Actor Jason Alexander ofSeinfeldfame doesn’t remember the moment when a celebrity photographer took a viral photo of him playingMetroid Prime. That’s understandable sinceMetroid Primewas released just over 20 years ago in November 2002 for the Nintendo GameCube. The photo depicts an angry Jason Alexander staring over his shoulder and straight into the camera lens as he sits in front of a Nintendo GameCube kiosk similar to the ones that used to be found in retail stores. Alexander can be seen playingMetroid Primeon a small CRT TV over his left shoulder.Metroid Primewas the first 3D entry in theMetroidseries and the first to change the gameplay perspective from a 2D side-scroller to a first-person shooter. The game was lauded by critics and remains a classic in the eyes of fans. It spawned two sequels. A third sequel,tentatively titledMetroid Prime 4, was announced at E3 2017, but still has yet to be released.RELATED:Metroid Prime-Related Announcement Teased by Mysterious LeakerVideo game news site TimeExtension.com dug into the iconic photo’s history that depicts one of the few timesSeinfeldand video games have intersected. They were referred to the actor’s publicist who claims that Alexander does not remember the photo being taken. Time Extension then reached out to the man who took the original picture, a celebrity photographer named Lester Cohen. In the early 2000s, Cohen co-founded a celebrity photography company called WireImage that was later acquired by Getty Images, a world-renowned supplier of stock photos.
Cohen recalls that the funny picture of Jason Alexander being caught off guard while playingMetroid Primewas taken in the backstage gifting room of the 2003 People’s Choice Awards. Brands looking for free promotion of their products stuff gifting rooms with products hoping photographers like Cohen will snap a picture of a celebrity posing with an item for free advertising. Celebrities can then walk away with whatever products are available in the room at no charge. Celebrities who entered this particular gifting room were offered the chance to play and walk away with a free copy ofMetroid Primeand could even take a GameCube consoleif they wanted. Cohen told Time Extension about how awkward taking photos in gifting rooms could be, remembering times he’d be shut down by Oscar-winning actresses or their representatives after requesting that they pose with items like toothbrushes.
Cohen says that eventually, celebrities became wary of being photographed in gifting rooms, instead opting to send in their representatives to pick up items for them so they didn’t have to risk potentially being photographed in an embarrassing situation. The fact that a picture of an angry Jason Alexander playingMetroid Primebackstage at an award show in a moment that feels ripped out ofan episode ofSeinfeldis still being shared acts as a sterling example of the kinds of situations celebrities are trying to avoid.
Metroid Primeis available on the GameCube and Wii.
