Stepmother Told Leah She Was Playing Herself on The King of Queens

Leah Remini’s stepmother recalls seeing the first episode of The King of Queens and telling Leah her acerbic character was going to work, because Leah was really playing herself.

TRANSCRIPT:

Leah’s like Cecil B. DeMille, you know. She’s like, “This is how I want it and this is how it’s going to be and that’s it.” And she was always like that, “You idiots! Look! This is how you do it, all right?”

She just became herself more emphasized.

I’m telling you, when she calls me from the first episode of King of Queens, she calls—she used to call me “Dommy” because it was like Donna/Mommy, together, right. So after the first episode aired, she called up at the house and she was like—well, we all had to watch it and she was—I was like, I said, “No, this is it. Yeah, this is it.” You know, because everything I saw—I was like, ehhhh. I said, “No, this is it. Yeah, this is going to be—this is going to work.” And she’s like, “Do you really think so?! Do you really think so?”

I said, “Leah, you’re playing yourself. Only more subdued. But you’re playing yourself. So how could you lose, you know? I mean, really.”