Julia Louis-Dreyfus says people took ‘crazy drugs’ when she worked on SNL

Actor and comedian also revealed show was ‘very sexist’ in the 1980s

Julia Louis-Dreyfus has claimed people working on Saturday Night Live “were doing crazy drugs” during her tenure on the show.

The actor and comedian, who appeared on SNL between 1982 and 1985, also claimed the programme was “very sexist” at the time.

“I was unbelievably naive and I didn’t really understand how the dynamics of the place worked,” she told Stephen Colbert at a Q&A during the Montclair Film Festival.

“It was very sexist, very sexist. People were doing crazy drugs at the time. I was oblivious. I just thought, ‘Oh wow. He’s got a lot of energy.'”

When she joined the NBC variety show in 1982, Louis-Dreyfus became SNL’s youngest female cast member at that time and shared the stage with Eddie Murphy, Martin Short and Billy Crystal, among others.

“It was a pretty brutal time, but it was a very informative time for me,” she added.

“I learned I wasn’t going to do any more of this show-business crap unless it was fun,” she said. “I don’t have to walk and crawl through this kind of nasty glass if it’s not ultimately going to be fulfilling, and so that’s how I sort of moved forward from that moment.

"I sort of applied that ‘fun metre’ to every job I’ve had since and that has been very helpful.”