Just three years after her breast cancer diagnosis and treatment, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, 59, is thriving. Women in the SurvivorNet community find her zest for life and sense of humor inspiring. Now the actress, who celebrated her birthday earlier this week with a 1965 throwback photo on Instagram, is revealing news of her next project: “So excited to share the poster for our movie,” she told fans on Instagram, “and yes, we really were in the Alps.”
“Downhill” is billed as “a different kind of disaster movie.” For the “Veep” actor, 59, who’s collected 11 Emmys, it’s an opportunity to team up with fellow SNL alumni, Will Ferrell, who plays her husband. On a family ski vacation in the Alps, their marriage is thrown into turmoil after an avalanche nearly kills them.
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“A Trophy In One Hand, A Cancer Diagnosis In the Other”
The news of “Downhill” is far cheerier than Louis-Dreyfus’ 2017 announcement that she’d been diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer. “I was stunned,” she told ABC in an interview. “Frankly I would never have made this a public journey. But I kind of had to, given the circumstances, because our show had to shut down for a period of time.”
Her breast cancer was not found during a routine mammogram, but rather, after she noticed a concerning "divot" in her breast, and followed up with her doctor. Diagnosed at stage 2, she underwent six rounds of chemotherapy and a double mastectomy.
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The timing of the diagnosis, which came on the morning after she’d just collected an Emmy award, was darkly ironic. "I will admit to you I started howling laughing," Louis-Dreyfus told Dax Shepard in an interview on his podcast, Armchair Expert. You got a trophy in one hand and a cancer diagnosis [in the other]. It's incredible."
"Talk about a lens changer," Louis-Dreyfus said. "Everything [else] falls off. Everything that is precious becomes clear."But even now that she’s cancer-free, she shares a feeling that will sound familiar to many cancer survivors: “You move forward in life as if you’re all better,” she told Vanity Fair in an interview, “yet part of you knows you may not be.”
In Louis-Dreyfus' case, she took some time off to undergo chemotherapy and surgery for breast cancer though she did participate in table reads with the cast while she was going through treatment. The reads were scheduled on the days before treatment because she was at her strongest then, according to EW. She officially returned to the set to begin filming the final season in August 2018.
Dr. Anne Partridge and Dr. Elizabeth Comen on when to think about a mastectomy.
For patients undergoing chemotherapy, side effects can be challenging and many survivors say work is a welcome distraction. When talking about how chemotherapy affects people going through breast cancer treatment Dr. Marleen Meyers, of NYU Perlmutter Cancer Center, said in many cases, it's possible to go on living with relatively little interruption.
"You don't have to hibernate; you don't have to hide at home," Dr. Meyers said. "Many people can continue to work. We talk about healthful eating … we refer our patients to a nutritionist if needed. We also look at what side effects they may have from therapy, and they can include things like hot flashes, night sweats, difficulty sleeping … there's a whole host of things." Dr. Meyers also said that there are many things doctors can do to help elevate these side effects, like recommend integrative methods or lifestyle changes.
The idea of returning to work filming "Veep" kept Louis-Dreyfus motivated throughout her six rounds of chemotherapy and her double mastectomy. “It's been incredibly hard work, but it's been incredibly buoying. It was something that I really kept my sights on when I was going through my cancer romp,” she told The New York Times in an interview.
You Move Forward Through Life As If You’re All Better
Now, cancer-free she’s happily embracing new projects and focusing on the future: “That's the thing about cancer,” she told Vanity Fair, “even after you go through all the treatments and they tell you you're cancer-free, the best doctors don't know what caused it, so there is little you can do to make sure it doesn't return. Some will advocate for a dietary change, others will tell you to stop wearing deodorant, but no one really knows. Was it stress, processed food, genetics that prompted those nasty cells to metastasize? Maybe? So you move forward through life as if you're all better, yet part of you knows you may not be, as so many anecdotal stories have taught you.”
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