David Alan Grier is looking back on two of the biggest “what ifs” of his career — and admitting he completely misread them. 

During a recent appearance on “Today” with Jenna & Sheinelle, the Tony Award winner said he passed on “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” because he thought it was a “bad script,” and he also auditioned for George Costanza on “Seinfeld” only to assume the sitcom “will never be a hit.” 

Grier said he did not see the vision in “Ace Ventura” at first, explaining that Jim Carrey spotted the freedom in the character and “took that script and reinvented it,” which helped turn the film into a comedy classic. He also noted that he and Carrey had already worked together on “In Living Color,” where both men were part of one of the most influential sketch shows of the ’90s. 

His “Seinfeld” story is even wilder. Grier said he read with Jerry Seinfeld and thought, “this man can’t act, it’s not funny,” a judgment that aged badly once the series became one of television’s most iconic sitcoms. The role of George Costanza ultimately went to Jason Alexander, while Grier later joked, “The bag was fumbled, off I went.” 

This is not the first time Grier has revisited the moment. In a 2019 interview on “The Howard Stern Show,” he said he thought the show would “suck” and admitted he regretted not taking the audition more seriously after Seinfeld became a cultural phenomenon.

Even with those near-misses, Grier’s career has hardly been short on wins. The 69-year-old actor is currently starring on NBC’s “St. Denis Medical,” adding another chapter to a resume that already includes Broadway acclaim, sketch-comedy history, and decades of film and television work.  

At the end of the day, Grier’s honesty is part cautionary tale, part comedy lesson: sometimes the thing that looks “wrong” in the moment ends up becoming the thing that becomes “right” for the culture.