Over the course of her career, casting director Allison Jones has cast a staggering array of iconic comedies, from feature films like “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” and “Bridesmaids” to television series like “Freaks and Geeks,” “The Office,” and “Parks and Recreation.” Yet Jones says that HBO‘s “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” for which she is currently nominated for an Emmy, is the only project whose approach to the audition process feels truly conducive to comedy.
“It’s the only comedy audition situation that is actually natural for the actors,” Jones told IndieWire. “Standing in a room with a reader and a bunch of people sitting around staring at you is so antithetical to what you should have for comedy.” On “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” every audition follows essentially the same methodology the filmmakers use when they’re shooting; there’s no script, just a situation within which the actors are expected to improvise — and star and series creator Larry David is there for every audition to work with the actors.
“Larry likes to audition everybody unless they’re the famous people playing themselves,” Jones said. For each audition, the actor comes in cold and is simply given what David and showrunner Jeff Schaffer call “blurbs” designed to prompt improvisations. “They basically just identify the role and the action that takes place: ‘You are a waiter. Larry sits down. Larry complains. You argue.’ That would be the entirety of the blurb. And then Larry wants to see how you write your own character.”
By the time an actor is brought into an audition for “Curb,” they’ve already been vetted by Jones or her casting associate Emily Buntyn, who watch videos and go to comedy clubs to find top-notch improvisers. “We also meet a lot of people in general meetings, which we’ve started up again,” Buntyn told IndieWire. “We couldn’t do them for a while during the pandemic years.” David’s determination to get the most out of each actor meant that sometimes auditions would last for hours. “Larry really gave it all for each and every person,” Buntyn said.
That, according to Jones, meant that every audition was like an unaired “Curb Your Enthusiasm” episode. “It was hilarious and actors loved it,” she said. Buntyn added that often actors found auditioning to be its own reward. “They were so elated to have had the opportunity to do improv with Larry that they were like, ‘We don’t even care if we get cast, we’re just so excited that we got to do this.’ And obviously that’s an exaggeration, but every single actor was thrilled to come in. Nobody passes on auditioning for ‘Curb.’”
That said, sometimes actors would hold out, hoping that a larger role might be available somewhere down the line — something Jones suggested they not do in Season 12. “We were under the impression it was the final season,” she said. “They just said it, ‘This is the last season,’ and I believed it. Then we lost Richard Lewis, and it was pretty clear. This really was the last season. Occasionally we would see somebody was on the fence about coming in for something or not, or waiting for a better part, and we would have to say, ‘This may be it, so you should come in.’”
Jones says that the show’s archive of audition tapes is a treasure trove of comedy that’s a testament not only to the quality of the actors who came in but to David and Schaffer’s ability to come up with comic situations and weave them into a narrative. “We have all these lovely auditions on tape,” she said. “If Larry would release them…” According to Jones, “Curb” was the one show she worked on where actors always seemed to leave happy and not beat themselves up, more evidence of how enjoyable the audition process was.
Buntyn adds that her role was often simply helping the actors with their nerves before heading into their cold improvisations. “A lot of them were pretty nervous, especially if they had never met Larry,” she said. “I often would sit out there with them, making sure they had the scene, checking if they had any questions, just trying to make them feel comfortable. Actors have different processes — some of them want to just talk it out, some just want to be left alone and stay quiet. I would try to figure out that balance.”
Looking back on their experiences casting “Curb,” Jones is understandably wistful. “Comedy right now is in an induced coma,” she said. “Nothing is happening movie-wise, and shows are slow to get off the ground. Nothing is very innovative, and nothing is really very funny. So it’s very sad that ‘Curb’ is over because we need a new shot in the arm. Nothing could be like ‘Curb,’ though. I hope Larry knows how epic it was.”
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