Julia Louis-Dreyfus Addresses Jerry Seinfeld’s Political Correctness Criticism: “Good to Be Vigilant”
Julia Louis-Dreyfus offered her take on her former co-star Jerry Seinfeld’s recent comments criticizing political correctness in comedy.
“I think to have an antenna about sensitivities is not a bad thing,” the Veep star told the New York Times during an appearance on The Interview. “It doesn’t mean that all comedy goes out the window as a result. When I hear people starting to complain about political correctness — and I understand why people might push back on it — but to me that’s a red flag, because it sometimes means something else. I believe being aware of certain sensitivities is not a bad thing. I don’t know how else to say it.”
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Louis-Dreyfus played Elaine on Seinfeld, the beloved sitcom created by Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David. In recent months, the former of the two creators made headlines for saying that TV comedy has suffered due to “the extreme left and PC crap, and people worrying so much about offending other people.”
As part of The Interview, NYT called Louis-Dreyfus back 11 days after first asking her about the topic, and she elaborated further.
“Political correctness, insofar as it equates to tolerance, is obviously fantastic,” she said. “And of course I reserve the right to boo anyone who says anything that offends me, while also respecting their right to free speech, right? But the bigger problem — and I think the true threat to art and the creation of art — is the consolidation of money and power. All this siloing of studios and outlets and streamers and distributors — I don’t think it’s good for the creative voice. So that’s what I want to say in terms of the threat to art.”
When asked whether new sensitivities make comedy better, the actress said, “I can’t judge if it’s better or not. I just know that the lens through which we create art today — and I’m not going to just specify it to comedy, it’s also drama — it’s a different lens. It really is. Even classically wonderful, indisputably great films from the past are riddled with attitudes that today would not be acceptable. So I think it’s just good to be vigilant.”
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