Julia Louis-Dreyfus Recalls 'Excruciating' First SNL Rehearsal in Front of '20 Very Cynical, Unfriendly' Cast Members

Julia Louis-Dreyfus is reliving a mortifying moment on Saturday Night Live.

On a recent episode of Lemonada Media's Wiser Than Me podcast, the comedian, 63, looked back on the early days of her career and one embarrassing memory she had on the long-running sketch comedy show.

“When I was just getting started, I was part of the Practical Theater company in Chicago," she began. "The producers of SNL came to see the show and they loved it, and they hired all of us to come to New York and be a part of SNL."

She and three other "complete and total unknowns" had to perform the first act of the show in the Saturday Night Live office "under fluorescent lights in the middle of the day in front of 20 very cynical, unfriendly SNL cast members and writers," the actress recalled.

Louis-Dreyfus claimed that the group "already hated us because a bunch of their best friends had just been fired to make room for us."

"We never had a chance. Sketches that had killed in Chicago died a terrible, terrible death that day. It was excruciating," she admitted. "I think that humiliation influenced our whole SNL experience for the next couple of years, to tell you the truth."

She added, "I've learned a lot since that cringey day in a carpeted office on the 17th floor of 30 Rock.”

Louis-Dreyfus joined the sketch series in 1982 at 21 years old, making her the youngest female cast member at the time. The cast included Billy Crystal, Eddie Murphy, Martin Short and Christopher Guest, plus her future husband Brad Hall.

This isn't the first time the actress has opened up about the challenges she faced on the show.

In 2019, the Veep star admitted her three year run “was a pretty brutal time but a very informative time"" while sitting down with Stephen Colbert for Montclair Film’s annual “Evening with Stephen Colbert.”

“There were plenty of people on the show who were incredibly funny,” she told Colbert. “But I was unbelievably naive and I didn’t really understand how the dynamics of the place worked.”

“It was very sexist, very sexist,” she continued. “People were doing crazy drugs at the time. I was oblivious. I just thought, ‘Oh wow. He’s got a lot of energy.'”

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Louis-Dreyfus said she learned an important lesson on the show that she carries with her to this day.

“I learned I wasn’t going to do anymore of this show business crap unless it was fun,” she said. “I don’t have to walk and crawl through this kind of nasty glass if it’s not ultimately going to be fulfilling, and so that’s how I sort of moved forward from that moment. I sort of applied the fun-meter to every job since, and that has been very helpful.”