Why Susie Essman’s ‘Constrain Your Enthusiasm’ looks weirder than ever

There’s a strange kind of joy that comes from watching Susie Essman as Susie Green in this season of Curb your enthusiasm. Her status is “rage symbol“Long-established, Essman appears in every shot, her opulence personified by her wardrobe. Just a few episodes in, notable mentions include a red leather beret placed on top of her curls, a pair of sequin-encrusted merchandise pants that seem more appropriate for a boy band revival. than lunch with arch-enemies Larry David and husband Jeff (Jeff Garlin) and a canary-colored hat more reminiscent of Dick Tracy than a housewife in Los Angeles.

“It almost makes it a little bit funnier whenever she wears it [something] very sparkly, but she calls someone an asshole or you know, a fat asshole or something because she herself looks so ridiculous while she’s saying all that. It’s like part of her personality is like a security blanket because she’s like, ‘No one will mess with me if I look like this and I can mess with everyone else’, home design clothes Leslie Schilling explained over a recent Zoom call.

While Schilling was the one who kept Green dressed, it was Essman who originally came up with the idea for her character.

“It was my decision,” Essman told me when we spoke earlier this season. “Larry and I, over the course of 21 years and 11 seasons, have never had a single discussion about this character. Not about anything, about our relationship, about the character, about what she looks like, about what she dresses. It’s all due to me. ”

When Schilling joins Roadside team for Season 9 in 2016, Essman said she understood “the Susie Green look” but now, three seasons later, Schilling has mastered it.

“I think [Schilling] feeling a bit shy because she’s new, she’s just finding herself. And I think she’s there now… I think she’s completely let go of the abandonment and gone crazy and just enjoyed it. It was the most fun for her. Leon [J.B. Smoove] it’s fun when she gets dressed, Larry wears the exact same outfits Larry and Jeff wears Jeff and Cheryl [Hines] dress like a normal person. I think Leslie just feels free at this point and safe enough, safe enough to go crazy.”

It was easy to see Schilling’s confidence radiating from the screen. This shows that Essman’s character does more than rely on her signature faux fur coat and patterned shirt, plus she sports everything from printed cowboy boots to the statement knotted headband.

“A lot of Susie looks started with one piece, and I built from there. We’ve been playing with lots of hats, lots of hats and hair accessories because unfortunately a lot of times we build an outfit from head to toe and we only really see the belt. So we were like, Well, let’s add something to the top half that we knew we weren’t going to miss,” Schilling said.

As a wardrobe collaborator, Essman always strives to push boundaries when it comes to her character’s over-the-top style, which often includes products from high-end brands and fashion houses around the world. world.

“[Essman] likes to have a lot of fun and play with things, and she loves looking crazy and really enjoys taking it to the next level,” explains Schilling. “Her clothes are not cheap. They are expensive designs. So there’s always a cool piece of stuff that if you’re working with the average person… it can be quite a pretty piece, but when you add layers of sticky stuff like this, it gets become Susie. ”

One thing that Essman maintains is that she wants Green to look “as if it were real”.