TORONTO — Jason Alexander revealed Wednesday that George Costanza fiancée on Seinfeld was killed off because he and his cast mates did not like the actress who played her.
Alexander said Heidi Swedberg, who played Susan Ross on 28 episodes of the series, wasn’t a good fit.
“I kept saying, ‘I’m going out of my mind you guys, you’re killing me. I can’t understand how to play off of this girl. I’m sure that the stuff is not working, it can’t be!’…I was the only actor doing scenes with her,” he said.
With that, Susan was killed from toxic glue on the envelopes for their wedding invitations. The episode aired May 16, 1996.
Swedberg, 49, went on to have guest roles on series like Gilmore Girls, ER, Without a Trace and Bones.
Alexander said Swedberg is “a terrific girl” but had different instincts “for doing a scene.”
He told Stern: “She would do something and I would go, okay, I see what she’s gonna do, I’m gonna adjust to her. And then I would adjust. And then it would change!
“Heidi is the sweetest,” Alexander insisted. “It was just the way I come at stuff and the way she came at stuff is just…”
On Thursday, Alexander went online to stress that he and the cast liked Svedberg.
“She is a kind, lovely person who undoubtedly worked really hard to create Susan and that character was clearly what Larry and Jerry wanted her to be for George,” he wrote.
“When the comment was made about ‘killing,’ no one was talking about the actress – they were talking about the character.”
Alexander called Swedberg “generous and gracious” and said he was angry at himself for retelling the story “in any way that would diminish her.”
The actor urged reporters not to “pervert” his tale.
“No one told Heidi to do anything different – and she surely would have, if asked,” he wrote. “And no one that I am aware of, including myself, didn’t like her.”
Alexander offered a public apology to Swedberg.
“Now everybody, calm down and just enjoy the reruns and think, ‘why did he think this wasn’t working? This is great.'”
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