Metroid Prime was the first 3D entry in the Metroid series 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 titled Metroid Prime 4, was announced at E3 2017, but still has yet to be released.
RELATED: Metroid Prime-Related Announcement Teased by Mysterious Leaker
Video game news site TimeExtension.com dug into the iconic photo’s history that depicts one of the few times Seinfeld and 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 playing Metroid Prime was 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 of Metroid Prime and could even take a GameCube console if 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 playing Metroid Prime backstage at an award show in a moment that feels ripped out of an episode of Seinfeld is still being shared acts as a sterling example of the kinds of situations celebrities are trying to avoid.
Metroid Prime is available on the GameCube and Wii.
MORE: It’s Time to Hear More About Metroid Prime 4
Source: Time Extension
