Saturday Night Live has an incredible list of famous alumni, and it is often forgotten that Julia Louis-Dreyfus is on that list. Her 3 years on SNL (Seasons 8-10) are often overshadowed by her role as Elaine Benes on Seinfeld, a show that broke away from the typical sitcom formula and made her a household name. Louis-Dreyfus truly got her big break from the SNL scouts, leaving Northwestern University after getting tapped to be SNL’s youngest player at the time. However, the Veep actress recently got real honest about how hard SNL was, and revealed the one person who made her time in Studio 8H more bearable.
SNL might seem like a well-oiled machine these days, but it took 50 years to get there. In a conversation at the Cannes Film Festival this past week, the Seinfeld alum told The Hollywood Reporter the early 80s was a rough era for the famous sketch show. All of SNL’s inaugural cast was gone, including creator Lorne Michaels, who took a hiatus from the show from 1980-1985, leaving an “incredibly competitive” power vacuum behind-the-scenes for the 21-year-old Louis-Dreyfus to navigate. The Thunderbolts actress described a jarring introduction to the entertainment industry during her SNL tenure, involving a lot of “extracurricular activities”:
There were a ton of drugs going on. I was so naive that I did not realize this. We’d have the table read and one sketch would be 17 pages long, which is too long for a sketch, and the writers who wrote it were going like [grinding teeth]. And I’m like, ‘Wow, they have a lot of energy.’ It was a topsy-turvy time.
It may seem like a ridiculous concept now given SNL is such a consistent staple of the American TV landscape, but at the time, SNL was still a young show, trying to regain its footing and figure out its new identity.
For the most part, Louis-Dreyfus was part of some pretty successful SNL casts, which included Billy Crystal, Eddie Murphy, Martin Short, and Jim Belushi, and as a natural born performer, she could hold her own. But the You Hurt My Feelings actress described the environment behind-the-scenes as every man for himself, emphasis on the man part, saying it was a very “male-centric staff.”
Louis-Dreyfus’ sunshine in the storm, although I highly doubt he’s ever been described as such, was meeting writer Larry David. The Curb Your Enthusiasm star joined the sketch comedy show behind the scenes for the 10th season, Louis-Dreyfus’ last season on the show, and seemingly clicked.
At the Aspen Ideas Festival last week, Louis-Dreyfus told Sam Fragoso of Talk Easy that she and David bonded over their shared grievances: that no one knew what was funny, no one understood their shared humor or their sketches, and that they weren’t being put on air. After 2 years of struggling to be seen at 30 Rock, Louis-Dreyfus told THR she found good company in Larry David:
So we spent a lot of time happily being miserable together.
Things worked out well for the writing-player duo though, with David hiring Louis-Dreyfus to join one of the best sitcoms of all time. Perhaps the other SNL writers should have listened more to the Seinfeld stars, because their comedy style was clearly a hit with audiences.
While it’s disappointing to hear these two legendary comedians had such a rough time on the iconic NBC sketch show, I’m glad it brought their genius minds together, leading to incredible TV collaboration through the years. Both David and Louis-Dreyfus did eventually return to Studio 8H, with the Veep star hosting 3 separate times, and the Seinfeld co-creator appearing as a recurring guest during the 2016 election cycle to impersonate Bernie Sanders. I honestly hope they’ve healed some of their early SNL trauma, as I’d love to see them reunited in the place that started it all!
