Nurse Recognized Julia Louis-Dreyfus As ‘Seinfeld’ Star While JLD Was Giving Birth

It’s flattering when fans recognize you for work, Julia Louis-Dreyfus told super-chef Ina Garten on the latest episode of her Wiser Than Me podcast, but the constant attention can also be exhausting. People “assume I’m gonna be funny. And it's not like I'm a big joke teller,” she says. “Sometimes I’m very quiet because I’m just watching. And then sometimes people think I’m being funny when I’m not trying to be funny.” 

Garten notes that people make that assumption since JLD has played so many funny characters over the years. “You play them so brilliantly,” she says, “they forget that it’s a character you’re playing. It’s not necessarily Julia.”

That’s exactly it, says Louis-Dreyfus. When fans watch Seinfeld or Veep reruns on their TVs, computers, or “on all of these other devices, you're in their home so they feel relaxed with your presence and they feel like you're a friend.” That’s all well and good, even lovely, she says, but there is a downside to that unearned sense of familiarity.

“When I was giving birth to my first son — and this is kind of a gross story, but we can cut it out if it’s too repulsive,” began Louis-Dreyfus. “But anyway, I was giving birth and you know, when you’re in labor, they put that monitor around your tummy.”

Sure, Garten knew the drill.

“And I was in the bathroom, and I was naked,” says Louis-Dreyfus. “And I was massive, by the way. I gained like 50 pounds when I was pregnant. I was standing there and my water broke, and all of a sudden a nurse came into the room. I went, ‘My water broke!’ Reminding you, naked.”

The nurse’s response? “Elaine!”

No one could have blamed JLD if she had shoved the nurse in the chest with an enraged, “Get out!”

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“It was so awful,” Louis-Dreyfus laughed as if Junior Mints were involved in the impending procedure. “Awful. ‘Elaine!’ Isn’t that crazy?”