Jason Alexander Shares a Very Specific Reason Why AI Is Bad for the Arts
Seinfeld star Jason Alexander is making his Broadway directorial debut this season with The Cottage, a side-splitting, frisky romp set in the English Countryside in 1923. Billed as "a tale of sex, betrayal and love," the story follows a married woman named Sylvia (Laura Bell Bundy) who decides to expose her affair to both her husband (Alex Moffat of Saturday Night Live fame) and her lover’s wife (Lilli Cooper). Will & Grace actor Eric McCormack plays Sylvia's beau.
"Unlike many plays that are sort of spoof-y or a parody in their nature, with The Cottage there’s an actual play here," Alexander tells Parade. "It’s about a time when women, if they did not own property or if they did not have ties to a man, had very little control or authority or self-direction in their lives, and this is about a woman who gains that over the course of the play."
Although he's best known for playing George Costanza on Seinfeld, Alexander is a veritable Broadway song-and-dance man himself, with a Tony Award for the musical Jerome Robbins to prove it. (For the record, he keeps his trophy displayed in his library den at home. "But it’s not there ostentatiously," he says. "You’d have to look around to spot it.")
Ahead, the stage and TV icon talks to Parade about helming The Cottage, which starts previews at the Helen Hayes Theater on July 7, his latest famous Seinfeld fan and the problem with AI in the arts.
Why did you want to direct The Cottage?
Boy, if you like doing funny, it is a wealth of opportunities for a director, because it has this No?l Coward-esque style to it that is pushed to a sort of heightened degree, almost to the point of a parody. It’s got lots of little surprises. It is very funny in its wit but also funny in its stage ability. The things that people do in the course of the play have to be coordinated in order to bring out the maximum comedic flavor.
You also get to work with Eric McCormack, who is a longtime friend. What is that like?
It is a joy. Eric and I worked together years ago on a show in Los Angeles, and we have another play we are still hoping to get to New York. But then this came up and he was unbelievably perfect for it. Eric was really our savior of this play, because we had an opportunity to have this theater, but we had one week to secure it or we were going to lose it, and we needed to have a marquee name.
Eric literally read the play in a day and gave us a yes overnight. Had he not done that, I don’t know that we would have been able to take the theater and this whole opportunity could be lost. Eric is a star by anybody’s definition, and this is an ensemble play, and he has been such a great leader, such a great ensemble player. He has set the tone and set the bar extremely high, and I adored him before we began and I adore him a thousand-fold now.
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You're best known for portraying George Costanza on Seinfeld, which continues to bring in new generations of admirers. How are the new fans different from the original fans?
You know, they’re not, except the original fanbase for the show was kind of me, mostly. It was a very male show, a lot of men watched it originally, and a lot of younger men originally watched it. And then the demographic kept expanding into senior citizens and younger children and then people from other countries, and I am always agog at what they found to relate to in the show, and that continues.
Do you have a celebrity Seinfeld fan over the years that surprised or excited you?
I was at Sweeney Todd the other night and Colin Farrell was there with his son, and I went over to gush over him and he turned around. I never assume that people are watching the show; I just don’t. And so, he turned around and he went, “Oh mate, I love the show.” He was really, really adorable about it. I don’t think about Colin Farrell sitting around watching Seinfeld. And yet, that is always the surprise. So it’s not so much that they gush any more than anybody else, but just that they happen to be watching it is always a bit surprising to me.
I know you are a busy guy, but do have any favorite TV shows?
What got me through the pandemic, and I love it to death, was the Spanish show that here is called Money Heist, but in Spain where it was made it was called La Casa de Papel. I thought it was some of the most brilliant writing, ensemble acting, action and character development; it was a fantastic show.
In the comedy world, Fleabag was off the charts for us. My wife and I were diehard fans of Ted Lasso. We loved Barry, although Barry got really dark at the end. But there’s just so much good television, and the truth is I’m missing most of it because I think I watch an hour of television a day if I’m lucky enough to get that time.
Rebecca J Michelson
You recently guest starred on another fan-favorite, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. How was that experience?
Heaven. When you guest on somebody’s show you’re stepping into their home; it’s like visiting somebody that you don’t really know. And sometimes it’s a happy home and sometimes it’s a little bit more of a dysfunctional home. Maisel was one of the happiest homes.
In Maisel’s case, they’re doing really sophisticated writing and really sophisticated production with seemingly unlimited resources. And you just look around and go, “Oh my god, where are these costumes coming from?” And the musical numbers and the live location sets—it’s astonishing. But at the bottom of all that is the human experience of just working in a place that is really happy and really talented and really welcoming.
Young Sheldon, where I also have done quite a bit of work, was also a really happy home, where the crew is happy, the cast is happy and the writing is solid.
You have a podcast called Really? No, Really?, where you and co-host Peter Tilden interview experts to get answers to some of life's baffling questions. How did that come about?
The podcast has been a joy, and it was really the brainchild of my partner Peter Tilden, who invited me to do it with him because of the way we would talk about things that kind of caught our curiosity or made us a little crazy.
We began with a premise from Jerry Seinfeld’s stand-up act, where he wonders why public restroom stall doors don’t go all the way down to the floor. Why is there that little, what he calls "the viewing window" at the bottom? We actually went and found an award-winning public-restroom designer and got the answer to that, which was fascinating.
What were a few other memorable episodes?
We talked to a woman who teaches a course at Yale on happiness and how to live a happier life. We talked to a guy who curates the Museum of Failure, which ironically happens to be a big success. We talked about, What is failure and what is the barometer of real failure? Because I’ve done things that have technically failed, but I’ve gotten a lot out of it. So we’re just chatting with really interesting, fascinating people from all walks of life.
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Both of your sons, Gabe and Noah, are actors. The industry has changed so much since you were at the stage that they are now. Has anything jumped out at you in particular on what they’re going through?
Well, I can advise to a degree, but the truth is as you say, that the whole functionality of our industry has undergone a radical change. I think it’s very, very difficult to get a job if you don’t go in the room with the people making the decisions, and nowadays most auditions are video submissions. It’s really hard if you’re trying to find actors for a stage show because the minute that they get in front of cameras they’re giving a camera performance not a stage performance. The whole notion of video auditioning or video submissions as a change is not one that I love.
What about the issues that have come up with the current writers' strike?
What we’re all nervous about is Artificial Intelligence (AI), and it’s why the writers are on strike and why I support them so vehemently. I think that everybody in the creative arts, including the producers, should be very concerned about it. We are getting to a point where in a very short time anybody with a computer or a cell phone will be able to generate any kind of images they want in a very cinematic form and start creating what essentially is entertainment. While that is great as far as being in a democracy where everybody has the tools to create, the downside is it will eliminate what is professional and what is not.
So, if AI is doing the performances, if AI is choosing the cinematic shots, if AI is writing the scripts, the human experience of expression in the arts is potentially jeopardized to the point of extinction. I think this is the threat that every artist, no matter what they do, is facing right now and should be very concerned about. So, my boys are very much in that group.
Related: Everything You Need to Know About the 2023 Writers' Strike
Do you want to perform on Broadway again? Sing, dance, act, all of the above?
These old legs don’t always do what they used to do. If it was the right thing and the right part, yes. Broadway is always a thrill and anybody who loves being a stage actor who isn’t excited about getting back on a Broadway stage really shouldn’t be acting on stages anymore, because it’s just the highest thrill that you can have as a theater actor in this country. My biggest problem is that I don’t live in New York, and so I miss my family, friends and my life when I go to New York.
Speaking of family, you're a grandpa to a baby boy who's not even one yet. What's that like?
As my mother, Ruth, used to say, "It's a whole new world." I don't know how to describe it. It's kind of like when you are pregnant with the second child, I remember thinking, "Well, this is going to be terrible because I'm completely in love with my first child. How could I love the second child the way I love him?" Isn't that awful? And then the second child is born, and what you don't realize is that your heart gets bigger, and that's what happens with a grandchild.
Part of what I miss so much right now is that I haven’t seen him in six weeks and he’s only 9 months old, so he’s becoming a different child every week and I’m missing pieces of it. So I will see him in a few more weeks and then I’m going to nibble on those arms and legs until I get my fill, because he’s completely delicious.
The Cottage on Broadway, directed by Jason Alexander, runs at the Hayes Theater, 240 West 44th Street, from July 7 through October 29. For tickets call (212) 239-6200, or click here.