The Daily Telegraph - Saturday
Grant is horrible pain in the ass on set, says Seinfeld
Comedian stars in Netflix Pop-Tarts film ‘Unfrosted’, with UK actor playing man behind Tony the Tiger
HUGH GRANT is “horrible” to work with and a “pain in the ass”, according to US comedian Jerry Seinfeld, who stars with him in a new film.
Speaking about the forthcoming release in which Grant plays the actor behind the voice of Tony the Tiger, the mascot for Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes – known as Frosties in Britain – Seinfeld revealed his experience of their working together on set.
He told the talk show host Jimmy Fallon: “We had lots of fights. He’s a pain in the ass to work with. He’s horrible.
“He tells you before you work with him: ‘You’re gonna hate this.’ And he’s so right.” Not that it stopped Seinfeld, who directed Netflix’s the ‘He tells you before you work with him: “You’re gonna hate this.” And he’s so right’ unlikely story of the origin of Kellogg’s Pop-Tarts, enjoying a memorable night out with Grant.
“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 recalled. “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.”
Seinfeld told Fallon that he had not originally had Grant in mind for the film, but that the star of
and had insisted on auditioning for the part of Thurl Ravenscroft.
Seinfeld said: “[I imagined] a frustrated Shakespearean actor who has to play this embarrassing character to make his car payments.
“But he called us and he said: ‘I want to be in the Pop-Tart movie.’ 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.’”
Seinfeld, the star and co-creator of his eponymous sitcom, told
that the idea of a film about Pop-Tarts came to him during the Covid pandemic.
“Stuck at home watching endless sad faces on TV, I thought this would be a good time to make something based on pure silliness,” he said.
He had previously based a stand-up routine on his reaction as an eight-yearold to first seeing the breakfast snack.
“When you open the packet, there’s two. Why?” he said. “One’s not enough; three is too many – that’s why. It was perfect. Perfect vision of the future from Kellogg’s.”