28
The 62-year-old actor looks back on surviving pilot season and her first audition with Jerry Seinfeld.
Success came early for Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
Being anSNLalum wasnt exactly the springboard Louis-Dreyfus hoped it might be.
I really wanted to be an actor and find great material.
That was the challenge for me back then, and to be taken seriously as an actor.
I was hyper-focused on that.
She shot the rest ofSeinfelds abbreviated first season that year, and it aired in 1990.
But at 28, Louis-Dreyfus wasnt overthinking it.
I was very driven and very ambitious, but I was also pretty footloose and fancy-free.
Not that shed change much of her 20s, in retrospect.
When I turned 30, it felt like I couldn’t possibly get older than 30.
Thirty sounded like proper adult, Louis-Dreyfus says.
So for two more years, she did.
Below, Louis-Dreyfus reflects on joiningSeinfeld, being obsessed with Shabby Chic, and her biggest skincare regret.
Take me back to 1989, when you were 28.
How were you feeling about your life and career?
I was living in Los Angeles, in Beverly Glen, up in the hills.
It was a great house.
I had done a series before I didSeinfeldcalledDay by Day.
It ran for two seasons on NBC.
I would come in with the barbs and then I would leave.
That was a confidence-building experience for me.
Youd leftSNLfour years prior, in 1985.
Live sketch shows had to have been a totally different environment than sitcoms, too.
And when I was atSNLback in the early ’80s, it was not a female-friendly environment at all.
So this was a different experience altogether, and it was a happy experience.
We were doing what we thought was funny, not what we were being told was funny.
And that was ginormous.
Do you remember what your audition for Elaine was like?
I did it in the most relaxed of ways.
I knew Larry because Larry had been onSNLwhen I was in my third year.
I think you know him."
I went in and I saw Larry.
We shot the sh*t for a while, goofing around, laughing.
That was the end of it.
It was not your standard kind of [audition].
I mean, Jerry was eating cereal, so it was pretty loose.
We made the deal over the weekend and we started shooting the following week.
Did it feel like pressure to be the only female main character on the show?
No, I didn’t feel exterior pressure.
I always felt interior pressure, if that makes sense, not because she was a woman, necessarily.
It wasn’t like the girl jokes and the boy jokes.
You know what I mean?
A fine example of that isthe masturbation episode.
In its time, it was groundbreaking.
I was sure they were going to shut us down over the subject matter.
Nobody was talking about that kind of thing nobody in primetime.
So it was nice to just be a team player as opposed to the girl team player.
That was a desire of mine, to play ball just like everybody else.
What did you splurge on at 28?
I think this is when that storeShabby Chicwas at its peak.
[I bought] stuff for the house and making a home.
I think I brought a lot of pillows.
What was a typical Friday night out like for you at 28?
I definitely stayed out later than I do now.
OnSeinfeld, we would always have this tradition.
After show night, we would go out toJerry’s Deliin Studio City.
That was very festive.
Sometimes it would be quite late at night.
It had a New York existence to it.
Do you have any regrets from age 28?
I paid no attention, and that was a mistake.
Aside from wearing sunscreen, what advice would you give your 28-year-old self?
I would tell my 28-year-old self to kindly relax and kindly know it’s going to be fine.
What do you think your 28-year-old self would think of you now?
I don’t think my 28-year-old self would believe it.Idon’t believe it.
This has been an incredible life I’ve had thus far.
I’ve got these two gorgeous boys.
Because it might have been otherwise.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
