Julia Louis-Dreyfus Was Recognized as Her ‘Seinfeld’ Character While Giving Birth

Julia Louis-Dreyfus is opening up about being recognized as her Seinfeld character, Elaine, while in labor.

For this week’s episode of the actress’ podcast, Wiser Than Me, she sat down with Ina Garten to talk about the cook’s longtime career. Toward the end of the conversation, the women discussed how, in their respective careers, people sometimes expect them to be like their onscreen personas and feel like they know them.

“I think particularly with television, with computer, I should say, I mean everybody’s watching it on all these other devices. But you’re in their home,” Louis-Dreyfus told Garten, pointing out that she probably has a similar experience with her show. “You’re in their home so they feel relaxed with your presence,” she continued, as Garten added, “And they feel like you’re a friend.”

The Veep star agreed and noted it can be “lovely” when fans see you that way, but it has a downside, explaining that when she was giving birth to her first son, she had someone recognize her from Seinfeld.

“I was giving birth, and when you’re in labor, they put that monitor around your tummy,” she said. “And I was in the bathroom, and I was naked, and I had the thing around my tummy, and I was massive, by the way. I gained like 50 pounds when I was pregnant.”

The Curb Your Enthusiasm actress continued on the podcast from Lemonada Media, “I was standing there, and my water broke, and all of a sudden a nurse came into the room and I went, ‘My water broke!’ Ok, reminding you — naked. And she goes, ‘Elaine!’ It was so awful. Isn’t that crazy?”

Louis-Dreyfus portrayed Elaine for almost all of Seinfeld‘s nine-season run. Her character was best friends with ex-boyfriend Jerry Seinfeld and good friends with George Costanza (Jason Alexander) and Cosmo Kramer (Michael Richards).