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Last week we talked about Jerry Seinfeld hinting at a Seinfeld reunion during a standup show. Jerry seemed to suggest that some kind of show is in the works that will somehow address the 1998 series finale, which fans and critics were disappointed with. Setting the divisive finale aside, I suggested that the only viable path for this project was making it about Elaine Benes, because Julia Louis-Dreyfus is the classiest, most talented one of the bunch. Oh, and she also hasn?t made an ass of herself like her former costars in the intervening years. Well, Julia was at the London Film Festival this week to promote an indie film Tuesday (that?s the name of the film, not the date of the premiere, and don?t worry it?s all kosher ? SAG-AFTRA gave the film a waiver) and of course she was asked about Jerry?s recent comments. She very succinctly responded: ?I don?t know what the hell he?s talking about.? Nor do any of us, Julia.
Speaking on his standup tour in the US on Saturday, Jerry Seinfeld told a Boston audience he ?has a little secret? about the show, whose 1998 finale was watched by 76 million viewers in the US when it first aired, but whose plot ? the four friends go on trial for wisecracking when a man is mugged in front of them ? proved divisive.
?Something is going to happen that has to do with that ending. It hasn?t happened yet,? Seinfeld said. ?Just what you are thinking about, [co-creator] Larry [David] and I have also been thinking about. So, you?ll see.?
His words triggered heated speculation all week about what form such a show might take. Stars Jason Alexander and Michael Richards are yet to offer comment, but speaking to the Guardian on Wednesday, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who played Elaine Benes on the programme, which ran between 1989 and 1998, professed ignorance about any such endeavour.
?Yeah, I just saw [that news] last night,? she said. ?And I don?t know what the hell he?s talking about.?
Of all the Seinfeld actors, Louis-Dreyfus is the one who appears to need such a return the least. As well as starring in subsequent hit TV shows such as Veep, the actor has won acclaim on the big screen, most notably for her roles in Nicole Holofcener?s cerebral and sensitive comedies Enough Said (2013) and You Hurt My Feelings (2023).
Her latest project further dramatically expands that range. Tuesday, a contemporary fairytale about grief, had its UK premiere at the Lonon film festival earlier this week, picking up considerable Oscar buzz for Louis-Dreyfus?s performance.
She plays a single mother in denial about the terminal illness of her teenage daughter, Tuesday played by Lola Petticrew. When the grim reaper arrives in the form of a massive, talking macaw, both women try to defer the inevitable by bargaining, battling ? and vaping with ? Death.
Critics praised Louis-Dreyfus as ?a revelation? ? particularly in sequences that see her unleashing a primordial energy unfamiliar to regular fans. ?She?s a performer whose radiant ferocity has never been in doubt,? wrote the Hollywood Reporter, ?but until now we haven?t [sic] seen all sides of the prism.?
[From The Guardian]
?Of all the Seinfeld actors, Louis-Dreyfus is the one who appears to need such a return the least.? This is such a quintessentially British, understated way of saying Julia has grown leaps and bounds past the rest of them. I stand by my earlier statement, if they don?t get Julia on board then it?s not worth watching. I?d rather see this new film next year, despite its grim premise, and experience the catharsis of Julia ?unleashing a primordial energy.? Billed as a fantasy-drama, Tuesday kind of sounds like Yorgos Lanthimos meets Ingmar Bergman based on early reviews. Is it likely to make me howl with laughter like Veep? No (my notorious history of laughing at horror films notwithstanding). Will I still tune in to see Julia play chess against a tall, talking, macaw-embodied Death? Definitely.
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