Jerry Seinfeld Apologizes for ‘Subtle Sexual Aspect’ of ‘Bee Movie’
You heard it here first: Jerry Seinfeld is decidedly not a proponent of bee-steality.
The actor recently looked back on Bee Movie, and it turns out that he has some regrets about certain elements of the plot. The animated film, which Seinfeld co-wrote, premiered in 2007. He also voiced its lead character Barry B. Benson: a honey bee who develops a friendship with a human named Vanessa Bloome (played by Renee Zellweger).
The pair's friendship is bizarre enough. However at times it almost verges on romantic, which is even stranger. (Social media has picked up on the puzzling pair over the years, and they've inspired many memes.)
Today, Seinfeld is aware the relationship came across strangely, and he is sorry. He opened up about the unintended romantic undertones during an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
"I apologize for what seems to be a certain uncomfortable subtle sexual aspect of the Bee Movie, which really was not intention," he told host Jimmy Fallon as the crowd got a good laugh. "After it came out, I realized this is really not appropriate for children."
"The bee seems to have a thing for the girl," he explained. "We don't really want to pursue that as an idea in children's entertainment."
Check out the full interview below. The conversation starts around the 2-minute mark.
Cartoon Brew noted that Seinfeld copped to considering a sequel for the film at the height of its internet popularity. He opened up about it during a Reddit AMA in 2016; however, he ultimately stressed that it wasn't going to happen.
Barry Marder and Spike Feresten, two of Seinfeld's co-writers, and director Steve Hickner commented on the phenomenon of the film's belated popularity and people's interest in meme-ing Barry and Vanessa's relationship in an interview with The New Statesman.
“It was never going to be sexual or anything like that,” Hickner vowed. “It was purely this friendship… maybe in Barry’s mind he thought… but it was never going to be that.”
Marder in turn referred to the relationship as "kind of weird" in general. Feresten, meanwhile, claimed that sometimes they would "lose sight of those characters" during the writing process and then have to rein it back in.