.
The film has a packed cast, which includes Melissa McCarthy, Jim Gaffigan, Amy Schumer and Hugh Grant — who is seen dressed up as the Tony the Tiger mascot in the film, per Netflix.
This will be Seinfeld’s first movie role since the “Bee Movie” released back in 2007, reported the Deseret News.