Julia Louis-Dreyfus said that when she made her breast cancer diagnosis public in 2017, she felt “backed into a corner.” Filming of HBO’s “Veep”, which was getting ready for its seventh and final season at the time, was put on hold while Louis-Dreyfus received chemotherapy. In the “Good Hang” podcast’s December 9 episode, host Poehler commended Julia Louis-Dreyfus for being transparent about her diagnosis, stating that it was “very helpful for a lot of people.” However, Louis-Dreyfus clarified that she wasn’t the only one who decided to go public.
“I was kind of backed into a corner on that one because we had to shut our show down,” the star said. “It’s funny how that worked out, because normally I would not have done that. I’m very private.” Production on the last season of the HBO series had to halt “for a year” in order for her to have chemotherapy, stated Julia Louis-Dreyfus, an executive producer as well. She continued, “Two hundred fifty people weren’t going to be working, so I had to make a public thing about it.”
Louis-Dreyfus stated that despite her initial misgivings, she is eventually happy that she disclosed her diagnosis since it made it possible for her to establish relationships with other cancer patients. “The good thing about doing that was that I did have this incredible experience of people reaching out to me asking me for, you know, asking me about my experience going through breast cancer, for advice,” she said. “And I was able to help, and there was something unbelievably comforting about being able to do that on the other side of this trauma.”
In September 2017, Louis-Dreyfus received a breast cancer diagnosis. “1 in 8 women get breast cancer,” she said on Twitter (now X) to publicise the news. “Today, I’m the one.” “The good news is that I have the most glorious group of supportive and caring family and friends,” she 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.”
