Jason Alexander Got Cast on ‘Seinfeld’ for Doing This Celebrity Impression

Jason Alexander was the perfect actor for George Costanza, even if he didn't totally understand who the 'Seinfeld' character was.

Though Seinfeld came to an end long ago, the series still lives on a quarter of a century later in syndication and streaming as if it never left us. It's a timeless series, with its quirky and selfish characters becoming more relatable with time. Cosmo Kramer (Michael Richards) was more than just the stereotypical sitcom wacky next-door neighbor. He was a kinetic ball of energy, bouncing off the walls and saying whatever crossed his mind. Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) was the only woman in the group, but she was just as awful as the rest of them. George Costanza (Jason Alexander) might just be Seinfeld's best character, probably because he's based on series creator and showrunner Larry David. With his anger, loud voice, and mannerisms, it's not too difficult to notice how similar George is to the guy we now see on Curb Your Enthusiasm. Alexander accurately nailed those Larry David eccentricities, even if he first played the character by impersonating someone else completely.

Many actors auditioned for Seinfeld before the final cast was settled upon. Before Michael Richards got the job, Larry Hankin read for the role of Kramer, and in pure Seinfeld fashion, the show winked at reality by having Hankin come in to play Kramer in the series within the series when Jerry and George get their own sitcom made. Several actresses vied for the part of Elaine Benes, including Patricia Heaton, who would later go on to play Debra Barone in Everybody Loves Raymond. When Julia Louis-Dreyfus read for the part though, Jerry Seinfeld said he knew within thirty seconds that she was the one for the job.

The role of George Costanza was the hardest to cast. You would think it would be because Larry David had a hard time settling on who was best to play someone based on him, but that wasn't the case. Seinfeld couldn't find their George because some wouldn't say yes. During a 2015 interview with Howard Stern, Jason Alexander talked about the many soon-to-be and then big name actors who were looked at to play George. The list included Larry Miller, Brad Hall, Nathan Lane, David Allen Grier, Paul Shaffer, and Steve Buscemi.

According to Alexander, the role was actually offered to Chris Rock and Danny DeVito. In 1989, when Seinfeld began, Rock was a rising standup comedian a year away from debuting on Saturday Night Live. That would have been an interesting approach, to take a character based on a middle-aged Jewish man and have him be played by a Black man in his 20s. Rock, for whatever reason, said no. Danny DeVito was interesting too. He certainly had the Larry David and Jason Alexander-like hair, but DeVito was a huge star. Alexander guessed that DeVito said no because, with his career being at its apex, he didn't want to do a sidekick role.

With Seinfeld unable to find their George Costanza through traditional acting auditions, they took a different route. Jason Alexander told Howard Stern, "They called a casting director and said, 'Just put some theater actors on tape.'" Alexander had some minor success in the '80s, doing theater, some notable commercials, and even having a solid supporting role in the '80s slasher cult classic The Burning. Now he was asked to send in a tape auditioning for this Seinfeld role.

Alexander had only seen a few pages of the script. He said that "it read like a Woody Allen film, I had no context for it, so, hence, I did the glasses and as blatant a Woody Allen as I could do." Alexander then did your traditional over-the-top Woody Allen impression with the twisted voice and stuttering, swearing that's exactly how he did it on the tape. "I said, I'll never see the guy, I mean, I made the tape, and I went, ah, that's just an exercise in nothing. Then a couple weeks later, got a call from NBC." They wanted to fly him out and have him screen-test with Jerry Seinfeld himself.

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Jason Alexander said no one from New York ever got a TV gig by sending in a videotape, when you're not meeting the producers or the star. "It's so abstract, you can't get a leg up, you can't get a job that way." So Alexander shrugged his shoulders and just "took a shot," doing something he might not normally do in a regular audition because he had nothing to lose. No one was going to see this tape, no one was going to hire him for this gig. Then something happened. The Seinfeld crew loved him, and he was hired.

Early on in Seinfeld's Season 1 run, the show was different from what we know and love. Jerry's apartment looks a little different, and so does the diner. There's no Elaine at first, Kramer is called Kessler, and someone else plays Jerry's dad. Another difference is with George. He does feel like Woody Allen (though not as blatant) with his manner of speech. The neurotic tendencies are there, but George is more subdued. Then it clicked for Jason Alexander on who he really was.

In his Howard Stern interview, Alexander said he had no idea that George was based on Larry David. Had continued to see Woody Allen as his inspiration but then, "We ran into an early episode where nothing made sense to me. The situation seemed ludicrous." This was during the first eight to ten episodes of Seinfeld's run. "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!" Alexander's voice gets louder and more frenzied like Larry David as he tells the story. He said that's when the bells went off and he knew that George and Larry were one. "Then I just started really observing him and trying to pull as much of him into me as I could."

In Season 2 of Seinfeld, George Costanza transforms. Jason Alexander turned George Costanza into Larry without becoming a Larry David impersonation. He's not trying to sound like him, but rather mimic the loudness, facial expressions, and body movements people associate with Larry. There's so much truth and reality in Seinfeld. Its characters and stories are so real. Impersonating Woody Allen got Jason Alexander the job, but becoming Larry David made George Costanza a sitcom icon.

Shawn Van Horn is a Senior Features Writer for Collider. He is also a Features Writer & Editor and a News Writer for The Sportster. He has written two novels and is neck deep in the querying trenches. He is also a short story maker upper and poet with a dozen publishing credits to his name. He lives in small town Ohio, where he likes to watch rasslin' and movies.