Susie Essman Channels Trump in “Curb Your Enthusiasm” New Season

By Daniel J. Solomon October 13, 2016

Susie Essman, the “Curb Your Enthusiasm” villain who we hate to love, has found a new use for Donald Trump: dramatic inspiration.

“There are certain people, let’s say they might be running for President, and I just have to think of them and I get angry and in a bad mood so I’m going to use that,” Essman on Tuesday told The New York Daily News. “That’s the only positive thing that’s come out of this election is that there’s a certain male that I can use to fuel my anger. I have other techniques that I call on, but I’m stuck with that one.”

In the HBO comedy series, returning to television for a ninth season after a six year hiatus, Essman plays the eponymous Susie—Jeff Greene’s wife and Larry David’s ‘take no prisoners,’ ‘all over but the shouting’ nemesis, calling him to account for his putz-like ways.

While Essman might wax Trumpian against David on the show, she says that in actuality he’s not such a dope.

“He’s very, very sweet. That stuff that he acts out and his character, that’s his id. He thinks those things, but in real life he doesn’t act them out.”

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at solomon@forward.com or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

Daniel J. Solomon is the former Assistant to the Editor/News Writer at the Forward. Originally from Queens, he attended Harvard as an undergraduate, where he wrote his senior thesis on French-Jewish intellectual history. He is excited to have returned to New York after his time in Massachusetts. Daniel’s passions include folk music, cycling, and pointed argument.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

This year, we have stood together in strength and sorrow. Our Forward team has worked around the clock to help you find clarity amid the chaos.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO