Arrive Magazine - January/February, 2007

many more years of experience now, so it’s much easier than when I was 21 years old. I’m more confident, and they’re more respectful.”

GETTING SOME RESPECT

Critics are also paying their respects these days, in a new recognition of her gifts. In Christine, her mix of “smarts, sweetness, sarcasm and slapstick abandon puts her in good company with the best of TV’s female clowns,” says Matt Roush, senior TV critic for TV Guide. “Audiences like her because they’re comfortable with her. Many of us watched her develop her chops in the cauldron of Saturday Night Live, and then flourish as the sole female regular on the boys’ club of Seinfeld. She’s one of the guys who is also very much a girl, and even when she’s obnoxious or ridiculous, you always get a sense she’s in on the joke.”

As for The Curse? The new show avoids many of the mistakes that other Seinfeld alumni have made—including Louis-Dreyfus herself, with the ill-fated Watching Ellie. “The reason why Seinfeld works where others have failed is pretty simple: It’s a better show,” Roush says, “and the role fits her like a glove. It’s tricky to find the next role. If you find something too close to your previous character, audiences will feel like they’ve seen it before.

With Christine, Julia Louis-Dreyfus has found a role that’s not quite like Elaine but still allows her comic timing to come through.”

Nutcracker every Christmas at Lincoln Center. I ate hot pretzels on the sidewalk. My parents were very supportive of all of this. New York had a lot to offer and they let me experience it.”

How quintessentially New York have her life and
career been? Two decades ago, her first movie role
was for Woody Allen, in Hannah and Her Sisters,
one of his best films. “I only had three lines,” Louis-
Dreyfus recalls. “But that was enough to put it on
my résumé. And don’t think
for a second that I didn’t put it
on my résumé.” By 1997, well
after Louis-Dreyfus emerged
as a star, she went back to
work for Allen in a more sig-
nificant role, in Deconstructing
Harry. “This time, I got a sense
of what it was like to work
with him,” she says. “He’s
surprisingly relaxed about his
own words. He tells you, ‘If
it doesn’t feel right, put in
your own words.’ I wouldn’t
expect someone of his caliber
to be so casual about that
sort of thing.”

That said, Louis-Dreyfus calls L.A. home now, not New York. Not that she doesn’t think about moving back. Sure, she and her family enjoy life in California. They have two beautiful homes and both are testimonies to environmental friendliness, with recycled materials, natural lighting and solar power. (“You really don’t notice anything different until you realize that there’s no AC,” she says. “But that’s when we turn on the retractable sunroof. It’s all very cool and James Bond-like.”) The boys can’t get enough of surfing and hiking in the area. Still, Louis-Dreyfus always considers the positive impact that a touch of New York would offer.

“My sons would have a greater access to the cultural and intellectual life,” she says. “It’s here in

L.A., but you really, really need to seek it out. In New York, the cultural life is right there as soon as you walk out your door. In L.A., you have to get in your car and try to find it. And, sometimes, it has to practically crawl inside your car before you realize that it’s there.”

Louis-Dreyfus won last year’s Emmy for outstanding actress in a comedy series for her new show, The New Adventures of the Old Christine.

STILL A NEW YORKER

While the L.A.-based Christine is her current success, returning to SNL every once in a while reminds us of who Louis-Dreyfus is: a classic, comic actress with a distinctly New York state of mind. That’s not by accident. She was born in New York Hospital, lived in Manhattan as a young girl, and moved to Washington, D.C., while traveling back to New York constantly. Although she grew up the child of privilege, she and her family were always strong advocates of using the NYC public bus system to get around, and Louis-Dreyfus knows the neighborhoods well. “Central Park was my playground—96th Street to be specific, on the east side,” she says. “I took the bus everywhere. I saw