Julia Louis-Dreyfus: Why I Had to Let Go of Guilt
 Courtesy Redbook |
Growing up as one of four sisters while attending an all-girls school, Julia Louis-Dreyfus always envisioned her future family with daughters. So the actress was more than a bit surprised when life gave her two boys!
“I just assumed I’d have girls,” she reveals in the March issue of Redbook. “It didn’t even occur to me that I might have a boy, let alone two.”
Now the mother of Henry, 17, and Charles, 12, Julia is attempting to strike a balance between her family and her career, from her successful run on Seinfeld to her current role on The New Adventures of Old Christine. Although she has been managing the two for years, she is quick to point out that the juggling act never gets easier.
“When I was doing Seinfeld and my oldest son was a babe, I had a nursery set up at work,” she recalls. “I would nurse him, then run out onto the set, and I always felt like, ‘Who am I, here?’”
In order to take full advantage of her time — and brain! — the actress is careful to not let feelings of guilt as a working mother slip into her day. “Guilt is a bitch,” she confesses.
“It’s so useless as an emotion, for me anyway. It clouds things. I’m not saying people shouldn’t feel guilty, but for me, it makes certain decision-making more difficult.”
That isn’t to say she is completely void of all sense of the word, however, noting that the tugs at her heartstrings are the reason she has, for the most part, steered clear of feature films.
“Network television is a full-time job, but it’s manageable,” Julia explains, adding that her kids also benefit from her decision to work. “It’s good for my kids to see me have artistic desires, work hard, and have success.”
Click below to read about a time Julia was made to feel guilty — and how she dealt with it.
Unfortunately, Julia isn’t the only one who realizes her schedule can get hectic. During a trip to her boys’ school “many years ago” a fellow mom made sure to point out Julia’s appearance in the halls — or lack thereof — was more than noticeable. “[I] ran into a mom who said, ‘Oh Julia, I can’t believe I’m seeing you. We never see you anymore!” she remembers.
Already “consumed with guilt because I’d been working a lot,” Julia bit her tongue and kept things cordial.
“I just put a huge smile on my face and said, ‘Oh really? I guess you haven’t been here when I have.’”
Embracing her life with her boys, Julia is the first to admit she has picked up a lesson or two along the way — and hopes her sons will, in turn, grow to value the nature of a woman.
“I like the directness of the male sensibility. And I like the sensitivity of women,” she says. “There is a softness and a sensitivity to other people that I hope my boys are learning. And I think they are.”
Henry and Charles are Julia’s sons with husband Brad Hall.
Source: Redbook; March issue
– Anya
