Emmy winner Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who played Elaine Benes on the TV show, Seinfeld (1989-1999), tells her experience on the show. According to Entertainment Weekly, she reveals on a podcast called Friends Keep Secrets about the stress in an influential show was hard work to keep perfect on set.
In the series, the whole plot is it’s a show about nothing— they even had a plot idea in an episode of their “made-up” show being about nothing—following in New York City a group of friends in hilarious situations. The cast include Jerry Seinfield as Jerry, Jason Alexander as George, Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Elaine, and Michael Richards as Kramer. As it went on for nine seasons, the cast had many iconic moments that made the show a classic 90s show to watch, including the Soup Nazi, the “yada, yada,” and Elaine’s revenge with the toilet paper.
The network even wanted a crossover between Seinfeld and Friends when they were both airing. The crossover would be navigating the New York City blackout with each of the characters in each of their shared set scenes. However, co-creator Larry David (Curb Your Enthusiasm) didn’t have the show participate and the idea was scrapped. The creators then ended the show with an unresolved ending.
Louis-Dreyfus was asked if there was ‘friction’ while on the show, replying, “Of course, yes, tons. I mean it’s hard to do anything really well and it takes a lot of work and you’re gonna butt heads.” Anyone could be in this same tension in a show and still put the work in to make it a success.
She hardly looks back on the work she did in any of her series and films. Most comedians hardly ever do as much of the material they did onset or on standup could be a lot to go over, especially when watching it to see where they could do better on and edit through the camera shots taken for the scene. However, some outsiders to the show bring her back to the nostalgia, including her own husband, Emmy-nominated writer Brad Hall, who watches bloopers of the show and enjoys her on it.