Jerry Seinfeld says Hollywood has lost relevance as movies no longer ‘occupy the pinnacle in the social, cultural hierarchy that it did’

Jerry Seinfeld says movies have lost their relevance in culture and society.

The comic actor, 69, in conversation GQ magazine Promoting his debut as a film director with the Netflix film Unfrosted, he mused on Monday about what he felt was a lost relevance in Hollywood, amid a diminished impact with the current silver screen offerings.

“Film does not occupy the pinnacle of the social, cultural hierarchy as it has for most of our lives,” the Brooklyn, New York, native said. ‘If a movie came out and it was good, we would all go see it. We’ve discussed it all. We quoted lines and scenes we liked.

“Now we’re walking through a fire hose of water, just trying to see.”

The Emmy-winning star said he feels like “confusion” and “disorientation” have “replaced the movie business,” citing his personal interactions with people in the entertainment industry.

The Seinfeld star said, “Everyone I know in show business asks every day, ‘What’s going on? How do you do this? What do we do now?’

Seinfeld stars as Bob Cabana in the biographical film about the creation of Pop-Tart in the early 1960s.

He is joined in the period piece by a number of stars, including Amy Schumer, Christian Slater, Hugh Grant, Sarah Cooper, Peter Dinklage, Jim Gaffigan, Fred Armisen, Bill Burr and Melissa McCarthy, among others.

Seinfeld said of the filmmaking process, “It was completely new to me. I thought I had done some cool stuff, but it was nothing like the way these people work. They are so deadly serious!

‘They have no idea that the movie business is over. They have no idea.’

Seinfeld said he’s “done enough things” in his career that he has his “own thing,” separate from the movie business, “which is more valuable than ever before.”

Seinfeld opened up the contemporary status of comedy, where he got his start.

“Stand-up is like being a furniture maker, and everyone needs a guy who’s good with wood,” he said. ‘There are trees everywhere, but making a beautiful table is not that easy. So the metaphor is that if you have good craftsmanship, you are quite impervious to the whims of the industry.”

Seinfeld said that modern audiences are now flocking to stand-up because it’s something you can’t fake, while other facets of entertainment have a touch of production about them.

“It’s like platform diving,” Seinfeld said. ‘You could say you’re a platform diver, but in two seconds we can tell whether you are or not. That’s what people love about stand-up. They can rely on it. Everything else is fake.”

Seinfeld’s comments sparked a number of spirited reactions on social media, both approving and detracting from his message.

One user commented: ‘Oh, yeah. One of the greatest film authors…Jerry Seinfeld from the Bee movie…’

Another asked: ‘Why did he make a movie about Poptarts? I certainly don’t think he will revive them with that moving subject.’

One user said that while they “adore” Jerry Seinfeld, his vision of contemporary cinema is “so wrong” that the summer blockbuster Barbie “alone kills this argument.”

The user added, “Thanks to social media, movies rule the world more than ever. The money movies make these days is astonishing. And many iconic films have been released this century alone.’

Another user with experience teaching and studying films said they agreed with Seinfeld on his point, citing the changes in theater in the four years since the coronavirus pandemic.

“The last ‘cultural wave’ movie I can mention is ‘Avengers: Endgame,'” the user said. “I don’t see anything as pervasive in the new post-COVID culture.”

One user noted that “Jerry Seinfeld may be right” in his thoughts on the film industry, pointing to the proliferation of tentpole franchises and other factors.

“When you have businessmen and middlemen saturating the industry, exaggerating budgets, never taking risks and only repeating old intellectual property rights… what do you expect to happen?” said the user.

The user continued: ‘While the films are made at the same time by the same writers, who are more interested in what message or activism they can put in the media rather than a good story.

“People complain about AI, but maybe it will open up opportunities for new people to come in and create stories like they used to. And at the same time it becomes easier to create something of higher quality at a lower budget.’

Unfrosted can be seen on Netflix from May 3.