At the time when there were lines of clear separation between films and television, there was more crossed pollination delimited between mediums. Nowadays, the concept of a television star appearing in a major film or a movie star leading the cast of a series is too common, but in the 1990s, there was still a novelty in the concept. Although a slice of pop culture parody another pop culture has existed since there have been several entertainment mediums, such a thing is made much more entertaining if one or more of the original creators are involved in the parody.

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Although the 90s were a time when television stars trying to jump to the films were always difficult (as shown by the disparate experiences of, let’s say, George Clooney and David Caruso), it was less a problem for the actors of the character. In fact, the support actors and the actors of characters were practically adopted by the filmmakers and the casting directors in many ways, not only for their range, but for their ability to be recognizable, but not as long as it distracts or confuses a general audience.

As such, Wayne Knight was one of the most employed actors of the decade, coming from a theater environment as well as A legitimate private eye careerTwo aspects that have contributed to its ability to slip between comedy and drama. The early 90s saw it appear in several controversial and / or popular films, including “JFK” And “Basic instinct.” In 1992, the same year that “Basic Instinct” was published, Knight was thrown into the increasingly popular Sitcom NBC “Seinfeld” as Nemesis by Jerry Seinfeld, the Newman postal employee. Given Knight’s success in the role In addition to his then recent turns in two of the most spoken films ever made, Knight was involved in the parody both “JFK” and “Basic Instinct” on “Seinfeld”.

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Retrospectively, the period between 1991 and 1993 had to look like a crazy whirlwind in Wayne Knight, who went from a relatively unknown character actor to, well, a very well -known actor. This certainly helped that the roles he landed were not only in buzzing films, but that they were also presented in key scenes from these films. First, in “JFK”, his Numa Bertel is an important part of Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner) showing how the theory of the “magic solution” of the assassination of JFK can be demystified. Then, in “Basic Instinct”, Knight plays John Corelli, a district prosecutor present to the suspect of interrogation of the murder and the author Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone), during which Tramell slyly seduces the group of men who is. Part of the identity of each film in pop culture has revised around these same scenes, Hence the reason why the Knight association with them made it much more famous.

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In the midst of his role of Newman on “Seinfeld” starting to take off, the series parodied “JFK” in a scene featuring Newman in the episode of February 12, 1992, “The Boyfriend”. The parody of “Basic Instinct” later came to the episode of October 17, 1996, “The Package”. During an interview with Vulture in 2022, Knight tried to recall the two parody scenes of the show:

“What is ironic is that I did” JFK “then” the basic instinct “. In” Seinfeld “, we made parodies of the scenes that I made in” JFK “and” Basic Instinct.“There is a interrogation scene where Jerry is questioned for potential postal fraud. The room is very hot and it has a cold drink between its legs. And I, as Newman, look at the cold drink between his legs and I licked my lips. And we made the scene “Second Smizit”, which was a parody of the “JFK” “second shooter” scene.

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During this reflection, Knight observed the irony of his cinematographic work and televised work reflecting each other in such a short period of time, saying: “It is as if my cinematographic career had become a source of parody only two years later.”

Despite Knight’s film career becoming fodder for “breast” bits, there has been another direct consequence of its appearance in “Basic Instinct”: His casting in “Jurassic Park”. Apparently, Steven Spielberg was very taken with Knight’s work in his big scene “Basic Instinct” (of which Knight was apparently trained by director Paul Verhoeven for). He sufficiently appreciated Knight’s appearance for having said that he would have deliberately waited for the credits of the film to find the actor’s name. Asked about this, Knight said that although he could not confirm history, he had some theories to explain why Spielberg was so eager to launch him:

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“I did not have a direct declaration on this subject [story]. I learned it through others. But I also knew that I was perhaps the first person he launched. Large people like that could die; You better lock them up! The idea was that the gaze on my face and sweat on my forehead – imagine, instead of being open, it was a dinosaur. “”

This last observation is quite clever on the part of Knight, because in “Basic Instinct” and “Jurassic Park”, a good part of the work of the actors was to consider something that they had not encountered personally before with a mixture of fear and fear. In the old film, she is a sexually independent and powerful woman (perhaps dangerous), and in the second, it is a killer animal for a long time. When it was put like that, it is almost as if Knight was parodying his role “Basic Instinct” in “Jurassic Park”, too bad in “Seinfeld”. I suppose that in addition to being a big actor, the guy is also a natural in parodies.

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