Curb Your Enthusiasm executive producer Jeff Schaffer has revealed that a scene depicting Larry’s death was filmed just in case the series didn’t return for another season.
In the Emmy-nominated HBO comedy, Larry David plays a fictionalised version of himself – a septuagenarian writer and comedian living in Los Angeles.
At the end of the show’s eleventh season, Larry falls into his own pool and survives. But while David was in there, the crew also shot a version in which Larry drowns.
“I know I say this all the time, but every season is the last season. And I wanted to prepare as if it was the last one”, Schaffer told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview released Friday (5 August).
“So Larry kept falling into that pool without the fence and banging his head. We actually have a shot after he’d fallen in, of the still pool with just the envelope floating in the middle, and maybe adding one bubble.”
Schaffer clarified that he doesn’t film a Larry death scene for every season, though part of him is always convinced the current season will be the last. But the pool scene, which is an echo of the season 11 opener in which a robber drowns in Larry’s unfenced pool, was too “perfect” to pass up.
“This one lent itself too perfectly. We just got high and wide on the pool, with one light shining on it and the envelope floating in the middle”, said Schaffer, who also serves as a producer on the FX show Dave. “And we said, ‘OK, if this is how we go, this is how we go!’”
