Seinfeld: The Elaine Story

I am a day person Julia louis-dreyfus as far as I was concerned was the key to the success of the show the rare type of comedienne who is sexy and cute and funny all at the same time very hard to find that combination I remember when I saw her on Saturday Night Live she didn't get to to do too much on Saturday no I born I saw I said boy there's that's a person that should be a star because she you know has all these qualities that are so rare in a comedian why'd you have a fake course really fake occasion and the guy never knows yes how can he not know that because I was good like I said for that many beers he's probably a little groggy anyway you didn't know you did it are you saying yeah I think I'll have a piece of cake with me yeah you faked with me yeah you faked with me yeah no yeah you faked I think that whole thing the whole production it was all an act not bad huh what about the breathing the panting the moaning the screaming hey hey hey hey Larry had a great word for her he said that she gives the show lustre that's a great word for what she and she did she she was like the Pearl that smoothed over all this kind of rough kind of low minded behavior of the other three characters I think I'll get going ah stick around a while it's early well order Chinese before they picked up the four episodes NBC wanted to add on going character that would be a female character you know to play with this with the three boys we only have really three characters right you know and we thought oh one more couldn't hurt right look like a TV show yeah right they made you know two substantial changes between the pilot and the next four episodes one was the character the waitress that Lee Garlington played at the coffee shop was in essence supposed to be the fourth character yeah for sure this is decaf where's the orange indicator it's missing I have to do it in my head decaf left regular right decaf left regular right and we came in one day having rewritten her big scene and hand it in to Larry and you know in her defense she had no idea how awful a mistake that was you know her her days were numbered from that point on but it was probably a good cut I don't know that that being tied to a waitress in the coffee shop would have meant much but the other big change was the addition of this character of Elaine women were flooding into our offices every day they must have seen scores of women for the part and I used to watch Jerry and the various ladies come in read come in read they were not seeing anybody that they really felt rang their Bell then I mentioned Julia who had I had worked with on my one season of Saturday Night Live I had an overall deal with Warner Brothers television to create my own show February 1st of that year she became available the day after I got out of the deal quite literally I got these four scripts were sent to me um by my agent and I read them and then I saw that they'd been written by Larry and of course I knew Larry and I thought it was really incredible writing it was really different really different than sitcoms were being written right then and but the part wasn't very big and so it was kind of a I don't know cuz it was a real it wasn't a big part at all but I really did think that the writing was such a cut above that I was intrigued I called orchestrated a meeting we head her into going and meet with Jerry and Larry Jerry came in and I remember he was eating a bowl of cereal um and I thought oh yeah I sort of recognize that guy and I saw Larry and that was nice to see Larry and we just serves very relaxed so Jerry and Julia and I met in my office and Cha talked for about a half hour and we sat on a couch sort of just like this we just read the scene Jerry came out of the reading with Juliet and said Julie is healing that's it that is it come on let's go do something I don't want to just sit around here okay want to go get something to eat what do you want to go I don't care I'm not hungry you go one of those cappuccino places they let you just sit there what are we gonna do there talk we do talk I'll go if I don't have to talk they'll just sit there I think there were two different seasons perhaps even three in which I took Larry aside we were not servicing all the characters equally and Elaine julia was actually not being serviced well and she actually came into the room one day with Larry and Jerry and I were there as she was weeping and said that she wasn't being used in the show I think most writers and most people who came in on the show hoping to write a script had a much easier time dealing with George and Kramer ideas because they were such outrageous characters I didn't think I was getting enough calm real really meaty comedy stuff I had stuff but it wasn't like the really funny stuff and not that it was a competition but you know that is what you know gets me going so um and then things have started to happen slowly a slow process though I have to say and I always thought that if Julia didn't have a strong story in an episode then it was never gonna be quite as good you'll appreciate this Snapple nothing's I was talking to this guy you know and I just happened to throw my purse on the sofa and my diaphragm goes flying so I just froze you know daring at my diaphragm you know was just lying there so then this woman the one who sold me this hair thing she grabbed it before the guy noticed so I mean big deal right so I carry around my diaphragm who doesn't me like it's a big big secret that women carry around their diaphragms you never know when you're gonna need it right the really interesting thing about the show is that not only does attack all these racy issues but it doesn't mixed company the mandate back then from Larry and Jerry was right Elaine as if she were a guy and it makes everyone feel very comfortable about these things because he Lane was like one of the boys come on how was your date oh the date yeah how was it interesting what would happen let's see how shall I put this we'll just put it he took it out he what he took it out julia is the best comic actress that I've worked with she had the combination of a face that the camera just loved beautiful beautiful face but she had the courage to twist it in any direction that she wanted to she wasn't afraid to be unattractive and not only that her physicality is evidenced by the the dance the famous dance I mean we were whining we were dining we were dancing she's very courageous that she would take that chance to be you know physically unattractive could you be up done it so big before the next day you have your ticket you have to go now we'll never make it don't say that wickedly it takes 45 minutes to come takes 45 minutes to get there that'll only leave me five minutes to get to the point the plane diliberti left that what do I do are you talking too much where's my sweater what my brown sweater you got a brown sweater not mine I can't take your sweater I never saw a process with Julia when she worked she just did it she's very comfortable and she just let it swing you know you could never predict the way Julia was going to read lines well she brought just tons to the character that wasn't on the page all I know is he doesn't like games and he doesn't play games you know he has too much character and integrity uh-huh and what is his stand on abortion what is his stand on abortion well I'm sure he's pro-choice how do you know because he what he's just so good-looking we would always go light shooting and if it get past ten o'clock I was no good I'm an early person to bed and I get very very laughy after ten o'clock you know the only reason I'm doing this is because you went with Audrey to the hospital there's no point you go Julie is laughing okay here we go yes laughing yeah good waste from waste everyone's time I'm gonna get a 4x4 we just gotta get this way to him I gotta ride him now I'm sorry I promise the only camera left is the video assist everything else is gone so you know eventually these people came and you know somebody gave him mouth-to-mouth aqui why didn't you just give him mouth-to-mouth all right that's good every time she would try it would just get worse and worse put you up to this was it huh all right wait a minute I think you've got it backwards my George isn't clever enough to hatch a scheme like this you got that right the hell does that mean oh hell come on okay let's go let's go mmm that means whatever the hell you want it to me you're saying you want a piece of me you saying you want a piece of me you saying you want a piece of me you saying you want a piece of me I can drop you like a bag of dirt you want a piece of me you got it ah we had another great I'll take run also involving Julia Louie Dreyfus and Jerry Stiller I told all my friends about it everybody knows I know that was another example when I couldn't get through it when he fell and he made that scream I think it would have respected oh I still can't believe how funny that was anyway I can't talk about that huh this is terrible hey Rowley oh she's rolling is the blue plane okay go there we go okay all right yeah yes yeah I mean no I okay okay go come on we won an Emmy you know yeah but I didn't and the Emmy goes to Julia Louie Dreyfus nominated five times for her this is her first Emmy I was surprised to win because we weren't like coming home with armfuls of Emmys every year so as a matter of fact I remember being very cavalier about it when we went to the Emmys so that when they said in the nominees for and they cut to me and I went oh please because I figured I was guaranteed loser a lot of people say that our show is about nothing but um of course it's been about plenty of something for me and it's been the greatest job of my life and I am so grateful to Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David and Jason Alexander and Michael Richards and Andy Ackerman and all of our writers in Castle Rock and Glen panic and NBC and my wonderful husband Brad hall and my beautiful son Henry and my parents who are here tonight thanks for raising me I really appreciate it and to Bill melamed and to all of you thanks very much when I think about making the show I really think about how much we laughed that's actually something we all shared we all enjoyed making each other laugh and then laughing and not being able to keep it together and not being able to get through a take and and we've enjoyed the process very much I missed that part of it a lot you

Channel: Sturmanskie3133

Views: 2,373,539

Rating: 4.7804751 out of 5

Keywords: seinfeld, s07d04, the, elaine, story, prima

Id: C5Ox67Bsw0Y

Length: 16min 12sec (972 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 23 2011

Reddit Comments

[u/kuphinit]

Her laugh is so contagious when she really loses it. Love her.

[u/ArtVandelay_]

I don't think I could keep a straight face around Jerry Stiller either!

[u/leiner63]

I'd like a show where Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Jerry Stiller yell at each other. A show of outtakes and bloopers, no substance.

[u/daddio48]

This speaks to me. My favorite tv character ever.

[u/buzz_bee_police]

What an amazing actress.

[u/housemouse]

Does anyone know what documentary special this video came from?