The genius of Larry David is that he so freely and honestly takes uncomfortably hilarious moments from his life and channels them into his work. Focusing on the honesty and the comedy within the mundane was a massive component of the success of Seinfeld and why he and Jerry Seinfeld created the show, to begin with.
Many of Seinfeld's best storylines were lifted from Larry's own life, including when George Costanza quit his job, regretted it, then pretended it never happened in order to try and stay at work. In fact, most of George's storylines were influenced by Larry. This is because the character of George is actually based on Larry. Of course, the vast majority of Seinfeld fans are aware of this. You can also see elements of George in Larry David in the best episodes of his HBO sitcom, Curb Your Enthusiasm. But there was a time when Jason Alexander, the brilliant talent who brought George to life on Seinfeld, had absolutely no clue that he was actually playing the show's co-creator...
An 'Unbelievable' Moment Revealed That George Was Based On Larry
During an interview with Kennedy Molloy, Jason Alexander spoke about the moment he realized that he was actually playing Larry David.
"If you look at the first ten-ish episodes [of Seinfeld], Woody Allen is still my role model," Jason Alexander told Kennedy Molloy and his co-host about his inspiration for George. "Somewhere around episode ten a script came to the table and we read it for everybody, and it just seems preposterous. The situation just seemed crazy. So I went to Larry and I said, 'Larry, please help me with this because this would never happen to anybody, but if it did, nobody would react like this.' And he said, 'I don't know what you're talking about, this happened to me and it's exactly what I did!'"
This is when Jason realized that George Costanza was an alter-ego for Larry David, a man whose actual life appears to roughly resemble that of some of his best characters. After this, Jason says that he really started to study Larry and used him as a direct influence on many of his acting choices. Before it was Woody Allen, but Larry proved to be a much better person to take inspiration from... The character WAS him, after all.
Jason even figured out the precise facial expression that Larry does in real life when someone has insulted him. He explained to Kennedy Molloy that fans can see it all the time in Curb Your Enthusiasm. But Jason made sure George did something similar in Seinfeld.
"So, it's whenever he perceives that someone has insulted him or is undercutting him," Jason explained. "He puts the tip of his tongue at the bottom of his teeth and he does this thing with his eyebrows. It's just like he's weighing it. He's weighing it. 'Do I attack? Do I retreat? Do I... What do I do?'"
Jason went on to explain that imitating this specific Larry David expression really helped him find the character of George.
"This is a guy who constantly perceives the world trying to crap on him."
In an interview with the Archive of American television, Jason explained the dynamic between him and Larry throughout making Seinfeld was almost always positive. While Jason got into two major creative debates with Larry (both of which Jason regrets), most of the time they were totally on the same page about the character and the show itself.
When Larry Learned How To Play George
Seinfeld did everything differently, at least compared to most sitcoms. This included how the show did its reunion episode, which really was a show-within-a-show-within-a-show on Curb Your Enthusiasm. This meant that Jason Alexander (playing a warped version of himself) on Curb Your Enthusiasm was making a Seinfeld reunion show where he'd reprise his role of George. However, in the episode, Jason quits and this leaves Larry (playing a warped version of himself) to step into the role that was based on him.
In order to bring this to life, Jason actually had to teach Larry how to play the character that was based on him.
"I don't really don't know how to do a good impression of George," Larry David admitted in a behind-the-scenes video of the making of the Seinfeld reunion on Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Jason would come on the reunion set and try to coach Larry through some of the lines. Of course, Larry was supposed to imitate George poorly. But this required very little acting.
"It's a little strange telling the guy who came up with George, how to do George," Jason explained in the behind-the-scenes video. "He actually, I thought, did a fine George."
"No," Larry responded. "It's not easy. Just slightly unpleasant to do that."