Jason Alexander Reveals Reason for Fictional Fiancée Susan’s Seinfeld Demise, Apologizes to Actress

By Scott Russell  |  June 4, 2015 | 1:11pm
Photo by Gary Null, Getty Images
Comedy News seinfeld
Jason Alexander Reveals Reason for Fictional Fiancée Susan’s Seinfeld Demise, Apologizes to Actress

It turns out the reason for Heidi Swedberg’s Seinfeld character’s death is as absurd and funny as the show itself.

In a radio interview with Howard Stern on Wednesday, Seinfeld star Jason Alexander revealed (when prompted by Stern) that his on-screen fiancée Susan was killed off because she was a “f—-ing impossible” actress to share a scene with. “I couldn’t figure out how to play off of her,” Alexander explained, emphasizing that the disconnect was professional, not personal. “Her instincts for doing a scene, where the comedy was, and mine were always misfiring.”

According to Alexander, after working closely with Swedberg themselves, his Seinfeld co-stars Jerry Seinfeld and Julia Louis-Dreyfus echoed his frustrations. An off-the-cuff comment from Louis-Dreyfus was the first and last nail in Swedberg’s character’s coffin: “Julia actually said, ‘Don’t you want to just kill her?’ And Larry [David, co-creator and head writer] went, ‘Ka-bang!’” recounted Alexander.

This morning, a regretful Alexander commented on the story and its surrounding uproar in a tweet:

In the attached post, Alexander calls former co-star Swedberg “a sweetheart” and offers her a personal apology: “She was generous and gracious and I am so mad at myself for retelling this story in any way that would diminish her,” he writes. Swedberg, who has yet to respond publicly to Alexander’s mea culpa, has turned her focus to music in the years since Seinfeld.

You can hear the conversation between Alexander and Stern that started it all below.

 
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