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| Larry David plays loss for laughs in HBO's 'Clear History' |
The Curb Your Enthusiasm star briefly takes on the aging hippie look in HBO's Clear History (Saturday, 9 p.m. ET/PT), his comedic film about a man whose humiliating past catches up with him.
David plays Nathan Flomm, a Silicon Valley electric-car company executive who gives up his job — and 10% of the company — in a petty tiff, only to see the company become a billion-dollar entity after his departure.
A decade later and looking like Larry David again, he's living a low-key lifestyle as a new man, Rolly DaVore, in Martha's Vineyard when circumstances threaten to unmask him.
David, who had heard about an Apple executive who sold his shares before the company took off, was intrigued by the idea of a man losing so much.
"I just put myself in that position, and I wondered what would have become of me. How do people handle something like that?" says David, joined by director Greg Mottola (Superbad) for a discussion about the movie.
DaVore is beloved, which is not usually the case for David's persnickety character in HBO's Curb, but he does have the kinds of pet peeves familiar to David fans, such as a frustration with low-lying electrical outlets, a distaste for birthday e-mails and an obsession with silverware cleanliness at a local restaurant.
"I am playing a version of myself — in different circumstances," David says. "Putting on the hair and the beard was different. That was not pleasant but fun, in a way, to act in that. But the character? Not far from me, not a huge stretch."
As for whether his style of humor, which draws big laughs even as it creates awkward tension, can make viewers uncomfortable, he says, "If you hit upon truth, people relate to that. If you say things people are thinking, they'll generally laugh. ... It's not uncomfortable to me."
David attracted a varied cast for the film, including Jon Hamm, who plays his former boss, Kate Hudson, Bill Hader, Philip Baker Hall, Michael Keaton, Danny McBride, Eva Mendes, Amy Ryan, J.B. Smoove and Liev Schreiber. The actors were working with a detailed outline, but the dialogue is improvisational, as on Curb.
"I think there was a little bit of a concern that the acting styles would clash a little bit," but they didn't, Mottola says. "Once you start improvising, it's sink or swim. You're thrown in, (but) these are all smart, inventive people."
Going in, David did not know the improvisational abilities of some of the cast members, because they didn't audition. "Here, a lot of it was blind faith," he says. "What surprised me was how good everybody was."
The movie features the music (and band members) of Chicago, who played along with a joke about sex with groupies. "They're not a band you'd expect to have those interactions with their fans," Mottola says.
David, a co-creator of Seinfeld, says (as usual) that he's undecided about whether he will do a ninth season of Curb, . though he appreciates fan interest in the show.
"I'm just very flattered by it. I don't know if I'm going to do any more, and I don't like the idea of disappointing people, but we have done eight seasons, and there comes a point in any series where it has to end. I know people were very disappointed when Seinfeld ended, but they got over that, and they'll get over this."
Whether or not he does another season of Curb, he'll be working on something.
"Even though I'm a Jew, I guess you could say I have a Protestant work ethic," he says. "I don't know what I would do. I have to (work)."
