Julia Louis-Dreyfus has done well since “Seinfeld” ended in 1998; she landed a successful show in “The New Adventures Of Old Christine” and has moved on to HBO’s “Veep”, and now she’s premiering a new movie that co-starred the late, great James Gandolfini. The film marks her first big-screen role since 1997.
In “Enough Said”, Louis-Dreyfus plays a massage therapist who befriends a client and listens to her complain about her awful ex-husband, only to discover that he’s the same guy she’s been seeing and is falling for. The 52-year old says Gandolfini–who died earlier this year of a massive heart attack–wasn’t at all like the mob boss he became famous for playing on “The Sopranos”.
“The interesting thing is that James is really much more like Albert (Gandolfini’s character) in this film than he ever was Tony Soprano,” she said. “He’s not a Mafioso type. He is very much a gentle giant of a man, as depicted in this movie.”
She says that while working with Gandolfini was a bit intimidating at times, the pair grew to really like each other during filming and became good friends.
“[Gandolfini] was one of the great American actors,” Louis-Dreyfus said. “I think that’s not an exaggeration to say in any way. I had a couple of moments working with him where I will admit I thought, ‘I can’t believe I’m looking into this face.’ Because what a face. But he was incredibly hard-working; very, very self-effacing. A lot of certain insecurities I found particularly endearing and sort of perfect for the part. It was interesting because we didn’t know each other particularly well to begin with, but we liked each other a lot from the get-go.”
The former “Seinfeld” actress also spoke recently about Jerry Seinfeld’s new show “Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee” and said that while she hasn’t been asked to do it yet, she would love the chance.
“I think that show is so fabulous,” she said. “I absolutely love it. Maybe. We’ll see. We haven’t had that conversation. If he asked me to do it, I’d love to do it.”
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