Julia Louis-Dreyfus: From 'Seinfeld' To 'Veep'

Dave Davies: But I gather ‘the ball’ wasn’t so much fun for you? (referring to being a cast member on Saturday Night Live at age 21)

Julia Louis-Dreyfus: Yeah, it wasn’t that great.

DD: Why not?

JLD: Well, I was very young. Okay, and I was very, very naïve. And I was coming from college and doing theater work with my friends and we would all work really hard as an ensemble to make the best possible show so there was a sort of an earnestness that I took with me to doing SNL that really had no place. I didn’t understand the politics and the dynamics of the show. I also went in thinking that I would just work with writers and you know, you just sort of… I didn’t go in with characters that I had worked and worked and worked on. I was not a writer myself. I was somewhat unprepared. Larry David was there my third year… he was a writer on that show for my last year and it was his only year. And we became friends during that period of time and we sort of… he was miserable. He didn’t get a single sketch on… he did get one sketch on but it was cut between dress and air. And so we sort of bonded in misery and there you go.

DE: And that’s what led to Seinfeld, right?

JLD: Yeah, pretty much. I mean there was a period of time in between, but yeah, it did.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus: From 'Seinfeld' To 'Veep' / NPR Fresh Air Weekend / Interview by Dave Davies / May 5, 2012