Amy Landecker: Improvising On 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' And 'Louie' Prepared Me For 'Transparent'

"Transparent," the first of Amazon Studios' hotly anticipated original series, has been making waves for its frank portrayal of a trans man transitioning to female. Also of interest has been showrunner Jill Soloway's creative process, which has included working with many trans writers, actors and crew -- perhaps the most in TV history, according to Amy Landecker, who plays Sarah on the show.

The 45-year-old shared another peek behind the "Transparent" curtain in her HuffPost Live interview on Monday concerning how much of the show is actually unscripted.

"We actually use a lot of improvisation on 'Transparent,'" she said. "Jill's a very open director and the writers are very open and there's a lot of encouragement to play."

Landecker's confidence with acting off-book stems from the one and only Louis C.K., with whom she acted on several episode of "Louie," she said.

"It was actually my first episode of 'Louie' where he told me that I knew how to do it," she recalled. "He was like, 'You have a gift -- this is a very specific skill set that you have.' And he really taught me to do less to be funny."

But "Louie" wasn't the first time Landecker got to try her hand at improv. That opportunity first came on Larry David's "Curb Your Enthusiasm," which is much more loosely written than Louis C.K.'s work.

"'Louie' is more scripted [than 'Curb']," she said. "'Curb' is 100 percent improvised, which is wild. I'd never done anything like that."

Watch the rest of Amy Landecker's conversation about "Transparent" on HuffPost Live here.

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