Seinfeld was not an obvious hit to Tony Award winner David Alan Grier, who admitted that he “fumbled the bag” when he didn’t land the role.
Grier appeared on TODAY with Jenna and Sheinelle on Monday, where he reflected on his audition for the classic sitcom in the late 1980s. Grier said he read lines with the show’s star, Jerry Seinfeld, at the time, and thought, “This man can’t act, it’s not funny, this will never be a hit.” Grier auditioned for the role that ultimately went to Jason Alexander—George Costanza—and was never offered the part.
Grier said he turned out to be “wrong,” and “The bag was fumbled, off I went.”
Grier, who won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play in 2020 for his role as Sergeant Vernon C. Waters in A Soldier’s Play, went on to have several other successful roles during the time period, despite not landing the hit show. He joined the cast of In Living Color in 1990, establishing himself as a standout sketch comedian, and appeared in several films, including 1992’s Boomerang alongside Eddie Murphy. Grier never forgot how unimpressed he was initially with Seinfeld, however.
He said on The Howard Stern Show in 2019, once again recalling reading lines with Seinfeld, “I was like, ‘This show is going to suck. This will never go.’” When the show became a success, Greier said then that he wished he’d tried hard at the audition. “I was like, ‘S---, I should’ve been better and why the f--- did I blow off that audition? It was like, ‘So what?’ Right over my head,” he also said at the time.
Other actors considered to play George Costanza included Chris Rock, Danny DeVito, and Rosie O’Donnell, Alexander said on his podcast Really? No, Really? in February.
Grier wasn’t the only one who didn’t believe Seinfeld would be a hit. Alexander told Deseret News in 1992, “From the moment I saw the script I thought it would be the most brilliant thing I’d ever be part of, and that it would not run for even a day.” He added, “I don’t think anyone is more surprised by the success of [Seinfeld] than we are, because we thought, ‘Oh, we’ll amuse ourselves, and that’ll be it.”
Seinfeld ultimately ran for nine seasons on NBC from 1989 to 1998 and won 10 Primetime Emmy Awards during its run.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Jerry Seinfeld for comment.
