In a recent interview on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast, Julia Louis-Dreyfus opened up about being diagnosed with breast cancer, and why it left her “howling laughing”.
For those of you that haven’t heard the name Julia Louis-Drefus in a while, allow me to help jog your memory.
She is an American actress, comedian, producer, and singer — best known for her role in the classic sitcom, Seinfeld .
She’s also known for work on “Saturday Night Live”, “The New Adventures Of Old Christine”, and “Veep”.
Unfortunately, Julia was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017 — which she opened up about in a recent interview with Dax Shepard.
She revealed that cancer was “never” something on her radar — she didn’t feel all that worried about it.
Until she discovered an abnormality in her breast on her own — not during a routine mammogram.
She is now currently in remission, after undergoing six rounds of chemotherapy.
She began by revealing the story of how she discovered a “divot” in her breast, and being diagnosed with cancer just days later.
She described the “true fear” she felt during the unraveling of these events.
“I just noticed something in my breast — a slight divot,” she said.
“What the hell is that? That’s so weird,” she thought to herself at the time.
Her husband, writer and director Brad Hall, tried to ease her mind by suggesting that maybe she slept on it wrong.
“Yeah, I guess so. That’s weird,” she responded . But then explained that things very quickly “hit the fan”.
“Then the [expletive] hit the fan man — it was fast and furious,” she said.
Just a couple of days later, on the Friday before the 2017 Emmys — when the show Julia was on, Veep , won “Outstanding Comedy Series” and she, herself, won “Outstanding Lead Actress” in a Comedy Series — she was biopsied .
“My doctor said, ‘I think you should prepare for bad news’ and I was like, What?,” she recalled.
“Then we had the Emmys. You have to go to all those parties — I don’t remember any of it, I was on autopilot.”
“Then [at the Emmys], we won … and I won. It was all very exciting. The next morning, I got the call that it was in fact cancer.”
“I will admit to you I started howling laughing,” she said, pointing out the irony of winning a career-making award one day and being diagnosed with cancer the next.
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“It’s hilarious,” she said. “You got a trophy in one hand and a cancer diagnosis [in the other]. It’s incredible.”
“Talk about a lens changer,” she said . “Everything [else] falls off. Everything.”
She revealed that initially she felt panicked by the news — then “fear. True fear.”
That was very quickly followed by profound clarity.
“Everything that is precious becomes clear,” she said .
Hastily, after her diagnosis, she went public with the news on social media.
“1 in 8 women get breast cancer. Today, I’m the one,” she wrote . “The good news is I have the most glorious group of supportive and caring family and friends, and fantastic insurance through my union.”
“The bad news is that not all women are so lucky,” she continued. “So let’s fight all cancers and make universal health care a reality.”
“It’s a lot of people. It’s a lot of women. Men get breast cancer. Cancer is a big business, man,” Julia told Dax .
“That’s the thing that i was so struck by when I walked into [the treatment facility]. I was like: Wow, this cancer thing… is a booming business.”
“It sounds nasty the way I’m saying but [it was like]: Jesus Christ, look what’s going on here .”
She explained that having her husband by her side through this has been a great comfort for her.
“I definitely chose the right guy. He’s a really steadfast, calm, confident, morally-centered person. He was raised well. I’m not suggesting it is always easy, but together we’ve been bound to one another and we just carry on,” she said .
