Special Coverage 2008 Fall Movie PreviewThe Must ListBox Office ChallengeSound Bites
jerry_l
JERRY SEINFELD ''Writing a movie is like doing the pilot episode and series finale all in one. And those are usually the two worst episodes of a TV show.''
Jim Cooper/AP

A week ago, Jerry Seinfeld was in a strange place. ''I've never had an experience like this,'' he said while waiting for the opening of his animated baby, Bee Movie, which he co-wrote, produced, and stars in as Barry, a genial worker bee who ventures out of his hive and into New York City. ''The last couple of weeks, sitting around, waiting for the movie to come out, have been really weird.'' (Bee Movie hits theaters — finally — tomorrow.) To help Seinfeld while away the time, we distracted him with a few questions about bees, the pitfalls of overhype, and the magic touch of Steven Spielberg.

ENETERTAINMENT WEEKLY: When the deal for Bee Movie got announced in 2003 and DreamWorks honcho Jeffrey Katzenberg said it was going to open in 2007, I remember thinking, That's forever from now. The world could look like Blade Runner by then!
JERRY SEINFELD: That's what I thought too! In fact, when we were designing the Renée Zellweger human character and we were looking at hairstyles and clothes, I thought, Who knows what women are going to look like in 2007! They might all have shaved heads and one eye!

Were you surprised at how long and hard the work was?
I was surprised by how difficult writing the screenplay was, because it was a lot harder than writing a sitcom. I think that's because a sitcom is shorter, and you don't have to wrap everything up every week. Writing a movie is like doing the pilot episode and series finale all in one. And those are usually the two worst episodes of a TV show.

So why bees?
I love utopian societies, which is what they live in — it seemed like a very '60s corporate environment to me, where people believed in the company, and government, and society. I love that. To me, utopia is an old Jack Lemmon movie. Growing up, I thought that would be the ultimate life, to have a convertible and work in an office in Manhattan.

What was it like working with Steven Spielberg at DreamWorks? Did he help you out a lot?
He did. He adjusted my acting in some scenes, and he made some huge plot adjustments that were very, very key to us solving the story.

Like what?
Well, this is embarrassing to tell you, but I'll tell you. At one point in the movie, we have this adventure sequence with a plane. But it all got kind of action-adventurey. It felt like a Raiders of the Lost Ark kind of scene. And Steven watched it one day and he said, ''What happened to the silly movie?'' And I said, ''Well, this is the action part.'' He says, ''No, you gotta keep the silly going all the way.'' So as a comedy person, I was quite embarrassed to be told that, you know, you're supposed to be funny here. We eventually figured it out.

NEXT PAGE: Will they ever make more Seinfeld episodes?


Page 1 of 2