Actor John O’Hurley — perhaps best known for his role as Elaine Benes’ boss, J. Peterman, on Seinfeld — has opened up about his storied film career, the election of President Donald Trump, and his new 90-minute song and show business retrospective A Man with Standards.
The former Family Feud host is currently starring in the romantic comedy Swing Away, where he plays an “overzealous American capitalist” inspired by Trump.
“I’ve known Donald for a long time,” O’Hurley told Fox 411 in a recent interview, adding that he’s excited to see someone with business experience become president.
“I’m always a fan of giving a businessman a chance to thin the herd in government because we have this slow growth and our government is just getting too big, to be efficient anymore,” he said. “I want the idea of somebody going in there with a pickax and just chipping it apart.”
“God bless [Trump] for what his challenges are and the resistance that is up against him right now,” O’Hurley added. “I believe in him, I believe in what he’s doing and I wish him the best.”
Echoing comments made previously by actor Mark Wahlberg and Kiss rocker Gene Simmons, O’Hurley said his political views are no more important than those of someone without his celebrity status.
“I always say, whenever I speak politically or speak my political views, I say just because I’m a celebrity, does not mean my opinion deserves to be celebrated. I am just another bozo on the bus,” the 62-year-old star said.
O’Hurley also opened up about his new one-man show, A Man With Standards, which pays tribute to a time in America in which both high musical and moral standards reigned supreme.
“I grew up in the period of the standards and I also was lucky enough to grow up around men, who had standards, manners and back then the manners and the music were really one in the same,” O’Hurley said. “Standards were part of our culture and it’s kind of slipped away as time has gone by.”
Low standards, O’Hurley explained, led to his decision to leave Family Feud in 2010.
“I got tired of people writing to me saying, ‘I can’t watch your show.’ It’s a misnomer calling ‘Family Feud’ because it’s not family,” he said. “It feels like everything became a penis joke and I got a little tired of that. I just felt that there were other ways to be more interesting on television than always trying to push that style of family entertainment.”
Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson
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