Larry Charles Finally Explains the Story Behind His Doomed Larry David Documentary
Who really killed JFK? What’s inside Area 51? Why did Larry David kill an HBO documentary about his life and career just 24 hours before it was set to premiere?
These are the mysteries that have plagued humanity. Well, now we can answer one of them, at least.
Back in February 2022, HBO announced that it would air a two-part documentary about the Seinfeld co-creator and Curb Your Enthusiasm star, The Larry David Story, directed by David’s friend and long-time collaborator Larry Charles. It promised to feature “candid conversations about his personal and professional highs and lows; reflections about his road to success” with “contemplations on everything from metaphysics to parenthood.”
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But on the evening of February 28th, one day before the scheduled March 1st premiere, HBO announced that the doc wouldn’t be released after all. We weren’t given much information beyond the fact that the project was “postponed” because David “decided he wants to do it in front of an audience.”
In interviews, Charles has acknowledged that the doc was pulled for “undisclosed reasons” and confessed that he hasn’t spoken with David since that decision was made, although he offered little in the way of specifics. But now, in his new memoir, Comedy Samurai: Forty Years of Blood, Guts, and Laughter, Charles details his side of the bizarre story.
In the chapter “The Story of the Larry David Story,” Charles explains that the doomed project began in 2017, not as a documentary, but as an interview for his new YouTube channel. “I actually knew him better and differently than most people,” Charles writes. “I would venture to say I knew more and remembered more about Larry David’s life than almost anybody did. Sometimes even him.”
But when reviewing the handheld camerawork, Charles found much of the interview footage to be “virtually unusable.” So in order to smooth things over in the edit, he cut to clips and photos. He still planned to release it on YouTube, until HBO offered a ton of money for it. According to Charles, he offered to split the profits with David, who politely refused.
Charles notes that there were two big issues with the documentary from David’s perspective. For one thing, “he didn’t like how he looked. Or sounded.” As Charles recently told The Daily Beast, the production’s natural lighting and lack of makeup made the comedian uneasy. “We all have our vanity and our ego,” the Borat director reasoned.
Charles believes that the “other main problem” was that David was more vulnerable than funny in the interview. “He cried. We talked about death and spirituality. We talked about his family,” Charles recounted. But while Charles found the discussion “revelatory,” and David was very pleased with it at first, he became more “troubled” as the interview’s release date inched closer.
In the book, Charles writes that David texted him and asked to replace the doc with a live interview instead. Charles refused in a text sent the day before it was set to air, but David was still able to have it pulled. Charles alleges that David’s reps told HBO that they “wouldn’t get another season of Curb if the documentary aired.”
Hopefully the lost film will someday see the light of day. Perhaps on a double bill with The Day the Clown Cried?
