Jason Alexander Reveals Rosie O’Donnell and Other A-listers Were Considered for ‘Seinfeld’ Roles

Jason Alexander is sharing some alternative Seinfeld castings.

On a recent episode of the 66-year-old comedian’s Really? no, Really? podcast, he listed some A-list celebrities who were in contention for a role on the hit ’90s sitcom, in which he portrayed George Costanza.

“I know some of the people that they either offered the role to or —” the four-time Golden Globe Award winner told cohost Peter Tilden and guest Jennifer Keishin Armstrong. “So, I know about Chris Rock. I know about Danny DeVito. I know about Paul Schaefer. And I know about, Rosie O’Donnell.”

“Were there other kind of notable people?” the Pretty Woman actor asked Armstrong, who wrote the 2016 book Seinfeldia.

“The only other one that I remember because it was so off the beaten path was Buscemi — Steve Buscemi,” the author answered.

Armstrong noted that while “people love alt casting stories,” they are also “the hardest to verify.”

“Some people will tell you like they’re honest, and Chris Rock will be like, ‘Yeah, sure. I was up for that,'” she explained. “Other people get a little embarrassed. And then I think there’s a third category of people who don’t maybe know or remember that they were up for — ‘up for’ is real slippery.”

In Armstrong’s experience while researching for her books, she shared that when it comes to alt casting, “It’s more just like people being like, ‘I’m pretty sure we were thinking about Rosie O’Donnell.'”

According to Marie Claire, Jerry Seinfeld — the show’s star and co-creator along with Larry David — revealed on an episode of The Howard Stern Show that O’Donnell, 63, auditioned for the role of Elaine Benes, which Julia Louis-Dreyfus famously played.