LOS ANGELES, May 1 (UPI) — Christian Slater, Max Greenfield and Sarah Cooper said director Jerry Seinfeld instructed them to act more subtly in Unfrosted, a fictional comedic look at the creation of Kellogg’s Pop-Tarts in 1963. It premieres Friday on Netflix.
Slater plays a milkman who represents the dairy industry, which Unfrosted portrays as a mafia with control over the cereal industry. With such an outrageous premise, Slater said his initial performance was broader than Seinfeld wished.
“I like to go big,” Slater, 54, told UPI in a recent Zoom interview. “I would need to be reigned in.”
Seinfeld also plays Kellogg’s executive Bob Cabana in the film. Greenfield, 44, who plays an executive at rival Post Cereals, said he could tell by the look on Seinfeld’s face when the director was not satisfied with a performance.
“I go, ‘You don’t need to say anything. I know what this means,'” Greenfield said of Seinfeld’s reactions.
Stand-up comedian Sarah Cooper, 46, plays fictional Kellogg’s executive Poppy Northcutt. Cooper said Seinfeld would make a gesture with his hands to indicate she should reduce her intensity, along with some verbal instructions.
“The note that I got was ‘be more you’ because sometimes I would just be too big,” Cooper said. “There’s such a rhythm to the way that the Seinfeld comedy works, and trying to find that rhythm was tough.”
Cooper, who also appeared on an episode of Survival of the Thickest and in the film Summering, said she hopes Unfrosted leads to more acting roles.
“I’m just a baby in this industry and this is such an awesome way to start,” Cooper said. “I don’t even know where to go from here.”
Slater has been acting since he was a teenager in the ’80s, in films like The Legend of Billie Jean, Gleaming the Cube and Heathers. Slater said he was dedicated to authenticity, so he drank whole milk in every Unfrosted scene that required it — and for every take.
“At the end of the scene, I’d already finished the whole glass, so we’d have to go back to the beginning, refill my glass and go again,” Slater said.
Putting on the white uniform he wears in the film helped him get into character, Slater said.
“They put it in my trailer and it fit like a glove, like it was just meant to be,” she said.
In the fictional tale of Unfrosted, Post attempts to make their own pastry. Amy Schumer plays Post executive Marjorie Merriweather Post, who was the owner of General Foods in real life.
Greenfield plays Marjorie’s subordinate, Rick Ludwin, a fictional character. Ludwin is named after a significant figure in Seinfeld history, Greenfield said.
“He was an executive at NBC who championed Seinfeld,” Greenfield said. “There’s a version of that story where Seinfeld doesn’t stay on the air if it isn’t for Rick Ludwin.”
The three actors said Seinfeld created a jovial atmosphere on the set of Unfrosted. The film concludes with a montage of the cast dancing, which the trio said was encouraged once the necessary takes were recorded.
“After you were wrapped, you got to dance,” Cooper said.
Slater recalled specific instructions to shift from acting to dancing.
“When you finished your work they said, ‘OK, now here’s the dancing,'” he said.
