“Nothing made sense to me”: Jason Alexander Thought He Was Playing an Iconic Hollywood Filmmaker on ‘Seinfeld’ Until He Realized the Truth in a Hilarious Way
- Jason Alexander thought he was playing Woody Allen in 'Seinfeld' until he realized it was Larry David.
- While struggling with the script, Alexander realized his character was a reflection of David’s own experiences.
- Alexander almost thought of quitting 'Seinfeld' but he was grateful David didn't let him do that.
Jason Alexander’s portrayal of George Costanza on Seinfeld has become a stuff of comedy legend. Alexander earned 7 Emmy nominations and 1 SAG Award during all 9 seasons he played the neurotic, self-absorbed character. But when he first auditioned for the role, he thought he was playing someone else.
Seinfeld became a cultural phenomenon with its observational humor. The dynamic between Jerry, Elaine, Kramer, and of course, George was the heart of the show, and it was after a few episodes that Alexander realized the truth about who George Costanza really was.
Jason Alexander’s Seinfeld Journey from Woody Allen to Larry David
When Jason Alexander first got the Seinfeld script for his audition, he felt it was like a Woody Allen film as he had no context for it. Alexander went all in with his assumptions and channeled the energy and mannerisms of the filmmaker.
Alexander didn’t hold back in his video audition. In an interview on The Howard Stern Show, he revealed that he put on his best Woody Allen impression with the stuttering dialog delivery and completed it with the trademark glasses.
In his mind, Alexander was almost sure that he wouldn’t be getting the role, and he had nothing to lose there. Only if he knew that this over-the-top performance would land him the role that would define his career. However, he faced a problem after shooting a few episodes of the sitcom. Alexander revealed,
We ran into an early episode where nothing made sense to me. The situation seemed ludicrous on Seinfeld… I remember we did the table read and I went to Larry and said ‘Larry please help me. This would never happen to anybody, but if it did, no one on the planet would react like this’ and he said ‘oh what are you talking about, this happened to me, that’s exactly what I did.‘
That was when Alexander realized he wasn’t playing a Woody Allen-inspired character at all. Instead, he was playing Larry David himself. Alexander said, “Then I just started really observing him and trying to pull as much of him into me as I could.”
After this revelation, Alexander changed the way he portrayed George Costanza. He brought in more of David’s personality and combined them with his own comedy. It ultimately resulted in a character that captured David’s frustrations and social awkwardness and was still unique to Alexander’s creation.
Creative Tensions Between Jason Alexander and Larry David
Although Costanza was a huge success, Seinfeld’s journey was not always smooth for Alexander. There was even a point where he nearly quit the show, and it was all because of the screen time issue. In a behind-the-scenes video of Seinfeld, it was revealed that Alexander confronted Larry David after he was left out of the Season 3 episode The Pen.
I went to Larry, when we came back to do the following episode, and I said, ‘I got to talk to you about what happened last week. You wrote me out of the show.’ I said, ‘I don’t even want to be here if I’m indispensable.’ I hadn’t counted on this career.
Although David tried to explain that it was not easy to feature all four main characters in every episode, Alexander was not having it. He said, “Don’t tell me your problems. If you don’t need me here, I don’t want to be here.”
This ultimatum worked in Alexander’s favor, and Costanza appeared in every episode until the finale in 1998. However, as he looked back, Jason Alexander was just grateful that David didn’t let him quit. He even admitted in an interview with Access Hollywood that he would have no career otherwise.
Seinfeld is available to stream on Netflix.
