Larry David does 'Whatever Works'

Larry David makes his film debut in Woody Allen’s Whatever Works, this weekend.

In the film, he plays an eccentric New Yorker who abandons his upper class life to lead a more bohemian existence. He meets a young girl from the south and her family and no two people seem to get along in the entanglements that follow.

From thewrap.com:
Woody didn’t make that call. Were you nervous working with him?
Yeah, I don’t want to screw it up, that’s for sure. You’re aware of that. On the other hand, you know that if there’s something that’s not to Woody’s liking, he’ll get it to his liking. But there was a little more pressure doing that, certainly, than there is in doing an episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

This character seems a lot like the guy on “Curb.”
The character on “Curb” is normal compared to this guy — he actually wants relationships and sex and things like that. This guy’s way out — he wears shorts, OK? Never would the character on “Curb” wear shorts, or would the person that’s talking to you right now wear shorts. So I think that’s a very disturbing thing right there.

How did they get you to wear shorts?
It was actually my idea.

Woody wrote the script 30 years ago with Zero Mostel in mind. Did it have to be rewritten for you?
No, the only thing … there was a character description on the first page of the script that described Zero Mostel to a T, but that was it.

When there’s a Woody Allen film without Woody in it, the lead actor usually ends up doing a Woody impression.
Even Kenneth Branaugh …
I know that’s a trap to fall into, cause others have done it. I am saying his words, but at no point am I doing him … though, for that matter, you can say that everybody’s doing him, because they’re all his words.

What about Woody’s directing style? Did you get nervous when he didn’t comment after takes?
No, no I didn’t. When there was something that wasn’t to his liking or to his tastes, he would certainly point it out to me, but it was in a very easygoing way. I suppose the worse you are, the more he’ll tell you. But if you’re that bad, he’ll replace you.