‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ Star Cheryl Hines on Larry David, Show’s Final Scenes & More

HBO‘s long-running comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm is set to air its 12th and final season this year, and one of the stars, Cheryl Hines, has been opening up about her time on the show and her relationship with star and creator Larry David.

Hines played the fictional Larry’s wife, Cheryl David, for the first five seasons of the show before they separated in Season 6 after she grew tired of his constant neuroses and public outbursts. Despite breaking up, Hines has remained an on-screen character, later dating Larry’s rival, Ted Danson.

As far as Hines is concerned, she would continue doing the show forever, and she is still holding out hope that David will change his mind about ending the beloved sitcom.

“Going into production, we were told most likely it will be the last season,” she shared in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “But since season one, Larry has said, ‘This is probably the last season.’ Until I saw it in black and white — when the press release went out — I didn’t want to believe it.”

Doug Hyun / ©HBO / courtesy Everett Collection

The show has teased ending before and even took a six-year hiatus between seasons eight and nine, yet it always came back. But this time, David seems committed to Season 12 being the last.

Hines first auditioned for Curb after the show’s executive producer, Larry Charles, saw her perform a sketch during an industry showcase. The actress said David “wanted to cast an unknown actress” as his wife, “which was great for me.”

“There was no script. Nobody told me anything about anything. They just said, ‘Go meet Larry and he’ll tell you what to do when you get in there,’” she recalled, adding that the Seinfeld co-creator told her not to pull any punches. “And so I didn’t.”

David told THR, “I loved Hines’ condescension. She treated me like a 12-year-old idiot. And she always knew how to bring out the comedy in a scene.”

Hines landed the role, and the rest is history, as a one-hour pilot turned into a long-running, critically acclaimed series that will have run for 120 episodes when all is said and done.

The show recently wrapped up filming its final episodes, which Hines said were emotional, even for the usually unsentimental David. “He gets quiet, I think, when he gets emotional,” Hines shared.

She explained that after the final shot was done, the cast “took a moment. And then nobody knew what to say to each other. You don’t want to say goodbye because they’re your friends. It’s sad.”

When asked if there was ever a romantic spark between herself and David, Hines made it clear, “No,” adding, “It’s interesting because we’ve been together for so long, there have been times where I felt like I was married to him in another universe. I’ve always felt very close to him. But we were always dating or married to other people. So it was never that. What we have is a closeness that’s hard to describe.”

A tearful Hines added, “He’s been such a big part of my life for over 20 years. For me, it’s an attraction that I can’t really explain. A friend that I love to be with. He really makes me laugh. I feel like we know each other very well. He’s in his own category in my life.”