Zitat des Tages von Jason Alexander:
I'm always more motivated by the pain of a funny character than by what makes him funny.
I would work with any one of them again in a heartbeat because it was joyous and incredibly easy.
I had gone to the doctor. The doctor said, 'You're healthy as a horse. You've got two weight problems - two health problems because of your weight. Please do something.'
I'm a singer and performer in a hybrid show that's standup, music and audience participation.
Even when I was an actor in training, one criticism my teachers had was that I should think about directing instead of acting, because the best actors see the material they're working on through blinders. They can't see anything but their role. I could never really do that.
I still don't know much about directing a movie.
One of the reasons I love acting is because I'm so interested in other people's lives, and I often incorporate things I hear or observe into my work. I've become a bit of a 'person addict,' and so I like brushing up against lots of different characters.
We made a deal that was acceptable to us. We got paid very handsomely for our final season.
Jerry Seinfeld made a puddle, I stepped in it, and wonderful things happened.
Actors go, 'I just want to act.' And I say to them, 'You know, stop for a second and think about what charges you up the most. Do you want to be on the stage, do you want to be in film, do you want to be a comic actor? Do you just want to make it for the money and capitalize on your look and do commercials and soaps?'
You know, because of the lack of budget, we had to find neighborhoods where time had stopped - kind of stuck in the '50s. And no place had that better than Staten Island.
The world of the stage and the performance on the stage usually does not tend to translate very well - it doesn't tend to hold very well - once cameras are on it; it's not like it's terrible or embarrassing or bad anything, but, I, as an actor, would perform a role differently for an audience than I would for just cameras.
I love smart comedy.
I kept being asked by corporations to do corporate gigs. And I said, 'I don't have anything. I'm not a stand-up. You want me to come sing show tunes for you? I don't think so.'
Television, in particular, doesn't look for talent; it looks for personas. You have a great persona? You can be a TV star.
Do people absolutely need the arts to get by day-to-day? You can make that claim, but they also really need a lot of things before that.
The greatest part of the job was... that was for nine years it was a pleasure to go to work.
Where are reliable journalism and reliable investigative voices going to come from? I love the days of old - the Walter Cronkites, the Dan Rathers.
In New York, the theater is a destination point. In Los Angeles, no matter how provocative, how successful, how star-studded the theater event may be, it is, at best, a second-class citizen.
Well, let's put in this way, I grew up in West New York, New Jersey.
Directors get to fire on many more cylinders than an actor.
The show is like an Edwardian play - emotional life gets stepped on for the sake of accepted manners, and that's terrific for actors to play in.
But I didn't know much about directing a movie.
The pilot of 'Seinfeld' was made and dropped. 'Seinfeld' was not supposed to go to series.
The thing about For Better or Worse is the only thing that made me an okay director for that is that I have a sense of humor, and it was supposed to be funny.
I think with challenge comes a little more fun.
Isn't it time you came out and told the world what you believe?
I was the teenage kid growing up in New Jersey watching the Tony Awards and thinking, 'Oh, maybe if I'm lucky I'll make it to Broadway by the time I'm 40!'
Things that make me laugh range from a wonderful stand-up like Jerry Seinfeld, Louis C.K. and Chris Rock to my son Gabe, who does great improv work. I also look backwards to the great comedic actors like Jackie Gleason, Paul Lynde and Phil Silvers.
Theater is very much the world I'd like to get back to, particularly in New York, both as an actor and director.
I have no illusions about having another 'Seinfeld' in my life.
When CNN does a story and then says, 'Tweet us what you think' - why? Why does it matter what I think? Why should my thoughts be broadcast on a national news program? It's enough for me to just sit and listen and learn.
I have actually lost a couple of roles - film roles - because a director or producer thought I looked too much like George Costanza, and I could not get out of that box.
Usually, characters that are doing something nefarious have some extra layers to them. The general rule is bad people don't necessarily think they are bad.
I started balding at age 17 and after first being sad, I really embraced it.
There is no community service in 'Seinfeld.' But rather than lauding that, I think it shows the insane banality of it.