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CNN Larry King Live
Encore Presentation - Jerry Seinfeld Interview
Aired November 04, 2007 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LARRY KING, HOST: Right now, the man with two names who needs just one -- Seinfeld. He's got the entertainment world buzzing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "BEE MOVIE," COURTESY DREAMWORKS ANIMATION)
JERRY SEINFELD, COMEDIAN: I am on to something huge here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Comedy legend Jerry Seinfeld in a rare hour and taking your calls. He'll talk about his new "Bee Movie" tonight and laugh at what he calls the ultimate comedy gold mind -- marriage. Oh, and I'll remind him that I'm the king bee.
It's all next on LARRY KING LIVE.
I've looked forward to tonight for a long time. It's been nearly a decade since the last episode of the classic Emmy-winning sitcom that bears his name. And now Jerry stars as Barry B. Benson in "Bee Movie," an animated film he also co-wrote and produced. "Bee Movie" buzzes into theaters -- over 3,000 of them -- tomorrow. And, by the way, box sets of "Seinfeld: Season 9," plus "Seinfeld: The Complete Series" will be available on November 6th. Finally, this movie.
SEINFELD: Well, you make it seem like you did the work.
KING: No, no, but four years?
SEINFELD: Well...
KING: "Gone with the Wind" took three.
SEINFELD: Did I bother you?
Was I bothering you?
KING: No.
SEINFELD: I bothered you a little bit
KING: Yes. OK.
Why did it take so long?
SEINFELD: They're not very good at this.
KING: The bees are not very good?
SEINFELD: No, the animation people.
KING: They're not...
SEINFELD: I'm kidding.
KING: All right.
SEINFELD: It's hard to make animated movies because they're basically puppet shows. It's a gigantic insane puppet show and every character has hundreds of controls and you have to control them. And you, you know, in comedy, you've got to get the facial expressions just right. You'll see -- see that look on his face?
Get a shot of that. We worked to get that exact look, that kind of I'm listening, but I am thinking about a bagel look that you have.
KING: (LAUGHTER).
And they didn't get the shot. That's what I was doing.
SEINFELD: Yes.
KING: And I was very proud to be in this film.
Did you go into this project to be as hands on as you were?
I mean -- how did you -- you never made a movie before.
SEINFELD: I never made a movie.
KING: So how did you approach...
SEINFELD: I never did anything in animation.
KING: Give me a little history.
SEINFELD: There is none.
KING: There is none?
Why?
SEINFELD: I do nothing, I wanted to do nothing, but I got sucked into it because I got intrigued by the form -- the form of animation. We've all seen these movies. And they have incredible look to them. They're like -- they glow, these movies. But I just wanted to do a more comedic take on the same -- the feel -- the visual feel with a different comedic (INAUDIBLE)...
KING: Were you a fan of things like "Shrek?"
SEINFELD: Um-hmm. Yes. I like love all those movies.
KING: OK, so you wanted to BUT You're not an animator? SEINFELD: No.
KING: All right, you're not a -- you don't draw.
SEINFELD: No.
Just quickly OK.
So how did you -- how did you come to produce something you have no knowledge of?
SEINFELD: I don't know.
(LAUGHTER).
SEINFELD: Because Jeffery Katzenberg explained to me that if you want to make this movie, I have to show you how it's done. And the more he showed me, the more interested I got. And then I learned how to do it and it became like an education.
KING: OK. Mr. Katzenberg one of the head honchos of DreamWorks.
SEINFELD: DreamWorks Animation.
KING: Why did you -- why bees?
SEINFELD: Why not?
KING: Why didn't you pick (INAUDIBLE)?
SEINFELD: Well, I knew you had the tie.
KING: Yes. Look at this.
SEINFELD: So I figured I'd make a movie to fit the tie.
KING: I've got the tie, the suspenders.
SEINFELD: Bees -- I love bees because, first of all, they live in a perfect society socially and a perfect corporation. So when I -- to me, I look at a beehive, I see like a corporation that is hanging from a tree. It's a company in there. It's a very how to succeed in business without really trying kind of world that they live in.
KING: We're going to take a quick clip of "Bee Movie". This is with Seinfeld with me as Bee Larry King, Larry B. King (INAUDIBLE).
SEINFELD: Oh, we're going right to it.
This is the biggie.
KING: Yes, let's (INAUDIBLE).
Watch it.
I'm the only bee in this movie with a square head. (LAUGHTER)
KING: Watch.
SEINFELD: And also in real life.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "BEE MOVIE," COURTESY DREAMWORKS ANIMATION)
KING: Don't forget, tomorrow night on "Bee Larry King," we're going to have three former queens -- all right here in our studio discussing their new book, "Classy Ladies," out this week on Hexagon. Tonight, we're talking to Barry Benson.
Did you ever think I'm just a kid from the hive, I can't do this?
SEINFELD: Larry, bees have never been afraid to change the world.
I mean what about Bee Columbus, Bee Gandhi, Bee Jesus?
KING: Well, where I'm from, you wouldn't think of suing humans. We were thinking more like stick ball or candy stores.
SEINFELD: How old are you?
KING: Well, I want you to know that the entire bee community is supporting you in this case, which is certain to be the trial of the bee century.
SEINFELD: Thank you, Larry. You know, they have a Larry King in the human world, too.
KING: It's a common name.
Next week on "Bee Larry King"...
SEINFELD: No, no, no. I mean he looks like you and he has a show with suspenders and different colored dots behind him.
KING: Next week on "Bee Larry King"...
SEINFELD: Got an old guy, glasses and there's quotes along the bottom from the guest you're watching, even though you just heard him.
KING: (INAUDIBLE) next week. They're scary, they're hairy and they're here live.
SEINFELD: He always leans forward, the pointy shoulders, squinty eyes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SEINFELD: Did you get the last line?
KING: No, but that's a good scene. I -- that was a...
SEINFELD: That's a very good scene.
KING: I had fun doing it.
SEINFELD: Yes.
KING: I love working with you, watching you write and all that.
SEINFELD: Um-hmm. Um-hmm.
KING: All right, now I have something to confess. Last night, the aforementioned Mr. Katzenberg came over to my house right before I started trick or treating with the boys...
SEINFELD: Right.
KING: ...and he, well, he had -- he had a problem.
Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEFFREY KATZENBERG: Well, Larry I just got the phone call from Jerry. He's really, really upset with you.
KING: What?
KATZENBERG: He says you're not out supporting the movie. He gave you the part of a lifetime in this, that he's taking care of you and what are you doing?
KING: He's got a point.
KATZENBERG: Well, I'm just telling you, he's really upset. And he's upset with me, too, because he says he's out, he's talking to everybody, he's promoting like crazy in this and we're in the dog house, you and me.
KING: All right. We'll make it up to him.
KATZENBERG: Let's go take care of it.
KING: I'm going to do something -- I tell you what, I'll walk the street, you ride the car.
KATZENBERG: I'll ride the car.
KING: I like that.
KATZENBERG: Get out there and, you know...
KING: OK, I'll sell it.
KATZENBERG: This is Beverly Hills. Let's tell them about this movie.
KING: OK. "Bee Movie" now playing. "Bee Movie" now playing. Come one, come all, see "Bee Movie".
KATZENBERG: "Bee Movie" playing everywhere. Go see "Bee Movie". Please.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: That was your suit.
SEINFELD: That shot of you and Katzenberg nose to nose...
KING: Historic.
SEINFELD: I have not seen that since I left Hebrew school.
(LAUGHTER)
SEINFELD: That image of thousands of years of Judaism meeting nose to nose, that was very exciting.
KING: How on Earth did you wear that hat?
SEINFELD: It's hard to wear.
That's heavy, isn't it?
KING: Heavy?
SEINFELD: Yes. It's really heavy.
KING: I thought my head was going to roll off.
SEINFELD: Yes. Yes.
KING: And you had to wear it...
SEINFELD: I had to wear it and hang from a cable in France. Katzenberg roped me in that one.
KING: You would do anything?
SEINFELD: Well, it seemed like fun. He told me this is what they do in France. He says all French films are promoted this way -- by hanging from cables in giant insect costumes.
KING: (LAUGHTER).
SEINFELD: So I did it.
KING: You had other writers.
SEINFELD: I had some other writers -- Spike Feresten, Barry Marder and Andy Robin -- guys from my show.
KING: All right, now -- now the truth, Jerry. SEINFELD: And we just had a lot of fun.
KING: This is the big night.
SEINFELD: Oh, now the truth.
KING: No...
(LAUGHTER).
SEINFELD: What have we been doing?
KING: Tomorrow -- all right.
Tomorrow is the big day.
SEINFELD: Yes.
KING: It opens tomorrow, as they say, wide.
SEINFELD: It opens wide.
KING: Very wide.
SEINFELD: Yes.
KING: Are you...
SEINFELD: Where have you heard that before?
KING: Are you nervous?
SEINFELD: A little nervous. I mean we put a lot into it. But I have to say, I just -- I'm so happy with it. It's so much fun and funny. And you can take the family and it's -- but it doesn't -- you know what the trick is for this kind of movie, to be honest with you, that I wanted?
I want to do a movie that kids could like, but I didn't want it to be lame or, you know, syrupy in any way. I wanted to still have like a good comedic tone to it. And I feel like we got it. So I'm -- I'm very excited about it.
KING: In other essence of it (ph), it must be admitted, you have a good story.
SEINFELD: Yes, it's a good story.
KING: This is a courtroom trial. This is "Law and Order".
SEINFELD: Yes, it is.
KING: No, I'm not kidding. This is the bulk of the movie.
SEINFELD: You can't predict where the story is going. It takes so many -- it's like the way a bee flies -- it takes so many crazy twists and turns. It was just so much fun, the whole thing.
KING: Do you like bees, jerry, now?
Do you have a different feeling about bees?
SEINFELD: I feel bees are on a different level than all the other -- they look down on the other insects. They deal with honey and flowers. It's a very sophisticated life.
KING: But they sting people.
SEINFELD: Well, you know, you've got to protect yourself.
KING: Oh, that's right.
(CROSSTALK)
SEINFELD: Every animal in nature has a form of self-defense or you won't survive.
KING: Will you do another movie?
SEINFELD: Who's asking?
KING: Me.
SEINFELD: For you, no.
KING: No, not for me. We...
SEINFELD: For a major studio, perhaps. No I don't know. I have no -- I never plan anything in my career. I don't know. We'll see how...
KING: We'll be right...
SEINFELD: ...how people like this one.
KING: We'll be right back with Jerry Seinfeld.
The "Bee Movie" opens tomorrow and -- if I can speak -- you'll love it.
Don't go away.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "BEE MOVIE," COURTESY DREAMWORKS ANIMATION)
SEINFELD: Oh, my, what horrible thing has happened here?
Look at these faces. They never knew what hit them and now they're on the road to nowhere.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just keep still.
SEINFELD: What?
You're not dead?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do I look dead?
Hey, man, they will anything that moves.
Now where are you headed?
SEINFELD: I think that was the first scene we've ever done together and it really clicked.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "BEE MOVIE," COURTESY DREAMWORKS ANIMATION)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Most bee jobs are small ones. Bees know that every small job, if it's done well, means a lot. But choose carefully because you'll stay in the job that you pick for the rest of your life.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you'll just work us to death?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, we'll sure try.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: What a terrific -- anyway, was it assumed automatically that you would be in the movie?
SEINFELD: Well, why wouldn't I be?
KING: Well, because you could be the director. You know, you're doing so many -- you're wearing so many hats.
SEINFELD: Yes, but the recording of the voice, that's easy. That's -- I mean, you know, that's nothing.
KING: So you always knew that you would be...
SEINFELD: Yes. Why -- why -- yes, sure.
KING: Did the story undergo a lot of changes?
SEINFELD: Yes. We did many, many drafts of the story. And I found it very interesting to and sustain a comedy that long, because, you know, I mean the sitcom, it's 21 minutes, 22 minutes, and you're coming back next week. You don't have to really wrap it up. But to create a movie story I found a much different kind of challenge.
KING: Did any of the people adlib?
SEINFELD: Oh, yes, everybody. Everybody. Chris Rock -- that whole scene we adlibbed. He came in and I said all right, you be a mosquito, I'll interview you. (LAUGHTER)
SEINFELD: So I said, you know, it must be fun. You must get a lot of girls. And he does this line about, you know, mosquito girls always try to trade up and get with a moth, a dragonfly. And we put it in the movie. It was hilarious.
KING: The Ray Liotta concept with the anger.
SEINFELD: Right.
KING: That was brilliant, because anybody who knows Ray Liotta knows he plays a lot of angry scenes. Now you're sending around honey with his label.
SEINFELD: Yes, we actually manufactured Ray Liotta brand private select honey.
KING: I know. I've got it at the house.
SEINFELD: Yes. Well, I thought who would be the last person you would expect to see in an animated movie playing himself?
(LAUGHTER).
SEINFELD: Ray Liotta.
KING: Did you cast it?
SEINFELD: Yes. Yes. I did -- I was there. I mean I love this thing. I just -- it was like just a big fun toy to me to play with.
KING: Did you get Sting to put himself on?
SEINFELD: Yes, I did. I got Sting to make fun of his name. I thought to a bee, that's an annoying name -- Sting.
Who are you to call yourself Sting?
With all the stingings we've done, you call yourself Sting?
KING: Now let's talk about -- and the only way it can be used is great -- the great John Goodman.
SEINFELD: Oh, yes. John Goodman, what a performance he gives in this movie.
KING: Whoa. Over the top.
SEINFELD: Yes. He plays this insane Southern lawyer who's never lost a case. And he -- what he does is he's about to lose and he figures out if I can get one of the bees to sting me, maybe I can turn the jury. So -- and that's what happens. And then he goes into this insane thing -- all -- falling all over the courtroom. I'm hit. The venom is coursing through my veins.
KING: He's defending the...
SEINFELD: The...
KING: ...the producers of the honey...
SEINFELD: The food companies, which kind of show as -- they look like tobacco company executives -- very evil. We created this whole evil kind of image for all honey production when, in reality, these are the sweetest, nicest people. They're all old hippies.
Who's working with bees and beehives?
It's not big corporations.
KING: (LAUGHTER).
I know. Have you thought of this aspect -- except for your standup in clubs, your career -- your enormous success came in a free medium.
SEINFELD: Television?
KING: A free medium.
SEINFELD: Yes.
KING: Now, you are putting yourself out there in a pay medium.
SEINFELD: In a pay medium.
KING: In which the -- America will have to pay.
SEINFELD: Well, what's the difference?
KING: Well...
SEINFELD: I mean there...
KING: This you have to pay you don't have to pay.
SEINFELD: I know, but it's either you like it or you don't like it, you know what I mean?
If you're going to watch a TV show -- if it's a bad TV show, are you going to watch it because it's free?
KING: No. No, but I mean...
SEINFELD: This is why my friend Barry Marder likes it. This is how bad some TV shows are. It's like we're bringing this to your house. We'll put it in front of your sofa for free. And people are going I don't want it.
(LAUGHTER).
SEINFELD: It's a terrible insult to a television show, because it's free. They're giving tem -- putting it right here in front of you. You don't even have to leave your house. And people are saying, no thank you.
KING: By the way, when your show started, did you know it was going to make it?
SEINFELD: No, no. I thought it would be -- it was a show we were doing for people like us, for people we knew who wanted, you know, a certain type of humor. We thought maybe we'll find a little niche, we'll survive two or three years and that's it. That was the -- really, our ambition was we'll hang around a little while.
KING: When did it take off?
SEINFELD: It took off in the fourth year...
KING: The fourth year?
SEINFELD: The fourth year, when Ted Danson quit "Cheers" and they moved us into Thursday, because we were very borderline. At that time, there were maybe 65 shows on TV and we were like 58.
KING: You mean you were almost canceled?
SEINFELD: Oh, yes, every year, almost canceled. And then they moved us to Thursday, which was first -- I didn't understand this, but there's a comedy audience for NBC on Thursday. And they want to see comedy. They don't want it on Wednesday.
KING: They don't want it Wednesday.
SEINFELD: They don't want it on Wednesday. I couldn't get this in my head, but this is what they explained to me. And they put us on Thursday. We went from 58 to four in one week. And that was it. And then we -- and then we started doing better than "Cheers" and then I don't know -- I don't know how it happened.
KING: It lasted how long?
SEINFELD: Nine years -- 180 episodes.
KING: You gave it up, right?
SEINFELD: I did.
KING: They didn't cancel you, you canceled them?
SEINFELD: You're not aware of this?
KING: No, I'm -- I'm asking you (INAUDIBLE).
SEINFELD: You think I got canceled?
KING: Have I hurt you...
SEINFELD: Are you under the impression that I got canceled? KING: Have I hurt you, Jerry?
SEINFELD: I thought that was pretty well documented. This is a...
KING: Don't most shows (INAUDIBLE)...
SEINFELD: Is this still CNN?
KING: Don't most shows go down a little?
SEINFELD: Most people do also.
KING: You were...
SEINFELD: But...
(LAUGHTER).
SEINFELD: Yes, no, I went off the air, I was the number one show in television, Larry.
KING: You were off...
SEINFELD: Do you know who I am?
(LAUGHTER)
KING: A Jewish guy, Brooklyn.
SEINFELD: Yes.
KING: OK.
SEINFELD: Seventy five million viewers...
KING: OK.
SEINFELD: ...the last episode.
KING: Boy, you...
SEINFELD: Was I canned?
KING: Don't take it so bad.
SEINFELD: Well, there's a big difference between being canceled and being number one.
KING: OK, I'm sorry.
(LAUGHTER)
KING: We'll be right back.
SEINFELD: Jeez.
KING: "Bee Movie" opens...
(LAUGHTER)
KING: "Bee Movie" opens...
SEINFELD: Can we get a resume in here for me...
KING: "Bee Movie" opens tomorrow.
SEINFELD: ...that Larry could go over?
KING: Hey.
We'll be right back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "BEE MOVIE," COURTESY DREAMWORKS ANIMATION)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What in the name of mighty Hercules is this?
How did this get here?
Cute Bee?
Golden Blossom?
Ray Liotta Private Select?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is he that actor?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I never heard of him.
Why is this here?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For people. We eat it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why?
You don't have enough food of your own?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do you even get it?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, bees make it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know who makes it. And it's hard to make it. There's heating and cooling and stirring. You need a whole crown and things.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's organic.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's arganic (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's just honey berry.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just -- what?
Bees don't know about this. This is stealing -- a lot of stealing. You've taken our homes, our schools, our hospitals. This is all we have.
And it's on sale?
I'm going to get to the bottom of this. I'm going to get to the bottom of all of this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "BEE MOVIE," COURTESY DREAMWORKS ANIMATION)
SEINFELD: All right, let's go.
We're trying to see how much you have to do to sell a movie in 2007. This is what it takes to get people to notice there's a movie in the theater.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I don't think I would have gone. I still look at it and I'm still scared of it even now, knowing that he pulled it off.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: The "Bee Movie" opens tomorrow everywhere. When you do your standup, you know reaction right away. They laugh or they don't.
SEINFELD: Um-hmm.
KING: How do you know -- how do you get reaction from an animated movie when you're sitting in a sound stage?
SEINFELD: Sometimes you don't. Sometimes you have to guess. Sometimes you just have to throw a dart in the dark and hope you hit something. There's one joke in this movie where me and Matthew Broderick's character, Adam, are taking and I'm complaining about -- this whole hive, it works too well. It's too perfect.
And he says what are you talking about?
And then the camera pulls back and you see they were standing at an intersection and all the cars are moving through each other without any traffic lights or anybody hitting each other. And I never saw the joke until the premiere, because it took so long to build all of those cars and have a huge intersection where all the cars go in the middle and then they just go right through each other without hitting.
KING: Were you nervous at the premiere, sitting there watching a whole bunch of other people watch it?
SEINFELD: I wasn't, because by that time, we had played it a number of times and I knew that it just -- audiences just always laughed. So, I felt...
KING: All right, how about the first time you (INAUDIBLE)...
SEINFELD: ...calm. As a comedian, I could relax.
KING: How about the first time you played it with an audience?
SEINFELD: Yes, then I was nervous. Any new joke -- when you're -- when you're a comedian, no matter how much confidence you may have, when you go into that new joke, it's not like you've been on stage in your life. You're scared to death in that second. And then, you know, then you go back to something that you feel more confident in. But when you're in a new subject or a new thing, I still find it terrifying.
KING: Mel Brooks says an audience helps you when they watch a movie.
SEINFELD: Yes, they shape the -- they kind of -- you can actually hear in the laughs more this way, more that way, less this direction. They actually will direct you, if you know what the sound of the laughs mean.
KING: So did you make changes?
SEINFELD: Oh, thousands. Thousands. We did -- I don't know. We did 200 drafts of the script. I don't know how many versions of the movie we made. But I couldn't -- I became obsessed with it. I just loved playing with it.
KING: How many people worked on this movie?
SEINFELD: Three hundred and fifty people for four years.
KING: Golly.
SEINFELD: I know. It doesn't make sense.
KING: How many artists?
SEINFELD: Oh, most -- well, a lot of artists. But I don't even know what some of these people do. There was like a guy who just does the hair. Then there's a water person, you know?
And then there's like a tree person. For each little thing -- like, there's a bubble department.
KING: A bubble department?
SEINFELD: Just the bubbles. You need a special group of people that just do bubbles. Then there's the clouds. The clouds -- this is going to be the first time we've ever had clouds that are dimensional in an animated movie. I don't know, it was a big deal to them.
KING: How do you like the medium? SEINFELD: I like it because it has -- the light comes through it in a different way than it does a live action movie. Kids like it, even grownups -- you sit there and -- you were talking, we were talking on the break about the color in the movie.
KING: Yes. I was saying that the color is the best color I've ever seen in an animated movie.
SEINFELD: Yes.
KING: The yellows are yellow.
SEINFELD: Yes.
KING: The reds are red.
SEINFELD: Well, also, because a bee's whole life is about recognition of color, you know, because they're always looking for flowers. So color is a big part of their life. But, yes, it's so vivid. And some of the reviews I've been reading, they just talk about the color, because it is some -- it's to just sit and look at all these colors.
KING: Your idea to have "Here Comes the Sun" featured in the movie?
SEINFELD: I don't think it was. I think it was Nick Fletcher, our editor.
KING: Great use of that song.
SEINFELD: Yes.
KING: Boy, that's a great song.
SEINFELD: Yes, it's -- and Sheryl Crow sings it in the end. And we actually -- we recorded it in London at Abbey Road. And when we recorded it, George Martin came in.
KING: Whooo.
SEINFELD: The Beatles producer for many years. He came in and he sat there and he listened to us do it. It was really a thrill.
KING: How did you get Renee Zellweger?
SEINFELD: I stalked her for a very long time very quietly, very gently. I would -- I would show up at places where she was. I wanted her so bad for this movie. She -- she has a very unique voice -- a very special sound to her voice. And she's very funny. And she's -- I don't think there's anybody else like her.
KING: Anyone turn you down?
SEINFELD: Yes, a couple of people, you know, the people that don't like to make fun of themselves, as you know. KING: Yes.
SEINFELD: But I think it's one of the greatest human qualities you can have, if you think you can laugh at yourself a little bit.
KING: Absolutely.
SEINFELD: Yes.
KING: "Bee Movie" opens tomorrow.
It's a great film.
We'll be right back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "BEE MOVIE," COURTESY DREAMWORKS ANIMATION)
KING: That's all. (INAUDIBLE) when it counts.
SEINFELD: Larry was great. He was really fun. He was so great to work with. He can -- he can do anything. You know, you can (INAUDIBLE) a little faster, a little slower, a little louder. He's like -- he's like a good sports car, Larry.
(CROSSTALK)
SEINFELD: No. No.
(INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We put him in every animated -- DreamWorks animated movie. He is our good luck charm.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Didn't he do a great job?
He was kind of wonderful.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was great.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I loved Larry.
KING: The entire bee community is supporting you in this case, which is certain to be the trial of the bee century.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: We're back with Jerry Seinfeld. "Bee Movie" opens wide tomorrow. You were the quintessential single guy. I think you would agree to that.
SEINFELD: What does that mean? KING: You were single. Single men look up to you and say, he's our guy.
SEINFELD: Yeah. But when you're single you're single. What made me quintessential? What does that mean?
KING: I say it. Then you married Jessica Sklar in 1999. How has being a husband changed you?
SEINFELD: It kind of like -- it kind of -- well, when you're single, you kind of think you've got it figured out. You know what I mean? You have a view of the word. It's very two-dimensional. You think I'm this, and I will do that.
But when you're married you see the world in a three dimensional form where you realize you had other parts of your brain and soul and spirit that you weren't even using, that you didn't even know existed, because they kind of lie dormant I think for a lot of single guys. Like me, I didn't get married until I was later, you, whatever.
So I kind of felt like I just -- grew in ways that I didn't know that they were just lying there. I didn't know that I had other areas that needed to grow.
KING: How about fatherhood? The best.
SEINFELD: Fatherhood is the best thing in the world. It's like space travel.
KING: Whatever's second is distant.
SEINFELD: Yes.
KING: Your wife's new best selling cookbook "Deceptively Delicious," I'll tell you a story about it in a minute, has been caught up with controversy. You talked about it recently on the "Late Show with David Letterman." Let watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEINFELD: If you're any good as a woodwork whacko, you're patient, you pick your moment, spring out and go whacko. So there's another woman who had another cookbook, and it was a similar kind of thing with food and vegetables in the food. And my wife never saw the book, read the book, used the book. But the books came out at the same time.
So this woman says, I sense this could be my whacko moment. So she comes out and she says -- she accuses my wife, she said you stole my mushed up carrots. You can't put mushed up carrots in a casserole, I put mushed up carrots in a casserole, it's vegetable plagiarism.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Are you serious there or are you having fun? SEINFELD: I'm having fun but there was a rumor out there. You know we live in this Internet world where people start rumors and it's amazing that people believe anything. Remember John Kerry with the swift boat? My wife with swift vegetables.
KING: The author of the other cookbook Missy Chase Lapine (ph) and her publisher say they are not accusing anybody of anything. They issued this statement after your Letterman appearance.
SEINFELD: Apparently we must have accused ourselves.
KING: I'll read the statement from Running Press. As publisher of "The Sneaky Chef" we're troubled that of Jerry Seinfeld's statute chose to go on the 'Late Show' and personally attack the book's author." From Missy Chase Lapine, "It was painful to be called names on TV when I'm just a mom who wrote a cookbook to get their kids to eat well."
SEINFELD: Yeah, I can think of another one of those, my wife. Just a mom who wrote a cookbook.
KING: Who started all of this?
SEINFIELD: I don't know. It's boring, we're kind of tired of it.
KING: Now your wife's book. I'm in Oakland recently, my wife is singing a national anthem at a Raider game. She sends me out to buy your wife's book.
SEINFELD: That's nice, thank you.
KING: One of the worst afternoons in my life was trying to find your wife's book. Because every book store was sold out.
Finally I ran into one book store and the guy said this is what you want? We have one left.
SEINFELD: And they had one left.
KING: One left.
SEINFELD: I know. It's been an amazing success. We're very happy about it.
KING: Do your kids think you're funny?
SEINFELD: Yeah, they do.
KING: You make them laugh.
SEINFELD: I do.
Now, it's not like jokes you would like. We do jokes like la la, lollipop. You blink. To them that's hilarious. That's great material. But not appropriate for grownups. KING: Why do kids -- Jackie Gleason used to talk about this. Why do kids like to see things over and over again. Do it again, do it again.
SEINFELD: I think it's security. I think the predictability makes them feel secure. When ever he goes la la la lollipop. There you go, you blinked. And the world has some predictability. If that's not too clinical.
KING: How old are they now?
SEINFELD: Six, four and two.
KING: Six-year-old getting hip?
SEINFELD: Not quite. A little "High School Musical" and she was wearing the headset for Halloween yesterday.
KING: Have they seen "Bee Movie"?
SEINFELD: We're going Saturday. Taking the whole family and all their friends. Going day after tomorrow.
KING: To a regular theater?
SEINFELD: Yeah, yeah. It is going to be fun.
KING: Boy, will that be big for you.
SEINFELD: I'll be more nervous than that than I will for the premiere. I really want my kids to think it's funny.
KING: Because kids bring you that pressure.
SEINFELD: Yeah. I worry more about getting them to laugh than any other audience.
KING: After Seinfeld ended, you seemed to step back, went under the radar. Conan O'Brien called you J.D. Salinger of television. The one guy I'd love to interview. Wouldn't you love to meet him?
SEINFELD: Yes, I would. Is he still alive?
KING: Yes he is. In his 80s. In Connecticut somewhere. Would you like this now? Back on the scene, Jer.
SEINFELD: Not -- it doesn't really -- the first time it all happened to me. The first time I got booked on Larry King, it was extremely exciting. Because I couldn't believe it, you know. And I had such a phenomenal ride with that show, it was the ultimate show business experience. I went from zero, I went from a guy who had just done some "Tonight Shows" to this show in nine years. There wasn't anything left that I missed out on, you know what I mean. Magazine covers, whatever you want to have in show business, I had it.
So I feel like -- and this was one other thing where I just wanted to see, what would this be like, to create animation, to do a movie. But I don't like doing the same things over and over.
KING: You wouldn't do an animated movie?
SEINFELD: I don't know, I tend to do something and move on.
KING: Coming up we'll get his thoughts on his "Seinfeld" costar. Michael Richards and that controversy. When we come back, my man Jer. And don't forget -- do I have to remind you? "Bee Movie" opens tomorrow.
SEINFELD: We got it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JULIA LOUIS-DREYFUS, ACTRESS: News? What news? What, what?
SEINFELD: All right, Elaine. But this is beyond news. This is like Pearl Harbor or Kennedy assassination, it's not even news it's total shock.
LOUIS-DREYFUS: Come on, Jerry, please, please, please, please.
SEINFELD: George Costanza.
LOUIS-DREYFUS: Yeah.
SEINFELD: Is getting married.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEINFELD: I can't wear this puffy shirt on TV. Look at it. It looks ridiculous.
MICHAEL RICHARDS, ACTOR: Well, you got to wear it now. All of those stores are stocking it based on the condition that you are going to wear this on the TV show. The factory in New Jersey is already making them.
SEINFELD: They are making these?
RICHARDS: Yes, yes. This pirate trend she's come up with, Jerry, this is going to be the new look for the '90s. You are going to be the first pirate.
SEINFELD: But I don't want to be a pirate.
RICHARDS: Now that's a great looking shirt. Aye, captain.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Funny is funny, it's great that you can appreciate it just looking back. SEINFELD: Yeah, Michael makes me laugh.
KING: What do you make of what happened to Michael?
SEINFELD: That is a thing where you have a flaw sometimes in your personality, in your kind of emotional base that sometimes it just cracks, and something happens that's -- you almost don't want to do. I think people know what it's like to lose their temper, and it was a bad moment. And it was a bad choice. But I think it was just a temper thing.
KING: During all your years with him was he ever racist?
SEINFELD: No, no, no.
KING: So you were shocked?
SEINFELD: Yeah, completely.
KING: Did you talk to him?
SEINFELD: Sure, we talk all of the time. I talked to him a couple days ago.
KING: How is he doing?
SEINFELD: He is doing good. He is doing good. He still feels bad. That's the terrible thing about something like that. Is you never quite get it out of your head that you hurt people. But he did what he could.
KING: What's the place for the Michael Richards, in another category, Dog the Bounty Hunter who used the racist word in a private conversation that happened to be taped. Is it recoverable?
SEINFELD: For somebody like that? I don't think -- probably for that person almost impossible. I think other people can forgive you. It's harder to forgive yourself, I would say.
KING: For Michael too?
SEINFELD: Yeah, yeah. If you're a sensitive person. If you're not that way, and you hurt someone, you never forgive yourself. That's probably the most difficult part.
KING: So do you work?
SEINFELD: Do I work?
KING: Does Michael work?
SEINFELD: Does Michael work? He's starting to look into it. He wants to go start working again.
KING: Would somebody in television hire him?
SEINFELD: Absolutely. Why not? I mean, we're human beings. None of us is without a mistake. Don't you feel?
KING: Oh. Absolutely. I'm a forgiver.
SEINFELD: Yeah, we have to be. We're all the same.
KING: Do you know anyone without flaws?
SEINFELD: Besides you and I? No.
KING: And we prove it in this movie "Bee Movie" when you see our scene together. Our guest is -- We'll have e-mails and phone calls too.
SEINFELD: I love the phone calls. I love the phone calls.
KING: Let's get some phone calls for Seinfeld. I know you love them. Khartoum, Ohio.
SEINFELD: Lake Charles, you're on the air.
KING: Let's check in first with Anderson Cooper is off tonight. Soledad O'Brien will sit in and host AC 360. Soledad, what's up?
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN HOST: Larry, good evening to you.
President Bush wants to be heard certainly in a speech today. He called out Congress saying the leading Democrats are stalling, stalling on his attorney general nomination, stalling on funding the wars in Afghanistan and in Iraq, stalling on programs to fight terrorism. Tonight we're going to put his claims to a fact check, get reality check with best political team in the business.
Also tonight a divorced couple is battling over embryos. She wants a baby, her former husband says no. Who is going to get to decide? Fine out on "360" at the top of the hour. Larry.
KING: And we'll be right back and include your phone calms for Jerry Seinfeld, the star and producer of "Bee Movie" which opens tomorrow. We'll be right back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEINFELD: ... an ugly side.
JASON ALEXANDER, ACTOR: So what?
SEINFELD: So what?
ALEXANDER: Yeah, so what.
SEINFELD: A bad side, an ugly side.
ALEXANDER: So what?
SEINFELD: So what. Ah, forget it.
ALEXANDER: Look at that. It seems unlikely.
ROBERTS: Do it again. That ketchup made ...
RICHARDS: Hey, hey.
SEINFELD: Well, good night.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To think I almost split the profits on the manzierre with you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: We get phone calls and e-mails for Jerry Seinfeld. Let's go to the phones. First, Louisville, Kentucky. Hello.
CALLER: Hello, Larry. Two real quick things. Jerry, can you tell me you the topics you feel cross the line and you just can't joke about. And secondly I've heard you say it's hard for you not to laugh at times during certain things. Was it me or did you really have a trouble with that scene with the library cop my favorite character in the "Seinfeld" episode. Thank you.
SEINFELD: I think the first part of the question is are there things that are taboo. It's never the subject, it's what you say about it. It's the angle. Comedy is all about the angle. It's how you're getting to the subject. That's the whole racket.
It doesn't matter what you're discussing. And the other thing it does look like I'm laughing with the scene with the library cop. If you listen to the dialogue, he says, go ahead and laugh joy boy, so I was supposed to be starting to laugh, but I did often, such was my skill as an actor, I often would just kind of check out mentally in the scene and just watch it as the writer.
KING: You never considered yourself as an actor?
SEINFELD: I did the best I could with what I had.
KING: E-mail question from Ron in Medford, New Jersey, and a lot of other people sent this in.
Will there ever be a "Seinfeld" reunion episode?
SEINFELD: I toyed of doing one more scene for the last DVD set coming out in the end of the year.
KING: I think we have it right there.
SEINFELD: That's the complete series. That's all 180 episodes with -- it says 104 hours of extras. I can't believe anybody would want this. But if you really like the show, everything in the world is in there. That's an amazing thing. I would like to get that, actually.
KING: But you did laugh or you didn't laugh in. SEINFELD: I would start to laugh. I ruined many takes. We all did. We all laughed. Nobody -- Julia used to say, nobody liked the show more than we did. And we would often laugh at it as we were doing it.
KING: Which is the way it should be.
SEINFELD: Yeah, well ...
KING: E-mail from bill in Nokomis (ph), Florida.
SEINFELD: Nokomis. I love these places. Wigwam Nokomis?
KING: Did you have the same comedy personality when you were young or did you acquire it as you got older?
SEINFELD: Very interesting question. I don't think the same of us can be the exact same young as old.
I think I acquired it - you were saying about how audiences kind of shape you. I think audiences kind of liked certain things that I did and so I would do those things. I always tried to be funny when I was a kid. But it was more pulling your pants down in those days.
KING: Now this is all subjective. Comedy Central puts you number 12 on the list of greatest standup comics of all time.
SEINFELD: It's an outrage.
KING: Let's read them all. Number one. Richard Pryor.
SEINFELD: OK. I'll buy that.
KING: Two, Carlin, George Carlin.
SEINFELD: I'll buy that.
KING: Three, Lenny Bruce.
SEINFELD: This could get bad place if we get to a name that I'm not approving of.
KING: Four, Woody Allen. That would be Woody's least favorite, was standup.
SEINFELD: As comedic energy. One of the greatest.
KING: Five Chris Rock.
SEINFELD: Yup.
KING: Six, Steve Martin.
SEINFELD: Mm-hmm.
KING: Seven. Rodney Dangerfield. SEINFELD: Sure.
KING: Eight Bill Cosby.
SEINFELD: Absolutely. He should be higher. Too low for Cosby.
KING: Nine, Roseanne Barr.
SEINFELD: OK.
KING: Ten, Eddie Murphy.
SEINFELD: Yes.
KING: Eleven, Johnny Carson.
SEINFELD: Absolutely.
KING: And 12, you.
SEINFELD: That was pretty good.
KING: Wouldn't you like to be in the top 10?
SEINFELD: No, top 12, I'll take it. Who are we going to kick out? I'm not kicking any of those people out.
KING: All right. What makes a great standup comedian?
SEINFELD: It's a gut thing. You know what I mean? Obviously, you have to have the ability to make jokes. And you have to have a -- you have to want to please the audience but in a right way. If you're doing it completely for yourself to kind of inhale your own ego, you're not a great comedian. The great comedian is really up there for the audience. His pleasure is the audience enjoyment. That's why you love it. And you will work for it inside, in the gut.
KING: I find whenever I make speeches I tell funny stories.
SEINFELD: Yes. I'm sure they're hilarious.
KING: I get a bigger kick. I'm having the time of my life. Of course the sound of laughter is a high like no other high.
SEINFELD: Like no other high and if it's about them, the audience knows it. If you're up there, because it's about me, they feel that too. They don't enjoy it as much.
KING: Jerry Seinfeld, we'll be back with our remaining moments with the producer and star ...
SEINFELD: Ah, the remaining moments. That sadness you feel at home when Larry announces remaining moments, it's like a funeral. We feel oh, my goodness, there is only remaining moments. It's very sad.
Can't you say we'll be back with more -- the remaining moments. I think I'm dying.
KING: I had a thought. You work my funeral. We'll be back.
SEINFELD: Oh, the moments that remain.
KING: We'll be back with more.
SEINFELD: The remains of our moments.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LOUIS-DREYFUS: Come on, who is dancing? I'll get it started.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your son is not sure, he wants to go into honey.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, Barry. You're so funny sometimes.
SEINFELD: I'm not trying to be funny.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're not funny. You're going into honey. Our son the stirrer.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're going to be a stirrer?
SEINFELD: No one is listening to me.
I could say anything I want right now. I could get an ant tattoo. Maybe I'll pierce my thorax. Shave my antenna. Shack up with a grasshopper. Get a gold tooth, start calling everybody "dog."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Do you know everybody's lines?
SEINFELD: Every line, sure.
KING: My lines, you know my lines?
SEINFELD: Everyone's lines.
KING: You know Renee's lines?
SEINFELD: I know Renee's lines. Everybody's.
KING: We have a call from Somerville, South Carolina.
SEINFELD: Somerville. What a wonderful place in the summer.
KING: Hello? CALLER: Hi. I just wondered if you ever got back together or if you commonly get together with the other members of "Seinfeld," if you all keep in touch?
SEINFELD: We do keep somewhat in touch. They live in California and I live in New York. We wanted to get back together for the last DVD, we were thinking who should we have to be the master of ceremonies. We said let's just interview each other so that's what we did. We all got together. Larry David was there too. We interviewed each other. Everything we're talking about in the interview, they put in a box, you know, whatever scene, Elaine with the dancing, you know, we discussed that scene. You'll get to see that scene in the box.
KING: What do you think would "Curb Your Enthusiasm."
SEINFELD: I love it. I love it.
KING: You going to go on it?
SEINFELD: I might.
KING: Only three episodes left this year. Are you on one of them?
SEINFELD: Maybe.
KING: We've still receiving a lot of calls. They don't think you answered it completely. Reunion. Will you do another reunion? Will you do a reunion?
SEINFELD: I doubt it. I hope that doesn't upset anybody. It seems like it's better to have people want it than to do it and go, eh.
KING: Isn't there a part of you that wants to do it?
SEINFELD: I try to go forward in life. We got to go forward. But you never know. Am I being too coy?
KING: No. Thank you.
SEINFELD: Thanks, Larry.
KING: Great working with you. Honor to be in this movie.
SEINFELD: Same here. Thank you for doing it. You're hilarious in the movie.
KING: Tomorrow night Ben Affleck is our special guest. That's LARRY KING LIVE for tonight.
Quick reminder before we go. Check out our Web site at cnn.com/larryking. You can e-mail questions for future guests even download our latest podcast, Mindfreak Criss Angel.
Other upcoming guests are listed there including Ben Affleck. It's all at cnn.com/larryking. AC 360 is next. Soledad O'Brien is the host. Soledad, it's yours.
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