The stand-up comedian portraying a honey bee named Barry B. Benson in the film also emphasizes that he didn't want to 'pursue [the sexual aspect] as an idea in children's entertainment.'
- Oct 4, 2021
AceShowbiz - Jerry Seinfeld has apologized for the "subtle sexual aspect" of "Bee Movie". When bringing up his past work of the Dreamworks Animation flick, the actor portraying a honey bee named Barry B. Benson claimed that it was "not intentional."
The 67-year-old actor issued his apology when appearing on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" on Friday, October 1. "I apologize for what seems to be a certain uncomfortable subtle sexual aspect of the 'Bee Movie' which really was not intentional," he first told host Jimmy Fallon.
"But after it came out, I realized, 'This is really not appropriate for children.' Because the bee seems to have a thing for the girl," the stand-up comedian went on explaining. "We don't really want to pursue that as an idea in children's entertainment."
In the 2007 animated film, Jerry's bee Barry is a close friend of florist Vanessa Bloome, who is voiced by Renee Zellweger. Although Vanessa has a boyfriend in the movie, some eagle-eyed fans believed that there's an implied romantic relationship between the two characters.
Jerry was not the first to speak out about the matter. On the film's 10th anniversary in 2017, director Steve Hickner told The New Statesman that Barry and Vanessa were "never going to be sexual or anything like that." Steve added, "It was purely this friendship... maybe in Barry's mind he thought... but it was never going to be that."
One of its writers, Spike Feresten, additionally elaborated that they didn't want to sell "interspecies love affair" although people were "entertained or repulsed" by the story. He further stated, "Often, we would lose sight of those characters in the room."
"They would just be Barry and Vanessa, and we would write this dialogue for Barry and Vanessa, and read it over and have to remind ourselves, well, this is a tiny bee saying this, and the tiny bee is fighting with her boyfriend, so let's dial it back to friend, and make it less romantic, because it's getting weird," Spike concluded.
