Dramatic Stories From Behind The Scenes Of ‘Seinfeld’
George’s fiance on Seinfeld, Susan, was played by actress Heidi Swedberg. In an interview Jason Alexander gave to Howard Stern in 2015, the actor retold the story of how Susan’s death came to be written. Alexander had a difficult time getting his comedic timing to sync with Swedberg’s style, and complained about it. She was, according to Alexander, “‘f*cking impossible’ to work with.”
It wasn’t until Seinfeld and Louis-Dreyfus experienced the same type of struggle when playing opposite Swedberg that the cast got together with writer Larry David to try to find a solution to the problem. According to Alexander, “Julia actually said, ‘Don’t you want to just kill her?’ And Larry [David, the series’ co-creator] went, ‘Kabang! Now we gotta kill her!’”
Bring on the deadly envelopes. In the show, George buys cheap wedding envelopes that turn out to be poisoned — and Susan licks them, sealing her fate.
Alexander has since apologized to Swedberg, clarifying that no one wanted to kill her; it wasn’t entirely her fault; and she was a “kind, lovely person who undoubtedly worked really hard to create Susan.” He also emphasized that the relationship was never going to work between George and Susan so the comment about “killing her” merely gave an end to a doomed engagement.