The One Thing Jason Alexander Was Told To Stop Doing When Auditioning For Seinfeld
At this point, there's no question George Costanza (Jason Alexander) of "Seinfeld" will go down in history as one of the greatest sitcom characters of all time. George's absurdly neurotic personality and complete lack of social grace (both of which were based on the real-life behavior of series co-creator Larry David, per CNN) made him one of the funniest and most relatable characters in all of television. Indeed, despite the fact that George's extreme laziness and hatred for conventional society often lead him to do terrible things, fans can't help but love George Costanza –- with some even suggesting that he is the real star of the show.
The fact that so many fans can love such a despicable character is a further testament to the incredible performance of Jason Alexander, who somehow turns George's numerous flaws into relatable character quirks. Considering just how iconic George Costanza truly is, it might surprise some fans to learn just how different the character was during Alexander's initial audition — to the point where the network actually asked him to cut a specific part of George's character for the series.
Producers asked Jason Alexander to stop doing a Woody Allen impression
During an interview with Michael Rosenbaum's "Inside of You" Podcast, Jason Alexander explained that when he recorded his initial audition tape for the role, he felt that the script read like "dialogue in a Woody Allen film," so he decided to simply impersonate Woody Allen for the audition tape. "I not only did a thick New York accent, I literally was doing Woody Allen, like you know, the gestures and the voice," Alexander said. "And a couple of days later got a call I think from Larry [David]. He said I love everything you're doing. You know come out, we want to have you meet Jerry. You'll read for the network... and I flew out and they said don't change a thing, except don't do the Woody Allen voice."
Throughout the interview, Alexander gave a few examples of his Woody Allen impersonation, which (suffice to say) is almost the complete opposite of the way that George Costanza actually speaks in "Seinfeld." On top of the Woody Allen-like delivery, Alexander's aggressive New York accent in this impersonation almost makes George seem like an entirely different character. Indeed, considering how different this initial characterization of George is from the final product, it's somewhat surprising that producers were able to locate the George they were looking for underneath everything else.
Of course, the rest, as they say, is history. Notably, the part of Alexander's casting that might be even more surprising is the fact that "Pretty Woman" led to his role on "Seinfeld."