Unfrosted Interview: Writer Spike Feresten on Making a Funny ‘Biopic’
ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with Unfrosted writer Spike Feresten about the comedy movie. He discussed working with Jerry Seinfeld over the years and making a comedy-first biopic. Unfrosted is now streaming on Netflix.
“Michigan, 1963. Kellogg’s and Post, sworn cereal rivals, race to create a pastry that will change the face of breakfast,” reads the film‘s synopsis. “A tale of ambition, betrayal, sugar, and menacing milkmen, Unfrosted stars Jerry Seinfeld in his directorial debut.”
Tyler Treese: We’ve seen a lot of corporate biopics, and it almost seems like Unfrosted is a parody of them, but the timelines don’t really line up. It seems like funny timing that we got all these very self-serious corporate biopics, and then we have this completely off-the-wall one for Pop-Tarts here.
Spike Feresten: From the very start, we never set out to make a biopic about the true history of the Pop-Tart [Laughs]. How many of these origin pictures were out there was completely irrelevant to what we were doing. What we set out to do was to make a Seinfeld in-tone comedy about the Pop-Tart origin story as we would’ve seen it. In fact, if we had been doing the show back in the ’90s and had a Pop-Tart story in Seinfeld, it would’ve come out like this.
There’s a really funny element to this where it’s almost like Forrest Gump-ing through breakfast history, where we see how “They’re grrrreat” is found, we see the origins of Tang — there are a lot of little throwaway origin stories throughout. How was it placing in those little breakfast nods throughout the film?
The whole movie was just us getting together during the pandemic to have some sort of social life and to talk about things and laugh. We started talking about this idea, and we started writing it down. To be honest, we never thought we were really going to make it. It was just something to do while all of us were hunkered down waiting for this pandemic to end. Those little things that you mentioned, again, I harken back to writing with Jerry and the staff on Seinfeld. It’s the same thing.
We delight in just making up things and making up history if we find it funny. Is that how “They’re grrrreat” was discovered? No. [Aughs]. But Thurl Ravenscroft was a real character. He did play Tony the Tiger, and he was a serious actor like Hugh Grant portrays in the movie. So there are elements of it that are very, very factual, but again, like Jerry said right from the start — and he has always been like — whatever’s funniest is going to be in the script. [Laughs]. It doesn’t matter if it’s true. If it’s funny, we’re going to do that.
You have a who’s who of comedy in this cast and two of the highlights are these two little kids that are going in the garbage, rooting through garbage looking for breakfast pastries. How did you find these two kids? They’re so fantastic in this movie.
Yeah, Butchie — Bailey Sheetz — and Cathy — Eleanor Sweeney. They auditioned and, very quickly, we saw these young actors and went, “There you go.” It was actually some of the easiest casting in the movie. They each stood out in their respective part. They were each such a delight to have on set. The scene you’re talking about, the dumpster scene, required what we thought was going to be some stunt work, jumping out of the garbage truck and into the dumpster. They were all about doing the stunt themselves. They’d been watching too much Tom Cruise Mission: Impossible. [Laughs]. And they were like, “Eh, let us try it.” “Okay. Just don’t hurt yourself.”
And they, of course, just leaped in, leaped out. It was really fun to have them on set. They’re great kids, and I think infuse that kind of fun 1960s breakfast cereal innocence and cartoony attitude in the movie. I’m so grateful that they’re both in it because they really balance out all of the older funny people. At the end of the day, the 1960-70s breakfast era was about kids. And they’re a big part of this movie.
One scene that has really stuck with me and keeps making me laugh every time I think about it was the funeral scene, where you fill it up with milk and the cereal. How were the logistics of figuring out getting a casket? How was it filming that sequence?
First of all, credit to Jerry, who persevered with this scene, and I’ll confess, there were times when I didn’t believe that this scene was going to be worth the time and money in the movie. And Jerry said, “No, because we’re making this scene. It’s going to be great.” And now, he was right. It’s one of the funniest scenes in the movie, and you’re right. We had to decide, “Are we shooting this practically?” In other words, “Are we going to dig a hole and try to fill it with milk? And what happens when you pour white milk and there’s dirt and worms and everything? Or are we going to CGI, and how do we keep that from not looking fake?”
So, believe it or not, there was a lot of Star Wars-level visual effects meetings. [Laughs]. Talking about how to pour milk on the casket, it was one of the last visual effects that we finished in the movie, of which there were a lot of visual effects. There were explosions, there are all sorts of things, but that one, I think, from beginning to end, may be the longest, most expensive visual effect.
The cast here is just phenomenal. Jon Hamm’s scene is just fantastic. He has that great line, “You’ll never swim the English Channel and then drown in champagne.” How is it seeing him work? He’s just a delight in that sequence.
Jon Hamm, it feels like he’s in everything. Every time I turn on my TV, he’s in everything. With everybody in this cast, showing up to work every day was really like a comedy writer’s dream come true. You walk in one day, there’s Melissa McCarthy and she’s making us laugh with her improvised lines. And the next day, you’ve got Jon Hamm in there, and then you’ve got Cedric the Entertainer — every day was like … it was such a dream job for all of us, to come and show up for that. That scene you’re talking about is a bit of a spoiler. I don’t want to spoil it for everybody. That scene is secret.
But I will tell you that while we were writing the movie, we would take a break every once in a while and watch Mad Men scenes. The show, for us, played like a comedy. We loved watching scenes where Jon Hamm’s character was mean to his client. [Laughs]. And he gave very flowery, eloquent, tangentially weird speeches that only I think Matthew Weiner and his staff could come up with. That phrase, that line that you’re talking about is reflective of the type of stuff we were watching on YouTube while we were writing the movie. The tone and the lighting too, Jerry and Bill Pope … frequently, we would go to Mad Men and go, “Look, we’re in this world. We want it to be a little more colorful and different.” But the two of them really worked hard to take the look of Mad Men and then make it their own and make it just a little brighter and a little more fun.
I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about your most important role because, obviously, you’re the writer and producer, but you’re also the voice of Newborn Ravioli. How special was it getting to have your voice in this film and voice the coolest character. It’s going to be a merch machine.
That’s what I’m hoping! [Laughs]. I was originally supposed to play the janitor in Amy Schumer’s office in that scene, but I just thought … there was someone who was working with us, Greg Burke, on the picture, and I thought he would do a better job and he absolutely crushed it.
But that credit you’re talking about makes Jerry and I laugh a lot. He’s credited as the voice of Teenage Ravioli, and I’m credited as the voice of Baby Ravioli, and that’s just because we were in the edit room doing 14-hour days, tired and stepping up to the mic and making funny sounds. Then we thought, “Well, let’s just keep it in.” [Laughs]. But Jerry and I are most proud of those two credits in the movie.
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