Jerry Seinfeld revealed working with this Hollywood A-Lister was the biggest nightmare of his life
Jerry Seinfeld is a billionaire comedian who’s entertainment royalty thanks to his legendary show Seinfeld which ran for nine seasons on NBC.
But even he has horror stories from his time on the set.
And Jerry Seinfeld revealed working with this Hollywood A-Lister was the biggest nightmare of his life.
Seinfeld describes fighting with actor Hugh Grant
Comedian Jerry Seinfeld’s starring and making his directorial debut in Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story.
A noted cereal enthusiast – fans would spend each episode of Seinfeld looking to see which brands of breakfast cereals would appear on the shelves of his apartment that would appear as Easter Eggs – this is a natural project for him.
Ahead of the movie’s May 3 premiere, he appeared on the Tonight Show to promote the film and described to host Jimmy Fallon how initially working with actor Hugh Grant, who he cast as Thurl Ravenscroft – who voiced Tony the Tiger in Kellog’s Frosted Flakes commercials and was known for the signature line of “they’re great!” – initially proved to be a disaster.
Seinfeld described casting Grant by auditioning him over the phone and realizing that he was perfect for the part because he could repurpose Ravenscroft as a frustrated Shakespearean actor lowering himself to voice a cartoon character in a children’s cereal commercial.
“I did not think of Hugh Grant for the part. And I love Hugh Grant so much. But he called us and he said, ‘I want to be in the Pop-Tart movie,’” Seinfeld stated. “So he did an audition on his phone — with a glass of wine in the other hand, by the way. Like I care what the audition was. I go, ‘Yeah, sure, you’re Tony the Tiger, sure.’”
But Seinfeld said Grant’s warning that he was a pain to work with proved prophetic.
“We had lots of fights. He’s a pain in the ass to work with. He’s horrible,” Seinfeld told Fallon. “He tells you before you work with him, ‘You’re gonna hate this.’ And he’s so right.”
However, the two were able to hash out their differences over a boozy dinner.
“But one night he and I had dinner together … We shot for 10 weeks, and that night that he and I had dinner — and we got drunk having dinner — that was the greatest night,” Seinfeld told Fallon. “Because he’s so cool and he’s that English thing, you know, that witty. He looks good in a jacket … he’s one of those guys. I love those guys.”
Grant’s controversial past
Hugh Grant burst onto the Hollywood scene in 1994 with his starring role in the surprise hit Four Weddings and a Funeral.
But it was on June 27, 1995, when police arrested Grant with prostitute Divine Brown that he became a pop culture sensation.
The arrest occurred two weeks before the premiere of his movie Nine Months and his appearance on the Tonight Show changed his and host Jay Leno’s fortunes.
“What the hell were you thinking?” Leno asked Grant.
“I think you know in life what’s a good thing to do and what’s a bad thing, and I did a bad thing. And there you have it,” Grant answered.
For the previous two years, Leno lost the late-night talk show ratings to David Letterman, who left NBC for CBS in 1993 after not getting the Tonight Show hosting gig following Johnny Carson’s retirement.
Grant’s appearance on the show marked the first time Leno beat Letterman in the ratings and he never looked back spending the next 14 years at number one until his retirement.
Grant – thanks to his good looks and droll British humor went on to become an iconic star of romantic comedy films from the mid-90s through the early 2000s like Notting Hill, About a Boy, Bridget Jones’s Diary, and Mickey Blue Eyes.
Grant’s now experiencing a late-career renaissance which is continuing despite his now legendary difficulty to work with.
