Show don't say this to make my parents feel bad My parents all four of them are wonderful role models" Julia attended Holton-Arm- s an ex- cisive private school for giris in sub- urban Washington She was a good stu-dent popular elected class president and fumy she admired Lucille Ball and Mary Tyler Moore appeared in school plays and early on developed a love for acting I inquired what it was performing that attracted her “I like reaching people" she said "making them laugh If I'm making them cry I love that loo I think I probably feh a little out of control doing this juggling act between the two families Maybe acting is a way of gaining a kind of control over your life and also the people around you And it's a way of being heard too" After high school Julia chore to attend Northwestern University near Chicago It was a decision that changed her life 1 wanted to be an actress who does whatever" she recalled 1 went to Northwestern be- cause it had a very reputable theater department I did a show there in my it all— drama comedy freshman year It was called The Meow Shm At die show I met people who fluenced my life in many ways" Among those she met was Brad Hall a student from California who had cofounded The Practical Theatre Com-abo- ut pany an group that did improvisations! comedy "This was a defining time for me" she observed "I had never done anything professionally as a child thankfully and this was the real thing I had a lot of good luck and things started to off-camp- happen" She worked hard studied drama wrote skits became part of the touring company of the Second Gty comedy jF y grandmother was very funny very wry And my mother’s very funny There's a lot of funny In my family There was also a strong sense of what Is right and what Is wrong ahavasbafere UtbMUMrntaaith hart-- ana Uiwa hsUjs tv WlthheM—Uwal Judy —a Taw Bawtaa troupe and joined The Practical Theatre y5n£ve5ih Company as its only female member Orayha “You can't escape the fact you're a " she admitted "but it was a highly creative satisfying experience — whiriy-giriy- tha NBC emP°werin P000 “d a raatartwa woman Acting is a powerful position to V°aa' bold and it's definitely about control" I asked if she had fallen in love with Brad Hall on first meeting t)h no I was busy dating everybody else on campus" she replied laughing "We knew each other fortwo yean before we started dating Then one day we played term and that was the end of fat I hate tennis but I liked him ao I pretended to like tennis I thought he was so cute! I liked everything 4boul him" VCI is a small woman Julia feet 3 with a wide pretty face and n large eyes She is optimistic assertive energetic her conversation quick and often funny Yet behind her manner one senses an emotional reserve It may be a need for stability for belonging that makes her brighten whenever she speaks of her husband and her two small sons "He's a great human being" she commented about Brad Hall "An incredibly nice kind man and so beautiful to look at I want our sons to be like him Good strong kind gentle men" In 1981 a scout for NBC’s Saturday Night Live saw Julia and Brad in a comedy revue in Chicago and they were invited to join the cast for the 1982-8- 3 season Feeling like Cinderella Julia dropped out of Northwestern and moved to New York with Brad “It was out of the blue" she remarked "We didn't think twice I was 20 He was 23 We just packed our hags and left It was heady fiar me because when Saturday Night Lite was in its prime I was its audience It was the top” Julia stayed with the show for three miserable yean was sort of trial by fire" she said ruefully “h was hard being a woman on the show There seemed to be different roles for women There's a certain aggression in being funny and maybe that's why it's more male oriented than female It's more acceptable for men That's one of the things I was naSVe about Another was that it's a business and then it's an art I thought This is going to be so much fun We’ll do our little show and we'll think it's fonny so everyone else will too' I was very young" After two yeare Brad left Saturday Night Liw and went to California Julia remained another season and then in 1983 followed him west never occurred to me to stay on the show" she said "And they definitely didn't warn me to stay" She searched for work in Los AnLouis-Dreyfl- is S dark-gree- It It geles finding small parts in several movies: Troll National Lampoon's Christmas Vocation Hannah and Her Sisters In 1987 she and Hall were married "We just decided the time was right" she stated The following year she was lured for an NBC sitcom Day by Day The series was canceled after continued |