The disgraceful genius
of Julia Louis-Dreyfus
From 90s hair-spiration in Seinfeld to the president in Veep, snogging Bryan Cranston and tackling industry sexism, she plays the Hollywood game perfectly
Julia Raeside
Monday 2 May 2016 13.29 BST
A
s Veep enters its fifth triumphant series, I’d like to spew forth my unfiltered admiration for Julia Louis-Dreyfus. My 90s hair-spiration as Elaine Benes in Seinfeld, she has come to mean so much more to me than that. She navigates a career in Hollywood in which she has never been the “girlfriend” or the stereotypical female “voice of reason” to her more prominently featured male counterparts. And now she is playing the leader of the free world, albeit a seriously inept one, it looks like there’s little left for her to conquer.