Q: What was the biggest challenge of making this movie?

Jerry Seinfeld: The biggest challenge was, frankly, the story. I found it’s very difficult to sustain a comedy movie for a full-length movie. And if you watch comedies or you watch any movie you know that people struggle with the resolution of the story. It’s the most difficult part of a movie, but comedies in particular tend to run out of gas about 2/3rd of the way through. And then they get into these romantic things and you are kind of having fun as they are get into the premise and then figuring out how to resolve the whole story – ‘The guy and then he professes his feelings and I really loved the girl next store all along.’ And then they go, ‘What happened in the labs? We were having so much fun?’ But I was determined not to do that. And I struggled a long time to find a new -- you have to create something that is fun to end the movie, but keep it silly and funny.  So, that was the thing we had a lot of trial and error till we figured that out.

Q: How much did you actually get involved in the casting? Did you actually make the calls to Rene and..?

Jerry Seinfeld: Oh, sure. Rene I practically stalked. That was like, I was like the leopard in the weeds with Rene. I knew her whereabouts at all time. She would go to a screening, I would somehow be there a couple of rows back. ‘Oh, Rene, funny bumping into you here again.’  I wanted her very badly for this.  I knew she was the prefect person to play this part.

Q: Was it really that hard to get her?

Jerry Seinfeld: You never know. She’s very busy, she’s very in demand. And there is really nobody quite like her.  Especially vocally.  There are a lot of great actresses, of course, but not all of them have this kind of vocal skill she has. I mean, when she reads – the voice, it just comes through the screen. Very quickly when you’re watching this movie, you believe the voice is coming out of this dummy. It’s a dummy. This whole thing is a puppet act. These aren’t real people.

Q: Where did Ray Liotta come from?

Jerry Seinfeld: I’ll tell you where it came from. I thought, ‘Who is the last person you would expect to see waltzing into an animated movie as themselves?’ And it was Ray Liotta.

Q: Since ‘Seinfeld’ the dating scene has changed so much?

Jerry Seinfeld: Really?

Q: Well, with text messaging and stuff like that.

Jerry Seinfeld: Oh, yeah you’re right. We would have had fun with that. We definitely had fun with that.  There is so much confusion. Anything where there is potential for confusion was always great for us.

Q: Can you imagine a standup bit for junkets? Why do they call it a junket?

Jerry Seinfeld: Well, you know why they call it a junket?  The first syllable tells you why. No, unfortunately, no one can relate to this experience. I wish they could.

Q: When Barry is floating in the pool and his parents are telling him to get a job, was that ‘The Graduate’?

Jerry Seinfeld: Yes, of course. No, there was a time when I first conceived of the film that I was going to do a complete metaphor for ‘The Graduate,’ all the way, but most of it we ended up loosing.  But that scene I still liked so much and I liked that movie so much I left it in.

Q: Were there any thoughts of making it more musical or having musical numbers?

Jerry Seinfeld: There was and there was a huge, very elaborate musical production number that I ended up having to get rid of, because it just threw off the plot drives at a crucial moment. But, there is the song that Matthew and I did that’s at the end of the credits. 

Q: Will that be on the DVD?

Jerry Seinfeld: Yes, yes it will, but it’s not fully animated.

Q: Is this a more innocent character than you usually play?

Jerry Seinfeld: Hmmm.  It didn’t start off that way, but another thing I learned was that movie audiences weren’t liking me in that TV version. I had to kind of take the edge off, because it’s the way he looks. He’s younger and cuter than I am and they didn’t want him to be quite so nasty.  He was nastier at a certain point of making this and I had to take that off.

Q: Now, that it’s finished up are you thinking of what you’re going to do next?

Jerry Seinfeld: No.  (Laughs.)

Q: Do you think Stephen Colbert will appreciate the anti-bear message in this movie? That’s one of his bits. He hates bears.

Jerry Seinfeld: I didn’t know that. That’s funny. Thank you.