Julia Louis-Dreyfus – The queen of comedy

Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Seinfeld was a top-rated TV sitcom from the late 80s and the 90s. It was my favorite show, which even now, almost 40 years later looks fresh and relevant. There were four main characters, Jerry Seinfeld (playing himself), George (Jason Alexandar), Kramer (Michael Richards) and Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus).

Jerry Seinfeld wasn’t much of an actor; he even admits that openly. He was playing himself, so his job was quite easy, from acting perspective, but he was the brain of the entire show and the genius behind it. Jason and Michael did an excellent job on their own, creating such unique and iconic characters such are George and Kramer.

But when it comes to acting skills and versatility of those, Julia was always a notch or two ahead of all of them. She did ten seasons with Seinfeld, had several successful projects after and recently a mega success with Veep, a comedy show about American politics, which brought her multiple Emmy awards. She has been on top of her game for almost 40 years, which is a rare case. Most comedy stars peak for a couple of years, maybe they remain relevant for a decade or two, but to dominate the scene for four full decades, that is a real achievement.

Her acting style is very distinctive and energetic. She is a very fast thinker, street smart and with a razor-sharp tongue. Nobody is safe around her, especially if you find yourself on her way.

Her chart reflects her characters on the show entirely. She is a strong Yang Fire Master Element, full of confidence and always drawing attention to her self. As typical energized Yang Fire, she has a natural ability to be in the center of attention, allowing very little space for others.

She has a strong Competitor talent, which makes her fierce, but also prone to conflicts. This talent shows up strongly in her relationships, clearly illustrated in Seinfeld and Veep series where she was unable to have long term relationships due to her wild, untamed nature.

Another interesting aspect is Performer talent, which provides her with a very active Output Component, and rebel spirit. Performers are often street-smart; they react very quickly in tricky situations. With Power component being weak, she tends to control the authority and give them hard times, using her verbal power. It also means that her partners/husbands will have a challenging time handling her unless they don’t learn how to give her space. She craves for freedom, and she is not the type of woman who could surrender to a boss or a husband.

And the last key aspect is Pioneer talent which acts as a Supertalent and is the most crucial for her. It gives her an energetic, flamboyant attitude and artistic skills, especially in communication. When a person has a Pioneer Talent acting out as a Supertalent, he or she might use a very naughty, rude language, and Julia is quite famous for that, in fact, she builds an entire career on her unfiltered language and harsh remarks about people around her. These remarks are often very sexists, due to a very nature of Pioneer Talent which is quite sex-driven.

Altogether, she has one mega-strong combination of performing and communicative skills, definitely one of the most robust setups of acting skills we have ever seen in our research. She was lucky enough to participate in such revolutionary projects like Seinfeld and Veep, which gave her full creative freedom, unrestricted by any norms. She found herself in those roles of powerful, fierce and outspoken women, and she’s been rocking the comedy world since.

Also published on Medium.