‘Seinfeld’ Star Julia Louis-Dreyfus Felt Humiliated by This Classic Episode, and Still Does

Seinfeld has been off the air since 1998, but there are some episodes so memorable that people still name them. There’s The Soup Nazi, the Marble Rye, the Fusilli Jerry, The Pick and many, many more. There’s one episode that was embarrassing for Julia Louis-Dreyfus to film, and she says it still embarrasses her today. 

Louis-Dreyfus joined Seinfeld co-star Jason Alexander and co-creator Larry David for a reunion to benefit Texas Democratic Party on Oct. 23. During the live Zoom, Louis-Dreyfus revealed which Seinfeld episode is still difficult for her. 

‘The Little Kicks’ is the ‘Seinfeld’ episode that still kicks Julia Louis-Dreyfus

“The Little Kicks” is an episode in which all the Seinfeld characters mock Elaine (Louis-Dreyfus)’s dancing. They say it looks like she’s doing little kicks, which she demonstrates by the end of the episode.

“It felt humiliating and still does to this day,” Louis-Dreyfus said. “It’s hard for me to watch. It embarrasses me.”

Julia Louis-Dreyfus trained hard for her ‘Seinfeld’ dance

It takes a lot of work to look that silly dancing. Louis-Dreyfus recalled how she practiced her “Little Kicks” dance ahead of filming the Seinfeld episode. She was her own choreographer for “The Little Kicks.”

“I got the script and I read it the night before the table read and I stood in front of the mirror and came up with a couple of different options of things that looked horrible,” Louis-Dreyfus said. “Then I came down and showed my husband and my mom who was visiting at the time. I said, ‘Which one of these is worse?’ They picked one and that was the one I did on the show but it follows me to this day, there’s no doubt about it.”

Elaine clearly had no rhythm, which may have been enhanced by the way they filmed the episode. When filming any scene involving music, movies and television have to film in silence to record any dialogue in the scene, and in case they have trouble getting the rights to the song. 

“We couldn’t play music, remember that?” Louis-Dreyfus recalled. 

This co-star cracked up at ‘The Little Kicks’

Both Louis-Dreyfus and Alexander shared memories of their favorite Seinfeld episodes, and David shared some of his memories of writing and making them. George (Alexander)’s job in the “Little Kicks” scene was just to watch Elaine in horror, but he said Louis-Dreyfus made it challenging to keep a straight face. 

“I actually do remember the first time she tried it in rehearsal and we were gone,” Alexander said. “We were just gone. It was brilliant. It was just sheer brilliance.”