During a recent episode of his Really? no, Really? In a podcast, Jason Alexander talked about some of the people who were considered to play George Costanza on Seinfeld. Among the names that came up that at least made sense on paper were Danny DeVito, Paul Shaffer, and Larry Miller, the latter of whom auditioned with Alexander. There were also two stranger possibilities who were mentioned at one point in the conversation: Chris Rock and Steve Buscemi. Interestingly, Alexander discussed the subject with Howard Stern in 2015, and the same names came up, including David Alan Grier and Nathan Lane.
Weirdly, however, both Rock and Buscemi had different recollections about the role they supposedly missed out on. When Stephen Colbert asked Rock in 2021 if it was true that he was in contention to play George, Rock appeared a bit confused, telling Colbert, “I just heard that one.” He went on to say that he’d had a few discussions with NBC about Seinfeld and even Friends. “I would’ve been the Black friend,” the comedian revealed. “That’s basically who I am to America anyway.” And while Rock didn’t specifically say that he was in the running for George, he did admit that he thought they made the right choice by casting Alexander.
Buscemi, on the other hand, has flat-out denied ever auditioning for the part. “I don’t know where that came from,” the actor told Jimmy Fallon in 2015. “But it’s been on, you know, like, my Wikipedia, IMDb. But I never did, and I don’t know how to correct it, because I don’t know how the internet works.” Furthermore, Buscemi said, he doesn’t know how they could’ve imagined anyone else but Alexander playing the role. “Can somebody help me change it?” he jokingly asked the Tonight Show audience.
Whether or not all of the others were really up for the role is unclear, but Alexander offered some insight as to why he thinks DeVito might have turned down the opportunity. “In the case of Danny, he probably didn’t wanna be—his career, when we started Seinfeld, would’ve been at its apex, so he probably didn’t wanna do a sidekick role.” David Alan Grier did address the rumor that he was involved, though, and recalled auditioning, but was adamant that he wasn’t exactly close to getting the part. He also didn’t have a high opinion of the writing at the time. “Wow, these jokes are not funny. Poor Jerry, he has a show that won’t do well at all,” he remembered thinking.
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