Julia Louis-Dreyfus covers WSJ. MAGAZINE’s highly anticipated November Innovator’s Issue, out on newsstands Saturday, November 11th, one of seven covers representing each of this year’s groundbreaking award recipients.
In an interview for the cover profile, written by WSJ.’s Ellen Gamerman, Louis-Dreyfus opens up about her new chapter, her revealing new podcast Wiser Than Me, and how her cancer battle 5 years ago informed the way she lives her life.
On taking on podcasting, as well as roles in more serious projects: Now the comedy icon is bringing her singular point of view to more serious projects involving questions of marital strife, family tragedy and the wisdom of older women. The turn reflects, in part, where she is in her life right now.
“I have a lot of experience and I can bring it to bear,” she says. “And I’m really interested in trying new things.”
On how her cancer battle has informed her life: It’s been five years since Louis-Dreyfus finished treatment for stage-two breast cancer. She used to feel immortal, she says, but not anymore. With the relief of remission comes a determination to make her next years count.
“I find myself living more mindfully,” she says. “It’s not like it’s yakking at me all the time, but there’s more laser focus.”
On using the same approach to both comedy and drama: “The approach to it is actually, believe it or not, quite similar,” she says. “You’re trying to find your own truthful way into the story.”
On taking another comic role if a good one came along: The problem is supply. “They’re hard to come by,” she says. On her podcast, she has talked about the joys of “ ‘laughing at a funeral’ kind of laughing,” where the fact that laughing is not allowed only makes it funnier.
On describing the sensation of getting a laugh as a performer: “It feels like scratching a very—a really deep itch,” she says. “Like you’ve got an itch in the center of your back and you can’t quite get it, and then you get it, and it’s like, ‘Ahhh.’ ”
On her reluctance to open up on her podcast: But podcasting demands a level of intimacy that many other mediums don’t. Plus, she’s asking her guests to open up to her, and the best way to build that trust is to do the same.
“I’m a little hesitant about it, I will admit. I’ve guarded my privacy pretty ferociously in a lot of ways.”
On learning of her cancer diagnosis in 2017: There are moments when tragedy and comedy get put in a blender, and Monday, September 18, 2017, was one of them. Louis-Dreyfus and Veep had triumphed at the Emmys the night before. By morning, her doctor was on the phone telling her she had cancer. The first thing she did after hanging up was double over with laughter.
“I mean, it felt like it was written. It felt like it was a horrible black comedy,” she says. “And then it sort of morphed into crying hysterically.”
She was terrified. “You just simply don’t consider it for yourself, you know, that’s sort of the arrogance of human beings,” she says. “But of course, at some point, we’re all going to bite it.”
On finding humor through tragedy: Now here she was that much older, facing surgery and chemo. In the months that followed, she made a list of complaints, basically the unhelpful things people said to her, or the gifts they gave. All the appalling stuff that might be ripe for mockery.
“I liked to put things on that list that I wasn’t supposed to say out loud,” she says. “A complaint list, you know, the specifics about things that were happening to my body that I wanted to write down, things that were happening, you know, when I was in chemo and what was happening to my body as a result of that. It’s just, like, horrible. It’s medieval. And then people do say it comes from a positive place, but sometimes people say incredibly remarkable things that are inappropriate.”
She can’t find the list, but she’d like to.
“I think you might find it funny,” she says. “That’s all I’m saying.”
WSJ. Magazine’s November Innovators Issue, out on newsstands Saturday, November 11th.
[Photo Credit: Max Farago for WSJ. Magazine]
Previous post:
WSJ. Magazine 2023 Innovator Awards Red Carpet Rundown Next Post:
Mariah Carey in Balmain at the JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE! Studios
WSJ. Magazine 2023 Innovator Awards Red Carpet Rundown Next Post:
Mariah Carey in Balmain at the JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE! Studios
-
Tyla is COSMOPOLITAN’s Summer 2024 Issue Cover Star!
-
FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA Star Chris Hemsworth Covers VANITY FAIR’s May Issue
-
BRIDGERTON’s Luke Newton for INSTYLE Magazine
Please review our Community Guidelines before posting a comment. Thank you!
