Easy commute! Jason Alexander teamed up with Tide for his first project amid the pandemic — and the Super Bowl commercial just so happened to film right in his neighborhood.
Stars at the Super Bowl Through the Years
“That was one of the calls where you go, ‘Oh, this is going to be fun.’ Before I even saw what they had in mind, my little team said, ‘It’s a Tide commercial.’ I went, ‘Let’s do it.’ It’s such a crazy concept. It was really unusual to do,” the Seinfeld alum, 61, exclusively told Us Weekly.
Alexander stars in the 60-second ad as a teen’s hoodie, which gets dirtied up and thrown around. The actor took “hundreds and hundreds of photographs making faces” for the computer-generated imagery to promote the new Tide Hygienic Clean detergent.
“Not since I was 6 did I get to make a living making faces. It was really the first time since the pandemic that I’ve been back in front of a film crew. So it was kind of thrilling. I mean, a little nervous making because you’re going, ‘Oh, I don’t want to get sick.’ But it was thrilling to be back in show business for a day. It was very comforting. The whole thing has been great and they did a fantastic job. I love the way the spot came out,” he added. “And then the car location was blocks from my house. When I take my daily walk, I walk by where we shot the car scene.”
Hollywood’s Hottest Football Fans
The Pretty Woman star likened his many expressions to 1933’s King Kong. “Your head had to stay totally still so you’re really just moving facial muscles,” he explained. “[It’s] what Fay Wray must have been like when she was making King Kong, because the director would be like, ‘You see the monkey, you’re horrified. Oh my God, you’re disgusted. You’re nauseated. You’re in love.’ And just yelling out ideas of situations and emotions and you’re just making faces. I left there going, ‘I can’t believe this is how a 60-year-old man makes a living. This is kind of silly.’”
Alexander’s commercial may be featured during Super Bowl LV, but he’s not much of a football fan. “I don’t say that with any pride,” he told Us. ”My uncle used to direct all the New York team’s television games. So the Mets, the Knicks, and the Rangers. He directed all the television games. And as a kid, I used to go to tons of those games. I was always following those teams. Somehow by the time I became a young teenager, I started doing theater and going, ‘I have a different affection. I suck at sports. I am going to go on the stage and sing and tap dance.’ Somehow, I stopped watching and I never came back. Even though my career has been so closely associated with sports sometimes, I’m a moron. I mean, the other day somebody said to me, ‘Who do you like for this year Super Bowl?’ And I went ‘Well, who’s playing?’”
Stars’ At-Home Super Bowl Parties
He’ll still be watching the Kansas City Chiefs face-off against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, however. “I actually love watching the Super Bowl the way I love watching the World Series,” he continued. “It doesn’t matter that I don’t follow the sports. It’s such a big event and it is exciting. And the Super Bowl in particular — between the halftime show and this parade of top-quality creative commercials — it’s just a thrill to watch it.”
Super Bowl LV kicks off on CBS Sunday, February 7, at 6:30 p.m. ET.
Watch Alexander’s Tide spot above!
