There’s nothing a little laughter can’t fix.
As she celebrates five years of being cancer-free, Julia Louis-Dreyfus is recalling how she burst into laughter after receiving her breast cancer diagnosis in 2017.
“I mean, it felt like it was written,” she told the Wall Street Journal Magazine in an interview published Wednesday, as she recalled the doctor giving her the bad news.
“It felt like it was a horrible black comedy. And then it sort of morphed into crying hysterically.”
The “Seinfeld” alum revealed the call came in the morning after she won her Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as Selina Meyer in “Veep”.
She added that her reaction was due to the shock and terror she felt after being told she had breast cancer.
“You just simply don’t consider it for yourself, you know, that’s sort of the arrogance of human beings,” she reasoned. “But of course, at some point, we’re all going to bite it.”
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Louis-Dreyfus went public with her diagnosis in September 2017 with a short note shared on X (formerly Twitter).
“1 in 8 women get breast cancer. Today, I’m the one,” she began.
“The good news is that I have the most glorious group of supportive and caring family and friends, and fantastic insurance through my union,” the now 62-year-old actress continued.
“The bad news is that not all women are so lucky, so let’s fight all cancers and make universal health care a reality.”
The “New Adventures of Old Christine” actress proceeded to undergo six rounds of chemotherapy, which she finished in January 2018.
Louis-Dreyfus celebrated her last day of radiation by sharing a silly video that her sons made for her, in which they’re dancing and lip-syncing to Michael Jackson’s “Beat It.”
The following month, she revealed she had a double mastectomy.
Louis-Dreyfus admitted she didn’t necessarily want to come forward with her diagnosis, but said she wanted to share her story before it got leaked to the media.
“I knew it would get out there because I knew we had to shut down production [on ‘Veep’] for a number of months in order to accommodate my situation,” she told Entertainment Tonight in October 2018.
“So then I thought, ‘Well, I’m just going to embrace this and attack it and try to do it with a sense of humor,'” she added. “I was really pleased with the reaction.”
Later that year, Louis-Dreyfus revealed she didn’t give herself much room to pity herself for having cancer.
“Am I gonna be dead tomorrow kind of thing?” she debated in an interview with the New Yorker. “I didn’t let myself go there.”
“Don’t misunderstand: I was to-my-bones terrified. But didn’t let myself – except for a couple of moments – go to a really dark place. I didn’t allow it.”
