“Seinfeld” has had many guest stars over its nine seasons. While many of them managed to upset the main characters of the universe, a few actually pissed off the real Jerry Seinfeld. The most famous example is undoubtedly Seinfeld’s feud with the real “Soup Nazi” but it was about the character’s inspiration — famed soup chef Ali Yeganeh of Soup Kitchen International — who was offended by Seinfeld’s version instead of whatever Larry Thomas (who played the fictional Yev “Soup Nazi “Kassem) did. However, one star’s cameo in particular managed to get Seinfeld noticed…literally.
In “Seinfeld” Season 5, “The Raincoats,” Judge Reinhold memorably plays Aaron, Elaine’s latest boyfriend who has an unfortunate penchant for standing very close to people when he speaks. During an appearance on “The Rich Eisen Show”, Reinhold revealed that when they were rehearsing the scene, he couldn’t help but notice that people seemed to be having a strangely funny time when he interacted with Seinfeld. That’s because they, unlike Reinhold at the time, knew that the scene really scared the star. Here’s how Reinhold explained the situation:
“When I get to Jerry, I’m the closest, and then the crew was laughing in a way that made it seem like something was happening. And so we took a break for lunch or something and I said: ‘Why are you guys laughing so much?’ hard when I get to Jerry? And they said because he’s such a germaphobe, he’s terrified of what you do.”
Reinhold embraced awkwardness as talkative Aaron
As anyone who saw the episode knows all too well, the news that Jerry Seinfeld was genuinely upset by his character’s tic in no way deterred Judge Reinhold. In fact, as he was quick to mention in the interview, he found a way to get even closer to the show’s star while filming the scene, making sure that her mortified expression Seinfeld didn’t require action:
“So, of course, by the time the camera came in, I was almost touching his nose. I mean, our nose hairs were almost touching. I know he was so uncomfortable. If you watch it again, you’ll see he’s just crawling in his skin.”
Many “Seinfeld” cameos have interesting stories behind them. Philip Baker Hall said his life changed after playing Lt. Joe Bookmanthe library cop in season 3 of “Seinfeld,” “The Library.” On the other end of the spectrum, Bob Odenkirk had never even seen “Seinfeld” when he agreed to play Elaine’s hapless medical student boyfriend Ben in the season 8 episode “The Abstinence”. However, only Reinhold can say that he devoted a considerable part of his appearance on the legendary sitcom to the personal space of Jerry Seinfeld.
