Seinfeld may be known as one of the funniest sitcoms of all time, but it wasn’t always a barrel of laughs on set, according to Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
Louis-Dreyfus played the sardonic and witty Elaine Benes across all nine seasons of the hit comedy show, which ran from 1990 to 1998 on NBC.
The 11-time Emmy winner recently gave some insight into what it was like working on the show during a recent appearance on Friends Keep Secrets, a podcast hosted by Benny Blanco, Lil Dicky and Kristin Batalucco.
Asked if there was ever any “friction” on the set of Seinfeld, Louis-Dreyfus did not hesitate to say: “Of course. Yes. Tons.”
“Oh really?” asked Batalucco, to which the actor responded: “Yeah. I mean, it’s hard to do anything really well, and it takes a lot of work, and you’re going to butt heads.”
Louis-Dreyfus went on to give an example, noting that “sometimes there was an argument” surrounding the proposal of ideas to series creators Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, as reported by People.
Despite any creative differences, the actor stipulated that the Seinfeld set was a collaborative environment in general, which allowed for a lot of “freedom” such that working often felt like “just being friends together and just hanging out”.
“That sounds as if it was just hanging out. It was a lot of work to make the show,” she clarified. “But what I mean was we were all, like, kids. And we had our own idea and [the writers] had their own idea of exactly what they wanted to do, which was not the norm at the time in terms of structured television.
“So I think there was an air of freedom because of that. We had a lot of fun making it.”
Seinfeld debuted on NBC in 1989, starring Louis-Dreyfus, Jerry Seinfeld, Jason Alexander, and Michael Richards. The seminal comedy, about four single friends living in New York City, went on to win 10 Emmys during its nine-year run and remains commonly cited as one of the funniest sitcoms in history.
Asked whether it was clear that the show would be a hit, Louis-Dreyfus said she knew at the time that it was “really good”, but that it was so “unusual” that she thought the network would be “too stupid” to pick it up.
“This was just sort of like an odd specific [vibe]… it’s not so odd now, maybe in retrospect,” she said, later adding: “I was so surprised by all that attention.”
On the legacy of the series, the actor said: “Yeah, it’s weird, isn’t it?”
Seinfeld launched Louis-Dreyfus’s career. After the series, which earned her one Emmy and seven nominations, came to an end, the actor went on to lead her own sitcom in The New Adventures of Old Christine, which ran for five seasons from 1998 to 2005 and landed her a second Emmy.
Arguably, her biggest success arrived in 2012 with HBO’s Veep, a political comedy created by The Thick of It’s Armando Iannucci on which she also served as a producer.
Louis-Dreyfus won six consecutive Emmys for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her performance as Selina Meyer, the deeply ambitious and narcissistic vice president of America.
She won three further Emmys for guest appearances on The Marvelous Mrs Maisel.
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