Yahoo Sports How Julia Louis-Dreyfus' life changed after telling Warner Bros. to 'f--- off'
When Julia Louis-Dreyfus learned to tell her bullies to get out, she found a new strength.
The actress, currently appearing in You Hurt My Feelings, sat down with podcast Podcrushed and talked an important turning point in her life in between starring on Day by Day and reaching super-stardom in Seinfeld — being threatened with a lawsuit by a giant studio.
"I was really scared, because it was Warner Bros and I was just this girl who was an actress," she said. "I felt very small. Because I was."
Louis-Dreyfus recalls having a development deal with the studio at the time that had "a creative out based on the material that was being developed" which ended up not working out and she admits, "I did bow out." Around this time she was sent scripts for the Seinfeld Chronicles by Larry David and she alleges the studio then threatened to sue her because they thought she had pulled out of their deal. She didn't have the clout she does now, and she was intimidated by the studio's threats.
Rob Kim/Getty Images Julia Louis-Dreyfus
She says, "I had representatives who were saying to me, 'You better just give them their money back. Give them their money back.' You know? And I said, 'But if I give them the development money back, won't that imply that I did something dishonest? That I broke the contract?' And they were like, 'Just do it, just to get rid of the problem.'"
But the actress wasn't comfortable with the idea of admitting wrongdoing when she knew she'd done nothing wrong, so she called up Day by Day creator Gary Goldberg (who also created Family Ties and Spin City) for advice.
"I called [Gary Goldberg], because it didn't sit well with me," she said. "He was a huge force at NBC and in television specifically, and I called him and told him this story, and he said, 'You know what? I don't respond well to bullying so just tell them to f--k off and don't give them their money back.'"
Louis-Dreyfus took his advice. "It really emboldened me to stand up for myself, and so, that's what I did," she concluded. "And they just went away, that was the end of it... That was a seminal moment for me when he said that. Because it was bullying by the way."
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