Julia Louis-Dreyfus pushed back against former co-star Jerry Seinfeld's take on "political correctness" and comedy, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Seinfeld, 70, recently claimed the "extreme left and PC crap" were responsible for the death of modern comedy. Louis-Dreyfus, on the other hand, felt her fellow Seinfeld star's comments were a "red flag."
Louis-Dreyfus offered her stance about the ongoing comedy and political correctness debate during a recent interview with The New York Times' Lulu Garcia-Navarro.
The New Adventures of Old Christine star was asked about one of her most famous roles, Veep, and the challenges of political satire in TV and film today — and Seinfeld's take on political correctness hampering modern work.
"You know, talking about 'Veep,' it does make me wonder about political satire, and how hard it is nowadays to be funny about politics," the author began. "Your former co-star Jerry Seinfeld recently made news for talking about political correctness in comedy. I’m wondering, as a famous comedian yourself, what you think about that?"
Louis-Dreyfus replied, "If you look back on comedy and drama both, let’s say 30 years ago, through the lens of today, you might find bits and pieces that don’t age well. And I think to have an antenna about sensitivities is not a bad thing."
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"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," the Veep star continued.
"I believe being aware of certain sensitivities is not a bad thing. I don’t know how else to say it."
The interview picked back up for a second session 11 days later, at which point the author circled back on whether or not Louis-Dreyfus felt there are "things that no longer feel funny to you that once did, or things that are funny now that you didn’t notice before?"
"I wanted to make sure that I answered this whole idea of political correctness correctly, and I can’t really remember what I said. So I wanted to go back to that and be very clear about where I stand," Louis-Dreyfus explained.
"My feeling about all of it is that political correctness, insofar as it equates to tolerance, is obviously fantastic," the actress added. "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."