LARRY’S LAST LAUGH BEFORE HE GOES ALL SENSITIVE
Creator and star of the hit comedy series, ‘Curb Your Enthusiam’ talks about the final season and what it feels like to finally shed the ‘Larry David’ persona
Seinfeld co-creator Larry David stars as an overthe-top version of himself in the iconic HBO comedy, Curb Your Enthusiasm, which continues to prove how seemingly trivial details of day-today life can precipitate catastrophic chains of events. “As Curb comes to an end, I will now have the opportunity to finally shed this ‘Larry David’ persona and become the person God intended me to be — the thoughtful, kind, caring, considerate human being I was until I got derailed by portraying this malignant character,” says Larry. “And so ‘Larry David’ ,I bid you farewell. Your misanthropy will not be missed. And for those of you who’d like to get in touch with me, you can reach me at Doctors Without Borders.”
Curb Your Enthusiasm also stars Jeff Garlin (The Goldbergs), Susie Essman (Broad City), Cheryl Hines (Suburgatory), JB Smoove (Mapleworth Murders), Ted Danson (The Good Place), Richard Lewis (Anything But Love), Vince Vaughn (Wedding Crashers), and Tracey Ullman (The Tracey Ullman Show). This season’s cameos include South African Sharlto Copley (District 9), Jimmy Kimmel, Bruce Springsteen, Sienna Miller and Dan Levy.
We caught up with Larry to find out more about the final season.
Did you imagine, when you did the pilot for ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’, it would last this long?
After the show got picked up for a season, my agent said to me, “Hey, you can do 10 seasons of this.” I said, “Are you out of your mind? Ten seasons?! Are you crazy??” And now here we are, 12 seasons later.
At what point did you decide that this was going to be the last season?
I can’t remember. I think before we wrote it, I knew it was going to be the last one. We’ve been at it a long time. I’m getting old, as is the cast, and nature has a way of telling us to stop.
But you’ve changed your mind before. Like at the end of season 5 when you died and went to heaven ...
Yeah, I’m always afraid I can’t write another one. So, I did think it was the last one, but this time it IS the last one.
No-one could accuse you of avoiding the issues of our time — you have a scene involving a trans character in one episode. Do you think you can get away with almost anything because the tone of the show is so playful?
It’s a question of how you handle stuff. When you see something funny, you forget how you’re supposed to think.
You famously write an outline for each episode and the dialogue is improvised. Are there specific lines in the script you write or is it improvised on the day?
There’ll be lines in the outline that we feel we should say at some point. But to tell you the truth, a lot of times I’ll be in makeup and I don’t know what we’re shooting. I’ll say to somebody, “Can I read an outline? What are we doing?” That’s as much thought as I put into it. It makes it more spontaneous and fun to make it up on the spot. But in every scene, we have to move the story along — there are points that have to be addressed. The cast is good at moving the story along.
There are hilarious scenes at the golf club this season. Are you any good at golf?
No, I’m very mediocre, as I am at most things. And I’m not being modest. It’s too hard. And it’s bad for a marriage.
There are some scenes with Richard Lewis that get even deeper into that friendship than ever ... did it feel that way to you?
In season 11 we were at the political rally, arguing about something idiotic, Tracey Ullman was sitting behind us and I said [to Richard], “When are you going to die?” There’s nobody else in the world I could have said that to. It just came out in the scene. And because we’re so close and we’ve known each other so long, it’s the kind of friendship where you can say anything and not have to worry you’re going to hurt the person’s feelings. We do things like that, it makes the show better. You can see how tight we are during our scenes, right? We have that friendship rhythm.
Do you have a favourite guest star?
Tracey [Ullman] was pretty great. I don’t like to do a list in case I make other people feel bad. See, I’m a sensitive guy!
How does Ullman feel about being the embodiment of Larry’s physical disgust?
She loves it. She embraces it. Working with her has been a highlight of the series, for me.
When you wrote that character, did you have her in mind?
I didn’t. But after it was done, I remembered that she played Betty Friedan in this television show [Mrs. America]. I remember thinking, yeah, that’s what this character should be like ...
Was it emotional for you, filming the final scene?
No. It was for a lot of people. But not for me. There’s something obviously wrong with me.
What’s next?
I don’t know. I have an office and it can’t just go to waste. When I was in college and people asked me what I was going to do when I got out, I said, “Something will turn up.” That’s how I feel now.