Curb Your Enthusiasm ended in April after 25 years, one special, 12 seasons, and 120 pretty, pretty, pretty good episodes. While the show follows the misanthropic adventures of Larry David (Larry David), his friend Leon Black (J.B. Smoove) and his friend Jeff’s (Jeff Garlin) wife Susie Greene (Susie Essman) are two fan favorites. With the show coming to an end (and Emmy season approaching) we asked Smoove and Essman to watch back their first and final scenes on Curb.
Susie’s first appearance is in “The Pants Tent,” Season 1 Episode 1. “I look so young,” says Essman of the 2000 episode. It’s a very brief appearance — you don’t get a sense of her filthy mouth or her outlandish fashion. Essman shares, “[Larry] hired me not for that scene, he hired me for the scene later on that season for the episode called ‘The Wire’…I just destroy Jeff and scream and yell and curse.”
Curb is heavily improvised, and many actors are playing fictionalized versions of themselves. Essman remembers her first day on set, thinking, “This is a crazy show,” and she notes, “It hadn’t aired yet! We didn’t know what it was.”
Leon shows up in Season 6, when Larry takes in Loretta (Vivica A. Fox) and her family after they were displaced by Hurricane Edna in New Orleans. Leon, Loretta’s brother, decides to take advantage of Larry’s hospitality, and also moves in. He was not affected by the hurricane, and in fact lived in Los Angeles. He went on to be one of the main characters, Larry’s roommate, one of his best friends, and one of the funniest characters on the show.
“I love that scene,” says Smoove. “Leon found out his sister came up, and Leon said, ‘Let me get over there, too.” Essman points out that no one knew at the time that Leon would become a core part of the show, and that Larry knew Smoove was the right person for the part from the second he started talking in his audition.
“It’s better that you don’t have any identity or origin, because then you can do what you want to do and put those pieces together throughout the season,” says Smoove of creating Leon. Essman notes that the improvisational nature of the show allowed for more freedom in character creation on the part of the actors. “I think it’s unusual that as actors you get to have that kind of input, and that’s why it’s been just a dream job for both of us.”
Both actors’ final scenes are the same — the last scene of the series. Of that special ending, Essman and Smoove immediately wanted to talk about Richard Lewis, who died in February, but was able to complete the final season of Curb. “I’m happy he got a chance to do this scene,” Smoove says. Adds Essman, “It meant so much to him.”
The last scene features Leon, Susie, Larry, Cheryl (Cheryl Hines), Jeff, Ted (Ted Danson) and Richard. “That was the family, right there,” says Essman.
Watch Essman and Smoove reflect on their time on Curb in the video above.
Curb Your Enthusiasm, All Seasons Streaming Now, Max
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