Julia Louis-Dreyfus apparently had to be smuggled onto the set of Falcon And The Winter Soldier
TV Features Louis-Dreyfus
Marvel loves its secrecy almost as much as it loves employing people who are very bad at keeping its secrets; when a large part of your mission statement is creating collective “Oooooh, didn’t see that coming!” moments for an entire society, your lips tend to get pretty tight. Still, there’s set security, and then there’s “Go get a giant cloak so that no one knows Julia Louis-Dreyfus is working on our Disney+ show,” and the latter is how intense security concerns on The Falcon And The Winter Soldier apparently got.
This is per Louis-Dreyfus herself, who posted a video to her official Twitter account yesterday showing her getting snapped into her Omega Man cosplay so that she could go play Countessa Valentina Allegra De Fontaine (call her Val) (don’t call her Val) on the streaming series. Is it a little ridiculous? Unquestionably. But it also makes it clear that all involved knew what a coup they’d achieved in casting JLD for the part of the enigmatic operative—especially since, Vanity Fair reports, the character was originally supposed to be introduced in Black Widow, before COVID-19 scotched those plans, insert sad trombone music here.
There’s no word yet on where else Louis-Dreyfus might end up popping, Robert Redford/Garry Shandling-style, in the MCU—given where the series leaves off, it wouldn’t be crazy to think she’d show up in the just-revealed Captain America 4—but wherever it is, hopefully she won’t have to go full Morlock anymore in order to make her way onto the set.
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I feel sorry for the poor intern who had to be the mule that day.
But where does one find a condom large enough to fit an entire Julia Louis-Dreyfus in one’s keister?
I’m pretty sure that Julia Louis-Dreyfuses are bigger than gerbils.But I guess that’s as good a place to start as any.
Might be NSFW lol
In the comic she’s able to beat Nick Fury in hand to hand combat so here’s hoping whoever’s writing Cap 4 knows that.
She’s been a lot of things in the comics, of which they could choose to use some, none or all in a movie and still be correct. More likely, she’ll have her new lackey John Walker do her combat for her, because why wouldn’t she?
Or she’ll kill the President and then assume his duties —Whaddya mean, “Wrong Universe”?
In this she will use her dancing skills to dazzle him into submission.
They also fucked so I’m hoping we get to see a steamy scene between her and Sam Jackson
Are you kidding? He’s 12 years older than she is! That’s far too much of..an…age gap…Oh right, this is Hollywould. That’s no difference at all.
I know you’re making a joke at the expense of how they ignore huge age gaps between older men and younger women in Hollywood, but when you’re 60 years old, a 12 year age gap really isn’t much.
Exactly, although there’s a loud minority up in arms that Paul Bettany is way too old (49) to be in a fictional relationship with Elizabeth Olsen (32.) For god’s sake people, he plays a robot!
I know plenty of couples in real life who have age gaps that big and aren’t robots. My BIL is 17 years older than my sister and they’ve been married almost 20 years.
I have some close friends who were married when he was 29 and she was 18. They’ve been married now for 26-odd years and show every sign of planning to stay married forever. Nice people. The kind you call for help at 2:00 in the morning and they show up.My Grandfather’s second wife is eleven or twelve years younger than he was, but she was in her late 50’s when she married him. (My biological grandmother died of cancer at 68. He was the same age, and remarried a couple years later.) She’s a lovely woman and I still talk to her regularly even though my Grandfather died twelve years ago.
That was a pretty big thing in ye olden tymes. My great-grandmother married her second husband when she was 30 and he was 49. She was a divorcée (with my then-11-year-old grandfather) and he was a widower with 3 adult children and a 13-year-old. They stayed married until he died 30 years later.
Then you can point out that technically, his character was like… 3 when he died.
I’m not gonna check, but it’s possible (probable?) that Axel Braun has covered this.
I imagine, since they’re both older, a physical confrontation probably wont happen but I would love to see some verbal sparring between them.
Well good job by all involved, I damn near spilled my drink on myself when she walked onscreen.
I remember them starting with a low shot of feet like “Okay so this is going to be something important” and then she talked and it was like “Wait I know that voice” and then she took off the sunglasses and I did a spit take.
I initially read that last line in the article as “hopefully she won’t have to go full Modok anymore”.I need to clean my glasses.
One does not simply walk into Modok.
One could Simply dance veeeery baaaaadly!
Well, if you’re Nick Fury, you do….::Puts on the Seventies Porn Music record::
Now that would be cool, Elaine as modok
George seems more Modok.
MODOK is getting angry!
That sums up MODOK in Gwenpool but then she is good at pushing buttons.
True, I thought that as I posted
I see MODOK as more of a George. Maybe Newman.
Never go full Modok.
OR she could give us what we all just realized we needed and go full Modok up on this piece.
“Imma get full MODOK on your ass!”
I guess I just don’t get the secrecy. Hearing in advance that Julia Louis-Dreyfuss was getting cast in “Falcon and Winter Soldier” would have been pretty cool as well – it’s not like her appearance would be ruined if it wasn’t a surprise.
We should be happy for these kinds of surprises and not whining because Reed Richards didn’t show up
Given the choices for Reed Richards so far?No great loss — though I though Ioan Gruffudd at least looked the part.
That’s one thing basically nobody has complained about from the MCU: Casting. As far as I can determine the only real casting complaint anyone has is Natalie Portman, and I suspect since they asked her back for Thor: Love and Thunder that they think Taika can draw a better performance out of her. (Oh, and Terrence Howard.)So I think they’ll pull off Reed Richards when the time comes. I dunno who it’s going to be, but I think it’ll be right. Possibly an unknown.The real problem will be getting a good script for the Fantastic Four. That’s been the big problem with every adaptation so far.
(Oh, and Terrence Howard.)I still like Terrence Howard’s Rhodey in Iron Man more than Don Cheadle in Iron Man 2. Howard’s version came across as more believably Tony Stark’s best friend. (I realise that’s largely because IM1’s story doesn’t set them against each other the way IM2 does.)Fortunately Cheadle was a lot better in Iron Man 3, and in every appearance since then!
Agreed, and I personally have no problem with Howard or his performance. I think it’s unfortunate he let his ego get ahead of his understanding of what it meant to be a part of a franchise like this. (If that is indeed what happened.)That said, Cheadle I think is the more charismatic actor and a better choice for War Machine (the hero) while Howard was a better choice for Rhodey (the friend.)
Howard definitely had/has an ego, but RDJ and Marvel did screw him over in this particular instance. Who knows, maybe RDJ just didn’t like working with him on IM1.
I won’t speculate on the actual details since I wasn’t there. I suspect it was multiple factors.
Likewise but I think he turned out to be a huge mess (and yet got cast on Empire after some of it blew up)? I’d originally assumed they wanted someone more famous since the movie did well, TBH.
I read Terrance Howard demanded a higher salary and they replaced him. He is also an exceedingly strange man, even by Hollywood standards. Google some of his thoughts on math if you want to go for a wild ride.
I thought Terrence Howard was well cast. He’s just apparently quite a handful to work with.
Douglas, the scripts and the off-kilter casting have both damaged the FF movies so far. Who the Hell thought Julian McMahon was a good choice for Dr. Doom, especially when he doesn’t even wear the mask until a quick shot in the end? On the supervillain scale from Clancy Brown’s Lex Luthor to Jessie Eisenberg’s, McMahon is closer to that twitchy little twerp than he is to Brown’s definitive portrayal. (Yes, I know it’s all voice acting for Clancy Brown, but take one look at the man and tell me he couldn’t play Luthor in a live performance and crush it.)But the scripts…? Yes, what you said. Absolutely.
Clancy Brown has killed just about ever role he’s ever had. From The Kurgan to Rawhide to Sergeant Zim to Captain Hadly to Surtur. Such a lovely voice and versatile actor. (And I agree, his Lex Luthor is the ultimate.)As for casting in FF movies, I have yet to see a Sue and Johnny Storm who I believed were siblings, and I never believed any Reed and Sue married couple as much as I believed Michelle Pfeiffer and Michael Douglas in Ant Man and the Wasp. (Or Tony and Pepper, or Clint and Laura. Perhaps particularly Clint and Laura.)
Agree about Natalie Portman, she feels like a character shoehorned into the story rather than being important and emotional part of plot as a needed foil to Thor. Hopefully Thor: Love & Thunder would redeems her character with needed developments.Might I add that Edward Norton also doesn’t feels right as Bruce Banner, despite actually doing his best to delve into the role. And Sam Rockwell never felt compelling as Hammer, he came off as annoying and pathetic (though you could argue that maybe that’s what he’s going for?).That’s only other actors that I have bit of complaint with fitting their roles. Otherwise, every single actors and actresses nailed their characters just perfectly.
I thought Sam Rockwell was the perfect weasel who had failed upward his whole life, in a situation way over his head.I don’t consider that Hulk movie to be canon anymore. It wasn’t a bad movie but it doesn’t fit with the rest of the movies. And I agree that Norton was not a good choice for Bruce Banner.
I’ll give you that about Sam Rockwell in Iron Man 2. My parents loved him as Hammer, so apparently I am not getting something about his role.At least Sam Rockwell is awesome in other movies, especially MOON and Jojo Rabbit.
He was awesome in Jojo Rabbit. He got to be the hero and everything. Twice!
I have never heard anyone complain about Howard’s performance. He just thought he deserved more money than Marvel was willing to pay so they said “Bye”
I didn’t mind him as Reed at all.The writing failed that movie. Well, that and Jessica Alba as Sue Storm because WHY?
I guess, even with the meh writing, I expected Gruffud to do better than just coast as Reed Richards, especially since both Chris Evans and Michael Chiklis were giving Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm 1000%. Evans was so spot-on as The Human Torch, I had a hard time picturing him as Captain America at first — and Chiklis’s The Thing is a definitive read on the character! Ioan Gruffud put more into playing an undying Medical Examiner in FOREVER, and that show was “CASTLE, Only With an Immortal Doctor!” As for Jessica Alba? I’m sorry, but she’s neither convincing as a blonde nor as Chris Evans’s sibling. That aside, she was good in the first movie, but by the second one she seemed to be playing Sue Storm — Bridezilla!
I can agree with all of that.Now, I feel like watching the first movie again. I have conflicted feelings about the second one, though; I remember watching it with my mom in theaters, but I don’t remember it being a particularly enjoyable movie.
Boobies.
Agreed. He at least looks like “young Reed” as done by several different artists. JK Simmons as “old cantakerous Reed” works for me to.
I hadn’t gone there myself, fair_n_hite_451, but…
Hmmm….
Pretty sure she’s not the kind of person you can easily hide in plain sight.
That shirt he’s wearing is about eight sizes too large on him and yet we’re supposed to be laughing at how Elaine looks.
“This pirate trend that she’s come up with, Jerry, this is gonna be the new look for the ‘90s. You’re gonna be the first pirate!”
But I don’t wanna be a pirate!
It’s kind of a puffy shirt, when you think about it. Not quite like a pirate’s shirt, but not entirely unlike one either.
At least he doesn’t look like the Count Of Monte Cristo
God I wish people would stop wearing “slim fit” everything. Bring back baggy.
Toss a little loss on the cuffs and Jerry would be quiet the fancy little lordling!
Sweet fancy Moses!
This is a random aside, but I wonder if they made Val’s hair streak purple instead of the customary white to avoid Bride of Frankenstein comparisons.
I can’t unsee her as Selina Meyer, no matter how many Seinfeld references there are.
Meanwhile I can’t see her as anything other than Elaine. This is going to take some getting used to.
I know she’s very talented, but she carries all the menace of a marshmallow puff.
She is not there to be acting all menacing. She is there to ooze aura she is a Countessa, an old money blue blood smug. Which she naturally earn it in spade, as she is born with silver spoon. Julia’s family wealth can be traced back to 19th century French, and her family clan considered as one of five great fortunes of France in early 20th century.
You don’t think this is pretty bad-ass?
Sorry, what is this?No, nothing about JLD says “tough” to me.
It’s from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.
WHY IS THE CARPET WET, TODD???
It’s kind of funny that they cast actual European nobility as the snotty neighbors in that movie, though it probably was totally unintentional. Of course, Nicholas won’t technically be a European baron when he inherits the title from his brother, but at the time…
Does not disappoint! She always have perchance of menace in some of her previous roles.She was perfectly bitchy in Christmas Vacation movie (still holiday classics!) and I can’t wait to see where she goes in MCU.
For me she’s playing it like someone who isn’t “menacing” because they’re dark and evil. It’s more about how flippant they are. They’ve got power and wealth so they don’t need to be “evil” they can just hire people to do all that shit for them.She’s the anti-Fury. He’s cool and collected but can be snarky while she’s more carefree.
I can see that. I guess I’m just not resonating with JLD’s performance. After I read your thought, Christine Baranski popped immediately to mind.
When she walked on I thought “oh god, ScarJo’s here to hijack something again…” and then – boom – JLD. Cue my going “NO FUCKING WAY”. I kept saying this over on Twatter until I got bored – you don’t just cast JLD as a one-shot character. If they’re going to bring in for Captain America 4, they had better iron out who and what her Val represents.
If they’re going to bring in for Captain America 4, they had better iron out who and what her Val represents.
They wouldn’t pay the money they needed for JLD if they didn’t have a plan for her, and if it wasn’t something big.I’m telling you guys, she’s the Anti-Fury and her path is the Dark Avengers. She’s going to recreate the “assembling a team” ark from MCU Phase 1, and the eventual payoff will be this new generation of Avengers having to beat an evil team of them (US Agent, Abomination, Crimson Dynamo, etc)
Why didn’t she use those shoes she got to beat the sidler at his own game?
I wonder if JLD is going to turn out to be a skrull. I mainly want this because I want to see her and Olivia Coleman have hijinks together.They could also be feuding enemies.
Bro, why is everyone a Skrull?
There’s a Secret Invasion show with Nick Fury coming.
My last sentence implies that she would not be.
Or she’s Lady Loki.
I wasn’t smuggling anything! I simply forgot Julia Louis-Dreyfus was in my bag.
Damn, this is enough Julia Louis-Dreyfus to charge you with Julia Louis-Dreyfus trafficking.
Valentina Allegra De Fontaine Angelina Contessa Louisa Francesca Banana Fanna Bo Besca III
Don’t call her “Dottie.”
You try saying it some time, Mr United States Canada Mexico Panama.
So this does explain why the USAgent reveal took place in that courthouse. They had Louis-Dreyfus for a day or less, shot her two scenes, and didn’t bother worrying about how the location worked in storyline.
They should’ve just kicked the Vice President out of his or her office and done it there rather than taking up useful space in a courthouse.
After watching Falcon and Winter Soldier, I’ve come to the conclusion that Val may not be a villain at all, just a good guy we won’t like very much, if it all. An “end justifies the means” kind covert operative who is not a rogue, though the government will never acknowledge her existence. She is not in this for herself like Sharon Carter, just willing to be ruthless in achieving her mission.
Yeah, I’m inclined to say she’s probably actually a former SHIELD agent in the MCU, and the US government is queuing up US Agent as a black ops version of Cap.
She’s a villain. I’m guessing her Black Widow intro was going to mirror Sam Jackson’s appearance in the first Iron Man.The whole idea being they kick off the new phase post Endgame by having this “assembling a team” storyline but now it’s all bad guys and “evil versions of the original team.”
I don’t think it’s automatic that Val’s storyline will be an exact replica of the Dark Avengers plot because a) the MCU usually makes some significant alteration to the stories and characters they borrow from comics (as they did with the Skrulls and Agatha Harkness and b) Val could be more General Ross or Amanda Waller than Norman Osborn or Zemo. The former are using ruthless, even evil, means to achieve their ends but are acting in what they believe to be service to their country. Osborn and Zemo (at least initially) form their teams for purely selfish reasons. Val could fall into either camp imo.Also the Dark Avengers ran the gamut from amoral to broken and/or easy to manipulate, to outright psychopathic and evil. What unified them was that they were all on the team for self involved reasons, rather than the ethos of protecting humanity that the Avengers share.
The reason I see Val as the anti-Fury (and thus a full villain) is they’re trying to keep both general audiences and comic audiences on their toes.Val and Zemo showing up together is to get people wondering if the Dark Avengers/Thunderbolts are going to be merged for the MCU.But my thinking is the Thunderbolts will eventually be the MCU’s Suicide Squad, and the payoff to their story will be when they have to team up with the post-Endgame Avengers to stop Val’s team.Also, I know people keep saying Zemo could be a liar…but I don’t think so. He would *never* work with Walker at this point. He hates super soldiers, and only ended up respecting Bucky because of their time together.We saw that when he stood down from Bucky but had his butler kill the remaining Smashers.
To paraphrase Hawkeye: you and I remember Nick Fury very differently. I won’t be very surprised if Val is a villain, but my suspicion is she is going to remain gray as a character. Of course, she could also be a Skrull.
I saw people speculate the Loki show on D+ will introduce Lady Loki and I started thinking “JLD could do that…”
Yeah, there was no other way JLD being part of the cast, even if briefly, was going to be a secret. I mean, really, she’s too well known and way too visible wherever she is. Also, JLD rocks. Not that it *needed* to be said, but it still needed to be said.
Answer honestly, if I had told you a month ago that Dreyfuss was in the cast would you have been able to guess who she was playing?I would have guessed she was playing a member of congress or a character similar to Jenny Agutter in Winter Soldier.But never in a million years would I have guessed that she was playing a character that’s been around longer than the Falcon.
If you count Blair Underwood. This show gave us 4 regulars to Marvel shows (not MCU).
Thor / Avengers: Clark Gregg
Agents of Shield: Blair Underwood
Legion: Hamish Linklater
FATWS: Julia Louis Dreyfus
Julia Louis-Dreyfus comes off way too campy here. Really a bad choice. It’s like she thinks she’s in Adam West’s Batman.
I keep mixing up Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Jean-Claude Dreyfus, yet side by side they don’t look very much much alike.
And it still leaked nearly a full year ago. For all the secrecy Feige and co. try to maintain, the amount of stuff that gets leaked is kinda wild. I believe some of them must be intentional.
when a large part of your mission statement is creating collective “Oooooh, didn’t see that coming!”So like, no spoiler warnings then? If you want to follow along with their intentions… why continue running articles that have no regard for anyone who isn’t afforded the ability to watch something the hour it releases?
That would explain why both of her scenes are in the same courthouse set with the same two characters (Walker and his wife).
the character was originally supposed to be introduced in Black Widow, before COVID-19 scotched those plans, insert sad trombone music here.
Like I kept saying, there was a very specific reason Black Widow needed to come first, and why they were pushing everything back as long as they could.Also explains the gap between Falcon and Loki on D+. They’ve run up against the wall of how much they can put out before they need everything that Widow will establish.
Was there a need to spoil her being in it with that headline? Some people are yet to catch up…
Why spoil in the title?
Do you think Val orders the big salad?
“There’s no word yet on where else Louis-Dreyfus might end up popping”Considering Marvel is now part of the Mouse House, the possibilities are endless. I can see her subbing for Robin Roberts on GMA or guesting on The View or College Gameday.
She was fantastic. I don’t know that they needed to make it a giant surprise, but I enjoyed it.
Lisa Rinna is seething.(old school heads will know what I’m getting at.)