Julia Louis-Dreyfus is reflecting on why she spoke so openly about her stage II breast cancer diagnosis in 2017.
During Tuesday’s episode of her podcast, Good Hang, comedian Amy Poehler applauded Louis-Dreyfus for sharing her breast cancer diagnosis and treatment with “the world.”
“It was very helpful for a lot of people. It isn’t something you needed to share. You did,” Poehler told the fellow actor. However, Louis-Dreyfus said that she didn’t necessarily want to speak about her cancer so publicly at the time.
“Well, I was kind of backed into a corner on that one because we had to shut our show down,” she said, referring to how the final season of her show Veep was halted during her cancer treatment. “It’s funny how that worked out because normally I would not have done that. I’m very private.”
“But because we had to shut Veep down for a year, I had to say it,” she continued. “250 people weren’t going to be working.”
However, the Seinfeld alum acknowledged that when she shared her diagnosis, before announcing in 2018 that she was in remission, a “good thing” happened.
“I did have this incredible experience of people reaching out to me, asking me about my experience going through breast cancer for advice and I was able to help,” she said.
“There was something unbelievably comforting about being able to do that on the other side of this trauma,” Louis-Dreyfus concluded. “There is a lot to be said in self-soothing by soothing others. For real. I don’t mean to sound all Pollyannaish. I actually think it’s true.”
After she was diagnosed with stage II breast cancer in 2017, Louis-Dreyfus underwent chemotherapy, a double mastectomy, and breast reconstruction. She revealed in October 2018 that she had completed her treatment and was cancer-free.
The actor previously opened up about the moment she learned she had cancer. During a conversation with journalist David Remnick at the New Yorker Festival in 2023, she said she first reacted to the diagnosis by laughing.
“Well, because the night before, I had won an Emmy. And so, I came downstairs and … the Emmy was there. It was like on the dining room table. I'm coming down to get coffee. My cell phone rings, and it's my doctor saying, ‘Guess what, you have cancer,’” she said at the event at the time, according to People.
Still, she noted that she was so grateful that during this difficult time, she had the love and support of her family, including her husband, Bill Hall, and their two sons, Henry, 32, and Charlie, 28.
“I have a very strong and supportive family, and for which I am eternally grateful,” she added. “I was deeply terrified because who wouldn't be? I mean, all the tropes are true. You know, you get that call and it's like, ‘What, me? No, no, no.’ I mean, you can't imagine that something like that would happen to you.”
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