Julia Louis-Dreyfus on ‘Terrifying’ Health Scare and Her Thoughts on Aging
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Julia Louis-Dreyfus discussed aging and her renewed perspective on it since being diagnosed with cancer.
The actress was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017.
“I’m just so happy to be here,” she said.
When Julia Louis-Dreyfus starred as Seinfeld’s Elaine in the ’90s, she had no idea what was ahead: another successful sitcom, an award-winning role as the (fictional) U.S. vice president, and yes, a cancer diagnosis. But now that she’s on the other side of the latter “terrifying” discovery, as she called it, she looks at aging optimistically—she’s up for anything. And, believe it or not, her journey may come full circle with a Seinfeld reunion, according to a hint recently dropped by Jerry Seinfeld himself.
Dreyfus was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017, and at first, all she could do was laugh. She is a comic, after all. “I did laugh, and then I became hysterical, crying, because I was terrified, as most people are, or as all people are if they get a diagnosis like that,” she recently said in an interview at The New Yorker Festival, per People.
Following a double mastectomy and six rounds of chemo, in 2018, the actress announced that she was cancer-free. The experience, understandably, gave her a new perspective about getting older. “I’m just so happy to be here, you know. I think I’m enjoying things more,” the 62-year-old said. “I had this one conversation with the wonderful writer Isabel Allende, and she is so stoked to be, I believe she’s 82 or 83, and the way she was talking about it, she’s let go of so much. She just does whatever the hell she wants. She is completely unburdened in a way that she was not when she was younger, and she went on and on.”
Dreyfus continued: “And I said to her, ‘Isabel, I can’t wait to be 83.’ I mean, for real.”
Before the actress hits that milestone, though, there are hopes that she will reunite with her Seinfeld co-stars in an event that may finally settle the controversy around the show’s divisive ending. “Something is going to happen that has to do with that ending,” Jerry Seinfeld said at a Saturday stand-up show in Boston, per Variety. “Hasn’t happened yet. And just what you are thinking about, [co-creator] Larry [David] and I have also been thinking about it. So, you’ll see.”
In 2020, Dreyfus initiated her own semi-reunion with David and co-star Jason Alexander for a political fundraiser. “I love hanging out and reminiscing with my buddies,” she told The Hollywood Reporter at the time. As for a full-on reprise, her stance on the matter is so-so.
“We did that already on Curb Your Enthusiasm,” she told THR. “We did what I thought was a pretty clever reunion of sorts, like an anti-reunion reunion on Curb. And I think that’s sort of been done.”
It’s possible she’s changed her mind since then, but who knows? We’ll have to wait and see what happens! Until then, we’re glad to see her embracing life as it comes.
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