Most would consider turning 70 years old a big milestone. Not Jerry Seinfeld, who turned the big 7-0 on Monday. In fact, he has zero interest in celebrating … anything … ever.
“I don’t really have any interest in it,” he told Jenna Bush Hager and Hoda Kotb about his birthday during an appearance on “Today with Hoda and Jenna” last week. “You know what it is? It’s ‘Boy, I could really live with a lot less stuff.’ Things, people, activities. I’m not doing nothing anymore. We’re going to essentialize now. I like to essentialize, I like to purify, I like to streamline. This is where life gets better, not adding more. Add less.”
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Jerry Seinfeld turned 70 on April 29. (Manny Carabel/Getty Images)
That lackadaisical, yet intentional attitude towards life’s daily wins and losses is exactly what has earned the stand-up comedian global recognition and massive success throughout his nearly 50-year-long career.
However, despite his many accolades and achievements, the New York City native – who is making his directorial debut in the upcoming Netflix film “Unfrosted” – recently admitted that he often wrestles with a “darkening mood.”
“Irrespective of circumstance, I just don’t feel good,” Seinfeld said during a recent appearance on “In Depth with Graham Bensinger.” “Sometimes I just don’t feel good. And, the best way to get out of it for me is work. Work is the best antidote. That’s why I work so much, because . . . for some reason, you feel like you’re not wasting time.”
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Jerry Seinfeld admitted that sometimes he just doesn’t “feel good” and often wrestles with a “darkening mood.” (Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images)
“I realized this tendency to get depressed, I would never want to not have that if I would lose the creative gift that came with it. It’s part of it. It’s probably [an] overactive brain. I wouldn’t call it real depression. I don’t know what the word for it is. . . . The mood darkens. I get a darkening mood. And I want to get out of it,” he said.
From his critically acclaimed hit TV shows “Seinfeld” and “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” (for which Seinfeld earned a total of twenty Emmy nominations) to being named the 12th-greatest stand-up comedian of all time by Comedy Central, Seinfeld has undoubtedly kept himself busy. But he’s still not impressed.
The cast of “Seinfeld” won for Outstanding Comedy Series on September 19, 1993. (Scott Flynn/AFP)
Instead, he tends to ignore the outside noise and give his energy to what really matters in life: bettering himself.
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“Everything that you’re worried about is going to be gone like that,” he told Bensinger. “The people that are criticizing you – they’re going to be gone, you’re going to be gone. All this hand-wringing worry and concern over, ‘How are people viewing me?’ and, ‘Someone said something bad about me,’ and you get so upset about it, is wasted time and energy.”
“Marcus Aurelius [Roman philosopher] says your only focus should be on getting better at what you’re doing. Focus on what you’re doing. Get better at what you’re doing,” he added. “Everything else is a complete waste of time. So I have this movie coming out in about a month. I am so excited to read the worst reviews.”
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Aside from the occasional “darkening mood,” Seinfeld – who has three adult children with his wife of nearly 25 years, Jessica – could not be more content with himself and his life today … well, for the most part.
“I’m a very happy person hating everything throughout my entire life,” he told Jimmy Fallon during an appearance on “The Tonight Show” in March.
Jerry Seinfeld and his wife Jessica have been married for almost 25 years. They have three children together. (Getty Images)
Including family vacations.
“I hate it . . . I still go because what is the difference of doing one more thing I don’t like on top of not liking anything anyway? . . . My wife, it’s tough on her,” he added. “She gets upset when I have a bad time. I don’t. I knew it was going to suck. And then I’m going to complain about it, which is something I do enjoy. That’s what I like. I love complaining.”
While birthdays aren’t his thing, turning 70 is still a milestone worth recognizing.
To quote the comedian himself from a 1993 episode of “Seinfeld”: “Birthdays are merely symbolic of how another year has gone by and how little we’ve grown. No matter how desperate we are that someday a better self will emerge with every flicker of the candles on the cake, we know it’s not to be. That, for the rest of our sad, wretched, pathetic lives, this is who we are to the bitter end. Inevitably, irrevocably. . . . Happy birthday? No such thing.”
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