“I want to live fully, openly, with arms outstretched. I feel youthful in that way. I want to try new things. I want to keep fighting the good fight. I want to look for good art. I want to fully live my life and be, hopefully, a good person doing so.”
-Julia Louis-Dreyfus, episode 377 of Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso
Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Seinfeld, Veep) is a national treasure with more primetime Emmys than any performer in the history of television. Then there’s her latest decade in film: two collaborations with Nicole Holofcener, Enough Said and You Hurt My Feelings, along with a devastating turn in the heart-rending fairytale from A24, Tuesday. Her range is unparalleled, including in the role of host on her excellent, award-winning podcast, Wiser Than Me.
We sat with Julia as part of this year’s Aspen Ideas Festival, where we discussed her powerful new film, Tuesday (6:33), her early performances in the basement of her childhood home (15:45), a formative high school yearbook quote (16:45), landing at SNL in the 1980s (22:06) with Larry David (24:56), the legacy of Seinfeld (28:42), and where she stands on the issue of “political correctness in comedy” (31:54).
On the back-half, a celebration of her uproarious turn as Selina Meyer on Veep (36:47), a life-changing diagnosis on the heels of her historic Emmy win (40:00), and the support she received from show-runner David Mandel (42:52) and President Biden (46:23). To close, we sit with the stakes of this upcoming election (50:40), words of wisdom from Jane Fonda (52:14), and the poem “Explanation” by Julia’s father, the late Gérard Louis-Dreyfus (54:00).
Watch this conversation on YouTube:
Show-notes:
- Tuesday is now playing in select theaters across the country.
- Listen to Julia’s podcast, Wiser Than Me, from Lemonada Media.
- The poetry collection from the late Gérard C. Louis-Dreyfus, Letters Written and Not Sent, is available from Red Hen Press.
- Ariel Levy’s 2018 profile of Julia can be read in The New Yorker.
- Watch Julia’s acceptance speech for the Mark Twain Prize.
- Order your Talk Easy mug in cream and navy or our vinyl record with Fran Lebowitz.
Original illustration by Krishna Shenoi. Reference Photograph by Christopher Anderson.
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