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Celebrity Interviews:
Jerry Seinfeld
Jerry is great. He is so down to earth. Funny, real, family oriented, talented and a good worker bee, he is! I think you will really enjoy this article. Jerry gives 100% to everything he does. Read on and you'll see for yourself.
by Liz Sterling ©2008
Funnyman Jerry Seinfeld, like everyone and everything in our world, illustrates that we all have a dual nature. Jerry is funny, that goes without saying. And yet, I also discovered in our recent interview, that he is quite serious about issues that matter to us all.
Seinfeld has ventured into a new realm. He spoke about the first major project since his iconic self-titled television series, Bee Movie, scheduled for releasein the U.S. nationwide November 2, 2007. It is a labor of love for the stand-up comedian, as he not only voices the lead bee Barry, but also writes the screenplay and serves as producer.
Creating Bee Movie from the ground up proved to be a learning experience for Jerry and not just about the intricacies of producing, scripting and performing in an animated feature. He actually learned a thing or two…about bees. “One of the things that you have to know about in the movie,” he poignantly states, “Is we talk about the fact that all bees, once they sting, that’s it for them. You sting, your life is over. So it’s a big step. You really have to control your temper. You don’t to just sting somebody because you get upset. You have to control yourself. Makes you really think about anger management, doesn’t it?”
In a roundtable gathering, I joined a small group of media representatives who asked Jerry numerous questions about himself and the upcoming movie. We all wondered if he is like the character he plays in the movie?
“I would say, you know, it’s not a stretch. Let me put it that way,” Seinfeld said as he considered all the ramifications of disclosing himself, “It’s definitely a character that’s similar to me, it’s just kind of a younger version. Barry’s just slightly more adventurous than the average bee and a little more interested in what’s going on outside the hive, what’s going on with the humans and what other things we can do besides just make honey. And this is what leads him into trouble.”
“I came up with the idea for the story,” he continued, “Because I always found bee society to be the most interesting. Bees are so sophisticated in their societal hierarchy and how they do their jobs and the division of labor and the class system. It’s so advanced and really quite evolved. I got very interested in how each person - each bee in the hive has a very unique job and they just do that job. I also was attracted to the geometry of the hexagon and wonder how they figured that out. It is the strongest shape in the world. They use it in carbon fiber to build spaceships because it’s the best and strongest geometric shape. And the bees discovered all these things.”
I asked Jerry is there are important messages in the movie. “The one message that I personally had in making the movie, that really wasn’t in the movie until just as we were finishing it in fact, was about doing your job well no matter how big or small the job may be. The world becomes a much better place when just one person does a really good job at anything; whatever that job may be. Because that’s the way bee society works. Some of the bees have very small jobs, but because each one has done so well, they’re able to make this amazing substance of honey. So that was my internal theme of the movie and that comes out in the story. But the larger theme of the movie is that bees are very involved in the whole cycle of nature; of pollination and produce, which feeds the animal kingdom and the human kingdom. The bees are just doing this one little thing with the flowers and it is having a gigantic biological effect on the whole survival of earth.”
Anything we have to be concerned about regarding the diminishing bee population? I asked. “Yes, it’s a great concern,” Seinfeld replies. “Although I hear that they’ve been making some progress lately in figuring out the cause. But completely inadvertently the story in the movie is the same exact story about what’s been going on with bees all over the world in how it affects things when they don’t do their jobs.”
For my final question, I asked Jerry to share the highs and lows of the experience and to discuss his feeling on being triumphant in such an endeavor. “Well, you know,” he cautioned, “There’s no triumph yet. I don’t take anything for granted. I hope people like the movie. So far everyone we’re just excited to put it out there, but I do think we’ve done something a little special. I hope it’s special.” And have there been any challenges along the way, I probed a little further… “Nothing but challenges, Jerry replied. The first thing I learned doing this was that movies are longer than TV shows. Really, that kind of came as a bit of a shock. And they’re a little more difficult because they’re longer and the story has to be interesting.
In the TV world, we told the story in 22 minutes and that’s actually easier than telling one that’s an hour and a half because stories have to keep you interested. So it was just telling the story and making the characters funny. I spent a lot of time on each individual shot of animation. I mean, an animated movie has about 1,300 different shots, and I did each single one myself with the animators, shot by shot by shot and we’re still not done yet. So I did the facial expressions and the hand gestures and everything and where they’re going to move and how they’re going to turn. So that was a lot of stuff, but I get into these things. I enjoyed it.”
Sounds like you were a good worker bee, Jerry? (I couldn’t resist the pun.) “Yeah, I was a good worker bee. But I just love comedy so much. I can work on it all day. I never get bored of it. That’s one of the things I’m most excited about. I really don’t think there’s anyone who would feel that this movie is not for them because there are very broad funny action scenes for kids and then some of the dialog is like very smart for grown ups. I tried to include everyone in my approach.
And an incredible approach he has. Jerry sounded like a big kid at a science. He was humble, sincere and excited about his new found discovery. Oh yeah, of course the comedian will live and rein forever in this guy, but what we see is the other side of the coin… the part that does not always get attention; the part that sets out to do a good job by bringing light to a seemingly forgotten situation, nature and her miraculous wonders.
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