Julia Louis-Dreyfus is always looking for the next adventure. "I'm looking for something I haven't done before," she says. "I don't want to double down on what I've done. I want to find the new thing."
Following a stint on Saturday Night Live in the early '80s, Louis-Dreyfus broke out playing Elaine on Seinfeld. When that series ended, she pivoted to a different flavor of sitcom, The New Adventures of Old Christine, and then to HBO's Veep. Across the three series, she became the Emmy-winningest actor in history. Each series proved to be a comedic master class, but more importantly, each was a new thing from what had come before.
Her career since then, which has seen Louis-Dreyfus pivot once again to the big screen, has offered her even more drastically different projects: Last year, she reunited with filmmaker Nicole Holofcener for the A24 dramedy You Hurt My Feelings; her newest film is Tuesday, a dark fairy tale in which she plays a mother whose teenage daughter has a terminal illness. (It is Louis-Dreyfus' most dramatic role to date.) There's also her tenure within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in which she recurs as Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine and will reprise the role in 2025's Thunderbolts.
"I was hoping to find something dramatic to really sink my teeth into, and this came my way, and I was immediately intrigued," Louis-Dreyfus says of Tuesday. "This is absolutely not what I've done before. The Marvel thing, I had not done anything like that before. And so, I am looking for adventure as an actor, and I want to keep growing as an actor. That sounds so corny even as it came out of my mouth. But that is how I feel! I love it. It's the only skill I have other than shopping online."
"I still can't believe it," she reflects on a career that has now spanned nearly 40 years. "When I was in high school, it was this extracurricular activity, and I would do my homework and go to classes, but I was trying to get through it quickly so I could have play rehearsal or whatever. Now, I don't have to get through it quickly. It's front and center, and I love that."
Below, the actress shares with A.frame five of her favorite films. "I want to lodge a complaint. Am I allowed to do that?" Louis-Dreyfus deadpans. "Five?! I'm going to give you a list of five movies. And then our conversation will end, and I'm going to think of five more that should replace the five I just gave you. So, I object to this premise. But in no particular order..."
Directed by: Victor Fleming | Written by: Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf
I never, ever get sick of watching The Wizard of Oz, so much so that it's a joke in my house. I will suggest it whenever we're trying to think of a movie to watch, and everyone rolls their eyes. But I think it's a work of art from start to finish. We've become used to The Wizard of Oz, in terms of the premise and the fantasy of it, but it is, from start to finish, a work of art, and it makes me howl with laughter! Just howl. It is so funny, and it makes me weep and weep and weep.
It's an extraordinary performance from Bert Lahr. Oh god, Bert Lahr! He's incredible. Of course, Judy Garland is sublime. By the way, do yourself a favor: go online and look for the audio of Judy Garland singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" while she's imprisoned in the Witch's castle. It didn't make the cut into the movie, because it was too sad. You have to do it, because you will start to cry. Her performance is so gutting. Anyway, I just love the movie.
Directed by: James Ivory | Written by: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
I also get eye rolls from everybody in my house when I suggest we watch A Room with a View, which I do watch frequently. I think it's the most romantic film I've ever seen in my entire life. And also unbelievably funny. Daniel Day-Lewis gives an extraordinary performance as the fiancé of Lucy Honeychurch, played by the wonderful Helena Bonham Carter. It's exquisite to look at, and it's a very pure story about love. Period.
Directed by: Roberto Benigni | Written by: Roberto Benigni and Vincenzo Cerami
Ultimately, Life Is Beautiful is a tragedy. But it's tragedy, it's drama, it's comedy, all layered together. It's all of it. I don't think I've ever cried more than when I left that. Actually, as I'm talking about this, I start to tear up. I cannot believe what he did with that story. It's a story about, of course, fascism and Nazism and the story of the love between a father and a son. And how it, at the end of the day, that love prevails. It's a breathtaking film. There's nothing about it I don't love.
Directed by: Stanley Kubrick | Written by: Stanley Kubrick and Diane Johnson
Switching gears completely, I love The Shining, and I cannot watch horror movies. I really, honestly, cannot watch a horror movie, but this is one I can watch, because it has such a perfect story. It is not gratuitous. It is driven by the story and not, what do they call them? Jump scares or whatever. It is Shelley Duvall, and wow, talk about an unsung heroine. She gives a glorious performance, and Jack Nicholson is terrifying in his intensity. Nobody could have played that as perfectly as he did. It's also shot so beautifully. Of course, all of these films are, but I'm thinking of so many iconic scenes in this movie. That's a fun movie to watch the behind the scenes of Kubrick directing, when he's banging on the door. I can't get enough of that.
I would do a horror movie if it had real legs to it. I know horror is the genre that's in right now, but part of the reason I don't like them a lot of the times is because I feel as if they're scaring me for scaring me's sake. But if there was one that really had a good driving story, I'd be totally down for that. Although, I'd probably scare the s**t out of myself...
Directed by: William Friedkin | Written by: Ernest Tidyman
Of course, I have to say The French Connection, because, as an actor, I think one of the greatest actors of our lifetime is Gene Hackman. There's nothing that Gene Hackman has done that I haven't been gobsmacked by. He is the ultimate actor, in fact. He's without vanity. He's authentic, and his performance as "Popeye" Doyle was just cuckoo bananas perfect.
