Despite ideas about common courtesy and the mistaken notion that actors can be more socially graceful than the average person, sometimes celebrities can be pretty rude.
Actor Armin Shimerman is not rude by most accounts but had first-hand experience dealing with humiliating behavior on the set of one of the most influential 1990s sitcoms, Seinfeld. Read on to learn about this unusual situation.
Who is Armin Shimerman?
Armin Shimerman, born November 5th, 1949, in Lakewood, New Jersey, is an actor who has worked in film and television since 1979.
While he is most famous for playing the iconic character Quark in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, he has over 200 credited roles ranging from film and television to voice acting for video games.
Shimerman’s first encounter with the Star Trek franchise would be in Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987, where he appeared as Letek, a Ferengi, in the season 1 episode “The Last Outpost.”
He would play a few Ferengi but first played the iconic character Quark in the S1 pilot of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine titled “Emissary” in 1993. From 1993 to 1999, he appeared in over 173 episodes.
Seainfeld – The Caddy
Armin Shimerman’s first and only Seinfeld episode would be season seven’s “The Caddy.” This was the 122nd episode that aired on January 25th, 1996. It was written by Gregg Kavet and Andy Robin, with Andy Ackerman serving as director.
Armin Shimerman plays Stan the Caddy, Kramer’s golf caddy, in the episode “The Caddy.” Kramer likes his caddy, as Stan has given him good advice to improve his golf game.
Kramer foolishly consults him regarding a legal case involving Elaine’s old high school friend Sue Ellen Mischke involving a bra and a car accident.
The case results in Kramer losing – due to Stan’s suggestion to have Sue Ellen try on the bra in question – a reference to the infamous “glove” question of the OJ Simpson Trial.
Presumably, Kramer drops Stan as his caddy for his poor legal call as Stan is never seen again.
"I hated them – hated them"
During Florida Supercon 2017, Armin Shimerman did a Q&A session with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fans regarding the show and his more extensive career. He had some choice words concerning his time on the set of Seinfeld.
"I hated them – hated them. They were non-commutative, ugly, non-responsive, what’s the word? Insular."
He relays that the core cast of Seinfeld, Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louise-Dreyfus, Michael Richards, and Jason Alexander were rude and non-communicative with actors outside their circle.
In one story, he reveals that when the crew was resetting lighting for a scene, Seinfeld and Louise-Dreyfus had an entire conversation with one another over him, ignoring him entirely, though they were all sitting on a couch for the blocking of a scene.
"The three of us are sitting there, it’s Christmas time. The two of them are talking about their Christmas plans and what they’re going to do for their vacation and and all this stuff and they talk for half an hour. I’m between them, right here, never once, not once did they say what are you going to do? Never once did they say a pardon us for talking around you. Never once. It was as though I wasn’t there."
He also revealed that for the 5 or 6 days of shooting, none of the actors spoke to him outside their dialogue for scenes.
"Nobody said a word to me except cues. Nobody, nobody came up and started a conversation."
For an actor as beloved as Armin Shimerman was for his character of Quark, it was very rude of the cast of Seinfeld to treat him so poorly, especially as both shows were airing simultaneously.
Common courtesy would dictate some conversation between scenes or talking the craft – but at the height of their success, the cast of Seinfeld became a bit aloof.
However, Shimerman is still very much beloved, and he has an interesting story, at the very least.
