EXIT ON A HIGH
The show has been running constantly in syndication for decades. Why do people keep watching it repeatedly?
I don’t know. It’s had a life. It’s funny? Funny works. It’s nice to get a laugh before you close your eyes, I guess. It’s kind of a release maybe.
Have you had shows you’ve watched for comfort?
“I Love Lucy.” That’s like a good wine. It gets better and better. When I was little, it was “Flipper.” Who can resist Flipper? A talking dolphin! And I watched “All in the Family” again recently. Carroll O’Connor is a stone-cold genius. He plays such a heinous individual. And you adore him.
You walked that tonal tightrope all the time on “Veep.” And you’re remaking “Force Majeure” [now titled “Downhill,” with Louis-Dreyfus and Will Ferrell playing a married couple reexamining their relationship after an avalanche], a movie replete with flawed characters …
Likability is overrated. I loved the dynamic between the husband and wife in “Force Majeure.” And it showed that how you view your life can shift completely in a heartbeat. Exploring that sudden lens shift in understanding your reality appealed to me.
You and your husband, Brad Hall, lived that lens shift with your diagnosis, which Brad said maybe ended up being a kind of lucky thing, allowing you to take stock. Do you feel that way?
If you’re trying to look at the positive, I feel that way. I’d rather not have gone through it. But I became keenly aware of how precious this life is — my life, life in general. I’ve walked through that.
If someone had said to me, “You’re going to have chemotherapy,” I’d be like, “What?” It’s every cliché you’ve ever heard. “Wait. That doesn’t happen to me. It happens to other people.” And then it happens to you. And you get through it, if you’re lucky. In my case, I did. I’ve known people who haven’t, so I’m really happy I did. Really happy.
Does that keen awareness of the dearness of life last?
No. It comes and goes. But once you’ve walked through a life-threatening illness, there’s this little nagging thing with you all the time. That fear doesn’t completely go away because you’ve been face to face with it.
But you know what? We walk through our lives so oblivious to the fact that our lives are going to end. We really don’t consider that. Ever. Almost ever. Maybe that’s a good thing to a certain extent. But it’s a cold, hard fact, and it is a strange thing to reconcile.
I’ve probably picked up a dozen books on death and dying over the years and have read maybe one.
I read “Being Mortal” and that really helped me dealing with my father as he was nearing the end of his life. I’d recommend it. It’s a helpful guide on how to talk about death, how to approach it.
Did reading that help you after you were diagnosed?
That book is for dealing with a dying person. And I was not going there in my mind with my illness.
You and Brad have been married 32 years. That’s an accomplishment, but also …
… also a reminder of mortality. It’s so
strange. Like when you hit that number of anniversary, it feels like something old people would say. [Pause] But I guess I’m old. I sure don’t think of myself as that. I’m 58. But I feel like I’m about 38.
I watched your Mark Twain Prize acceptance speech from a few months ago and saw your mom. She’s gorgeous. And she looked so proud. In your speech, you acknowledged her, saying she brought “80 of her closest friends.”
Boy, it’s the truth, man. It was a huge negotiation with the Kennedy Center, that long list of friends. But she and my dad, my stepdad, are both very social and involved in their community. So everybody had to come.
You also reprised Elaine’s dance moves, which was funny since I guess Larry David didn’t like that episode. Jennifer Crittenden said she had to wait until he left “Seinfeld” to get that one through. Even then, she worried those dance moves might kill your career.
I did not know that. I came up with that dance, you know. That was my invention. They wrote “weird dance” …
Because they had seen you dance before?
No! I don’t dance like that! That was based on somebody else.
You want to make that clear.
I do want to make that absolutely clear. I’m a good dancer.
If you’re recognized in public, what do people ask? Bill Hader told me it’s all about Stefon and people wanting to talk about Henry Winkler and asking him not to kill NoHo Hank on “Barry.”
I get “Have you thought about running for president?” No. Emphatic no. “No soup for you!”
And of course, they’d like to see me dance, which I won’t do either. Or they want me to shove them like on “Seinfeld.” “Get out!” I’m very polite …
Was it hard saying goodbye to “Veep”?
It was crushing. It was the correct thing to do, but it was a heartbreaker through and through. It’s the hardest job I’ve ever had and the best job I’ve ever had. The getting down in the dirt, getting it done … it’s just incredibly life-affirming.
Going back to that after treating your cancer must have felt like a kind of salvation.
It was. Oh, my God. There was nothing better. To work together as a team to create something and try to be as funny and as authentic and as unusual as possible … that just restored my spirit. It was the absolute best.
‘To work together as a team to create something and try to be as funny ... as possible … restored my spirit.’ — JULIA LOUIS-DREYFUS, on “Veep”