Julia Louis-Dreyfus is having her movie-star moment: 'I'm down for the ride and I'm digging it'

NEW YORK – You’d be hard-pressed to find an actor more beloved than Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

The whip-smart TV icon has delighted audiences for more than three decades, scoring 11 Emmy wins and 26 nominations for her go-for-broke turns in “Seinfeld,” “Veep” and “The New Adventures of Old Christine.” But despite the acclaim, she has always been her own worst critic.

“I can see where ‘No, that was too big. That was too broad.’ That kind of thing,” she says. “If I’m not pleased with something I’m doing, that stays with me for a long time. That’s burdensome. What somebody else says? I can discard that fairly quickly, particularly if it doesn’t carry any weight.”

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Brutal honesty has been top of mind for Louis-Dreyfus, 62, as she promotes her biting new dramedy “You Hurt My Feelings” (now in theaters), her second movie with director Nicole Holofcener (2013’s “Enough Said”). She plays a happily married author named Beth who’s gearing up to release her new book. But Beth starts to spiral when she overhears her husband (Tobias Menzies) criticize the novel, which makes her second-guess her own abilities as well as their relationship.

Holofcener says she was inspired by her own "years of doing creative things, wanting the approval of my loved ones and wondering whether they are telling me the truth when they say they like something.” She wrote the character with Louis-Dreyfus in mind, knowing she’d make the prickly premise that much funnier.

“We collaborate really well,” Holofcener says. “When one of us has a stinky idea, we can easily say: ‘That was a stinker. What are you, crazy?’ And we laugh about it.”

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Louis-Dreyfus has a similar MO with her husband, actor/writer Brad Hall (“Brooklyn Bridge”). The couple met at Northwestern University, performing in the Chicago-based comedy troupe Practical Theatre Company before joining “Saturday Night Live” together in the early ‘80s.

“We've been upfront with each other from the get-go because we started out working together. There was a lot of back and forth about ideas and approaches to material,” Louis-Dreyfus says. “Sometimes the truth is hard to hear. But I also rely on kindness, and he would say the same. There’s a kind and gentle way to tell somebody the truth.”

She came up with her own inspired comedy moments on 'Seinfeld,' 'Veep'

One of Louis-Dreyfus’ greatest comedic gifts is her ability to think on her feet. “There’s a lot of things she says in the movie that aren’t scripted, and I’d be crazy not to use them,” Holofcener says.

Her skilled ad-libs date back to “Seinfeld," where "any good joke was welcome" despite the sitcom's tight script. The actress recalls a 1992 episode when her character, Elaine, discovers that her nipple was accidentally exposed in a Christmas card photo she mailed out. George (Jason Alexander) proceeds to nag Elaine about why he never received one.

“In rehearsal, I came up with the idea of grabbing his head and shoving it between my breasts back and forth, saying: ‘You want a Christmas card? Here's your Christmas card!’ That made it into the show, and I think it helped the scene."

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Louis-Dreyfus also made a brilliant suggestion for the first episode of “Veep,” in which the perpetually impolite Selina Meyer tries to push eco-friendly cornstarch cutlery, only to freak out when it melts in hot coffee. The moment helped lay the groundwork for her character.

“I thought that would be a very small, comedic thing to have happen that would send her into a fit – and it worked! It really worked,” Louis-Dreyfus says. “It wasn’t the only thing that set the tone, but it was a piece of the puzzle of (establishing) who Selina was, what she was trying to do and how she was going to be frustrated time and time again.”

'I actually have to pinch myself,' she says of her latest roles

By virtue of being an actor, Louis-Dreyfus says, she developed a thick skin early on. That has come in handy when the occasional project has faltered: She looks back fondly on 2002's “Watching Ellie,” her quickly canceled NBC sitcom (“That show was very underrated, and I stand by it”). Disney’s fever-dreamy “Geppetto,” her 2000 made-for-TV movie with Drew Carey, has also enjoyed a minor reevaluation online in recent years, with people praising her Blue Fairy (“I wish that one had gotten a little more attention because I got to sing and dance in it”).

The actress hasn’t been a TV regular since “Veep” ended in 2019, instead appearing in movies such as “Downhill,” “You People” and the animated “Onward.” But she’s not partial to one medium.

“I'm actively looking for good material, be it film or television,” she says. “I'm reading scripts just in the hopes of finding something truly elevated and not derivative of what's out there already.”

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She lights up talking about Marvel’s upcoming “Thunderbolts,” teasing that she’ll be doing “a little bit” more stunts this go-around when she suits up as Valentina, reprising her mysterious role from "Black Widow" and "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever."

“I actually have to pinch myself because it's incredible that so much is happening right now and that I'm able to do it. The nice thing about being my age is that I have a lot of experience now that I can bring to bear to all of this. I'm just more relaxed about it. I'm down for the ride and I'm digging it.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Julia Louis-Dreyfus talks 'Seinfeld' improv, 'You Hurt My Feelings'