Larry Charles made his name as a writer and director on some of TV’s most memorable shows, including Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm. In his memoir Comedy Samurai, he also recalls directing Sacha Baron Cohen in both Borat and Bruno… and he doesn’t mince words.
“I think he had always been a control freak, but was able to sublimate it,” says Charles. “And then slowly, as success came along, he started to assert more control over things without really having a strong idea of what he wanted. And so that created a kind of chaos in the process of making the movies.”
Charles joins Kim Masters to talk about his years behind the scenes of some of comedy’s most groundbreaking shows and movies. He reveals the ego clashes, betrayals, and absurd moments that defined his career — including an early morning phone call from Ari Emanuel which served to pull the plug on his Larry David documentary the day before its HBO premiere.