Photo: Scott Suchman
ForJulia Louis-Dreyfus, the last 13 months have been a whirlwind. In September 2017, she won her sixth-consecutive Emmy, beating her own record. But just twelve hours later,she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and she spent the next few months in treatment. Now, in October 2018, Louis-Dreyfus is in remission, and on Sunday nightshe accepted the Mark Twin Prize for American Humorat theJohn F. Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
During her acceptance speech,theVeepstar, 57, reflected on the experience and how laughteraided in her recovery.
The mom of two joked thatlaughter is the drug of choicethese days, out of necessity.
“The old cliché about laughter being the best medicine turns out to be true — which is good, because that’s what the current administration is trying to replace Obamacare with,” she said.
Louis-Dreyfus said the closest people in her life kept the laughs comingwhile she was in the hospital.
“When I was getting my hideous chemotherapy, I’d cram a bunch of family and friends into this tiny treatment room with me, and we really did have some great laughs,” she said. “Of course, I was heavily medicated and slipping in and out of consciousness, so I was probably a pretty easy audience, but my point is that laughter is a basic human need, along with love and food and an HBO subscription.”
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“There’s no situation — none — that isn’t improved with a couple of laughs. Everybody needs laughs,” she said, tearing up. “The fact that I have had the opportunity to make people laugh for a living is one of the many blessings that I have received in my life.”
Louis-Dreyfus told PEOPLE in Septemberthat she has “so much to be grateful for.”
“I’m grateful to be alive,” she says. “I’m grateful for myheroic husbandandour lovely young boys, or young men, I should say, who are our boys. And my friends and family. I’m grateful I have the life I have.”
“It’s just a joy to do what you want to do andhave success with it,” she added. “That’s happened to me in my life and it doesn’t happen to everybody. I’m well aware I’ve had a great deal of good fortune.”
source: people.com
