Julia Louis-Dreyfus: Saturday Night Live had sexist work environment

Los Angeles (IANS) – Actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus says the environment on “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) was very sexist during her tenure.

Although there were plenty of “incredibly funny” people on the show, the “Veep” star told Stephen Colbert that it was also a “very sexist” environment during her three-year tenure, reports ew.com.

“I was unbelievably naive and I didn’t really understand how the dynamics of the place worked,” she said.

“It was very sexist, very sexist. People were doing crazy drugs at the time. I was oblivious. I just thought, ‘Oh wow. He’s got a lot of energy’,” she added.

The two comedians took part in a Q&A session during the Montclair Film Festival held in Montclair in New Jersey, where they discussed Louis-Dreyfus’ career from “Saturday Night Live” to “Seinfeld” to her successful “Veep”.

Despite “Saturday Night Live” not being the right fit for her, Louis-Dreyfus found a silver lining in working on the show.

“It was a pretty brutal time, but it was a very informative time for me,” she said, as it taught her to value the “fun-meter” of her subsequent jobs.

“I learned I wasn’t going to do any more of this show-business crap unless it was fun. I don’t have to walk and crawl through this kind of nasty glass if it’s not ultimately going to be fulfilling, and so that’s how I sort of moved forward from that moment. I sort of applied that ‘fun meter’ to every job I’ve had since and that has been very helpful,” she explained.

–IANS
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