The actor Jerry Seinfeld called his favourite human: “I love this man”
He might be one of his generation’s defining comic talents and the mastermind behind one of the biggest sitcoms of its era, or any era for that matter, but Jerry Seinfeld has never been what anybody would call a people person.
Even though he was beamed into tens of millions of homes every week during the height of his self-titled sitcom’s popularity, which inevitably meant that audiences felt as if they knew the guy just a little bit, Seinfeld has never been one to shake hands, pat backs, kiss babies, or generally play the celebrity game.
He doesn’t enjoy starring in movies or TV shows when he isn’t playing either himself or a thinly-veiled extension of his real-life personality, he abhors the relentless churn of press and publicity that comes with being a celebrity, he’s become embroiled in several feuds with his contemporaries, and there are few things guaranteed to make him run in the other direction faster than people asking him for an autograph, a picture, or heaven forfend physical contact.
With all of those things in mind, it actually makes perfect sense that the person Seinfeld called his favourite person in the entire world also happens to be one of the industry’s foremost curmudgeons. They probably found each other to be kindred spirits in that they hold an open disdain for almost everything life in or outside of Hollywood has to offer, and they hit it off spectacularly as a result.
The film itself was nothing to write home about because it wasn’t particularly good, but the Netflix comedy Unfrosted was nonetheless notable because it marked the first time Seinfeld had ever played the lead role in a feature film, a full 44 years after he made his screen debut in three episodes of the sitcom Benson.
Not only that, but he was the co-writer, director, and producer of the farcical Pop-Tarts biopic, and when he needed somebody to play Thurl Ravenscroft, the Shakespearean actor who found the most fame for voicing Tony the Tiger, he stumbled upon not just one of the most outwardly miserable men in the business, but a person who instantly made his heart flutter.
“I love this man,” he told The New Yorker of Hugh Grant. “With my apologies to all the other people I’ve met, he’s my favourite human. Yes, he’s my favourite human. Because his charm and funniness are what I dreamed of when I was a kid in the ’60s. I wanted to be a charming, witty man. That never happened.”
Although Grant’s reaction to being called the favourite human of a comedy heavyweight like Seinfeld remains unknown, based entirely on his public persona, there’s a high chance he didn’t care in the slightest. Either that or the smallest of grins may have painstakingly etched itself across his perpetually stoic face.
