Seinfeld Star Says The Series Ruined His Career
Wayne Knight, who played Jerry's mailman nemesis Newman on Seinfeld, blames the series for derailing his movie career as a character actor.
Seinfeld is packed with iconic characters, and Wayne Knight’s Newman is definitely near the top of the stack. However, this iconic status comes at a price. In a Vice interview with Twitter user and Internet radio personality Seinfeld2000, Knight said, “It practically obliterated my film career in some ways…because by being on something that iconic and being that known for that character, it made it much more difficult as a character actor to disappear into film.”
In addition to being on Seinfeld, Wayne Knight is a fantastic character actor who has many other famous roles. However, it’s easy to see why a casting director might automatically associate him with Newman and second-guess casting him during the process. Since he was so well-known for the role, you risk the audience automatically making the Newman connection and losing the immersion in the film.
Fortunately, many casting directors were able to look past the Seinfeld connection, and Wayne Knight has been in major films like Jurassic Park, Basic Instinct, Space Jam, and more. While his film career isn’t quite at its 90s peak anymore, Knight is still doing plenty of work as a TV and film actor. Most recently, he appeared in the Hulu original movie Darby and the Dead.
Seinfeld is such an enduring classic sitcom that it has managed to maintain its popularity many years after ending in 1998. The series is available to stream in full on Netflix and still gets plenty of people tuning in, with many looking to rewatch the series and many from the new generation discovering it for the first time. While Wayne Knight has carved out a successful career after the sitcom, he’ll definitely be well-known as Newman for many years to come.
Many other members of the Seinfeld cast managed to go on and have their own successful careers outside of the show, just as Wayne Knight did. Creator Larry David went on to create the nearly-as-popular Curb Your Enthusiasm, which also features cameos from Seinfeld cast members. Meanwhile, Julia-Louis Dreyfus has nabbed numerous Emmy wins for her role in Veep while also snagging an ongoing role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine.
Jason Alexander, who played George Costanza, took a similar career path as Wayne Knight and has appeared in numerous TV and film roles since the end of Seinfeld. Meanwhile, Jerry is in the midst of directing and producing a movie about the origin of Pop-Tarts. Jerry is also part of the star-studded cast of Unfrosted, which also includes Rachael Harris, Melissa McCarthy, Hugh Grant, Christian Slater, James Marsden, Maria Bakalova, Max Greenfield, and more.
Wayne Knight continues his post-Seinfeld career with an upcoming short titled What Ever Happened to Jonny Faith. The short is a drama about a country singer who tries to make amends with his son after disappearing 30 years ago. The short is written and directed by Benjamin Pollack and also stars Debbie Pollack, Frank Noon, Bruce Greenwood, Alexandra Wright, Margo Parker, and Ashley Lauren Nedd.
If you want to revisit Wayne Knight’s performance as Newman, you can stream Seinfeld on Netflix. According to IMDb, his short What Ever Happened to Jonny Faith is still in production. Be on the lookout for a release date if you want to check out Knight in his next role.
