Julia Louis-Dreyfus was eager to do Marvel movies for one reason.
The actress, 64, spoke with PEOPLE during a press junket for her upcoming Marvel movie Thunderbolts* and shared that when she decided to take on the role of Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, she was particularly excited because she knew it would impress her sons.
“Well, I mean, I was intrigued to do it because, of course, it’s iconic, but really because it was…well, you wouldn’t have necessarily thought of me for it,” Louis-Dreyfus says of taking on the role. “And I also wanted to impress my kids.”
“So they’re coming to see the premiere in L.A. this week. And so hopefully I will impress them,” she jokes of her sons Henry, 32, and Charlie, 27, whom she shares with husband Brad Hall.
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During a May episode of her Lemonada Media podcast Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, the comedian spoke with Gloria Steinem, 90, about how she felt being a working mom when she was raising her two sons.
“You know it’s funny because I was thinking about how even in my own life, the patriarchal culture that we live in has sort of crept into my own life in a way that I almost didn’t realize until I was sort of living it,” Louis-Dreyfus began.
“For example, I’m married and I have two children. Two sons, who I hope to Jesus I’ve raised to be good feminists — I think that I have,” she went on, noting that she was going to ask her kids later if they considered themselves feminists.
“But I worked. When they were both born, I was working full-time and that was a huge struggle for me. That was a hard thing for me to reconcile, the going back and forth,” the mom of two recalled. “And I had to intellectually remind myself that working, being a mother who worked outside of the house was good for them to witness. But it was a struggle for me.”
A year prior, Louis-Dreyfus told PEOPLE that her sons had come to her for acting advice. Henry had finished shooting a series for Amazon, and Charlie had roles on shows like Single Drunk Female and The Sex Lives of College Girls. “I’m a little bit of a momager,” the actress told PEOPLE with a laugh. “I mean, I’m happy helping them with auditions and reading scenes when they get hired. I’m very supportive and proud.”
While nothing brings her more joy than being a mother, Louis-Dreyfus said that parenting adult children can be “a tricky needle to thread.”
“I’m so grateful they’re out in the world and functioning, but it does require relinquishing a lot of control,” said the star, who recently took Henry to the Oscars. “It’s a slow process, but it’s equally joyful when a new dynamic comes into play as they become adults. I love hearing their opinions and watching what they do.”
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