Julia Louis-Dreyfus On "SNL" Enviornment: "It Was Very Sexist"

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Louis-Dreyfus pulled no punches talking about "SNL."

According to Variety, Julia Louis-Dreyfus sat down with Stephen Colbert at Montclair Film Festival’s annual “Evening with Stephen Colbert” fundraiser on Saturday. While the two discussed several topics, Louis-Dreyfus was particularly candid about her time on Saturday Night Live from 1982 to 1985.

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“There were plenty of people on the show who were incredibly funny,” she said. “But I was unbelievably naive and I didn’t really understand how the dynamics of the place worked. It was very sexist, very sexist. People were doing crazy drugs at the time. I was oblivious. I just thought, ‘Oh wow. He’s got a lot of energy.’"

At the time, she was the youngest female cast member in the program's history.

“I learned I wasn’t going to do any more of this show-business crap unless it was fun,” she explained. “I don’t have to walk and crawl through this kind of nasty glass if it’s not ultimately going to be fulfilling, and so that’s how I sort of moved forward from that moment. I sort of applied the fun-meter to every job I’ve had since and that has been very helpful.”

It was during her SNL years when she met comedian Larry David who would give her a role on Seinfeld years later.


About The Author
Cole Blake is currently an Editor at HotNewHipHop based out of Brooklyn, New York. He began working at the site as an intern back in 2018 while studying journalism at St. John’s University. In the time since, he’s graduated with a bachelor's degree and written extensively about a wide range of topics including pop culture, film & television, politics, video games, sports, and much more. He’s also covered music festivals such as Gov. Ball and Rolling Loud. You can find him publishing work for HNHH from Monday to Wednesday or on weekends. On the sports front, Cole’s a passionate NBA and NFL fan with his favorite teams being the Indianapolis Colts and Los Angeles Lakers. He also roots for the Yankees whenever he finds himself at Yankee Stadium or the Red Storm when in the company of other SJU alumni. His favorite hip-hop artists are billy woods, Earl Sweatshirt, Cam’ron, MIKE, and Mach-Hommy.