Julia Louis-Dreyfus elaborates on SNL: ‘sexual harassment,’ ‘big time drugs’
Andrew Mckinney
Updated on March 11, 2026
Julia Louis-Dreyfus covers The Hollywood Reporter to promote the fifth season of her show Veep, which airs this Sunday. Last week, she hosted Saturday Night Live, where she reprised her role of Elaine Benes questioning Larry David’s Bernie Sanders. For those who don’t know, Julia and then boyfriend Brad Hall were asked to audition for SNL while still attending Northwestern University. Since her SNL days, Julia has starred in three award-winning TV series, Seinfeld, The New Adventures of Old Christine and now Veep. With seven Emmys to her name, she is considered one of the most influential actresses in Hollywood today. Julia is using her status in the industry to speak out more and more about its challenges, primarily those that women face.
On Staying with Veep after creator Armando Iannucci left: “This is not the kind of thing that’s going to come along a lot. I’m not interested in being the wisecracking this or that or the eye-rolling wife. Those roles are out there, and they’ve come my way, but I’m not doing that. I’m bored sh-tless by that.”
On being asked to audition for SNL: “It was mind-blowing, just f—ing unbelievable. Here we were coming in as these stupid-ass new kids who had not a clue doing our goofy Chicago sketch comedy in front of a bunch of kiss-off, more experienced, bitter people. And so we go to that Wednesday table read, and it really did not go over well. There was no noise coming from anybody. It was f—ing bad.”
On SNL sexism: “The culture was not friendly — very dog-eat-dog. It was this very chauvinistic situation back then: very few women, lots of sexism, issues of sexual harassment and some really big-time drugs. Of course, I was so oblivious. I just thought, ‘That’s so weird that that guy’s sketch is 17 pages long and at the table read he’s howling laughing.’ ”
On the end of Seinfeld: “Jerry was understandably exhausted but there was this deep sadness because we knew that it was a phenomenon and that it would never come around again as it was and that we were bidding it goodbye.”
On filming “last f—able day” for Inside Amy Schumer: “I started to feel unbelievably paranoid that I was making fun of myself and wondering, was this really happening to me? Like, ‘How meta is this moment in my life? I started to have a kind of soul-searching crisis in the middle of the day. And I didn’t know the women well enough to bring it up, so I was just trying to be a good sport even though I was dying a little bit on the inside.”
On working to secure producer credits on Old Christine and Veep: “I don’t want to disparage people whom I’ve worked with, but let’s just say I had to work really hard to get those credits, and they did not come easily. I know it would have (been different for a man). There’s no question.
On looking for women-centered stories: “I’m trying to change things. I mean, I’m playing a powerful woman who’s middle-aged. And who, at least I think, is still pretty f—able.”
You can read the whole article here. There is a funny story about a fan letter she got from Hillary Clinton, only to find out in the exposed Clinton emails that Hillary had never watched the show. Another story speaks to how fiercely competitive Julia is, which I adore because I am too. What I found interesting, and I not saying it is a negative thing, but regarding the ending of Seinfeld and the possibility of Veep ending once Iannucci left, Julia sounds like it is hard for her to give things up. Like she knows maybe the time has come but it was such a positive experience, she can’t bring herself to let it go. It intrigued me because my husband and father are this way, they need time to accept something is changing whereas my mother and I are almost clinical when we have to let something go.
Julia recently produced an adaptation of the Swedish film Force Majeure and she and Brad are producing an HBO miniseries based the book Soldier Girls: The Battles of Three Women at Home and at War by Helen Thorpe. The story is about three women who have served in the National Guard in Afghanistan and Iraq. There is a chance Julia will star in the series as well, which would be fascinating to see.
Photo Credit: The Hollywood Reporter, GWENN and Getty Images
