“Oh no. Is this gonna work?” the “Veep” star recalled thinking just prior to the bit.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus explains why kissing Stephen Colbert on The Late Show was ‘so awkward’: ‘We were all just dying’

"Oh no. Is this gonna work?" the "Veep" star recalled thinking just prior to the bit.

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

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May 13, 2026 6:11 p.m. ET

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Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Stephen Colbert on 'The Late Show' Tuesday. Credit:

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert/Youtube

- Julia Louis-Dreyfus said kissing Stephen Colbert on *The Late Show* was "so awkward."

- The *Veep *star said that their spouses were both backstage: "We were all just dying."

- The actress also reflected on *The Late Show* ending: "This is right out of the authoritarian playbook, so I’m deeply concerned as an artist."

Julia Louis-Dreyfus is kissing and telling.

The *Seinfeld* actress reflected on giving Stephen Colbert a big fat kiss on the lips on Tuesday's episode of *The Late Show* during a new interview with *THR*.

"It was so awkward," Louis-Dreyfus said of the segment. "As we started to do this bit, I thought, 'Oh no. Is this gonna work?' I get very cold feet."

The segment came a day after Colbert recalled all of the A-list guests whom he'd kissed on air over the years. Louis-Dreyfus asked the show's producers to play a clip of the episode before she proposed kissing Colbert herself.

Louis-Dreyfus and Colbert on 'The Late Show'.

Scott Kowalchyk/CBS

"No one's watching. It's just between us," she told the host.

"What harm is there?" Colbert asked.

"None! What could possibly go wrong?" Louis-Dreyfus responded.

Before they locked lips, the two entertainers joked about their anxieties about facing the wraths of each other's scorned spouses.

"Brad is larger than I am," Colbert said of Louis-Dreyfus' husband, Brad Hall.

"Evie's stronger than I am," the actress said of Colbert's wife, Evelyn McGee Colbert.

Colbert and Louis-Dreyfus in Newark in 2019.

Bennett Raglin/Getty

The duo then shared an extended smooch as the audience went wild.

In her interview with *THR*, Louis-Dreyfus said that she and Colbert discussed their spouses prior to performing the segment.

"He goes to me, 'Your husband’s backstage,'" she said of Colbert. "And of course, Evie [Colbert] is backstage too. We were all just dying. It was AWKWARD."

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*The Late Show* is coming to an end on May 21 after CBS announced it was pulling the plug on the talk show last July. Louis-Dreyfus said she got emotional during her final time backstage after guesting on the show numerous times over its 10-year run with Colbert as host.

"I went downstairs and I was with the writers beforehand, as we were going over the bit where he asks stars questions under the stars," she remembered. "We were going over the material. I came in early to rehearse it, and some jokes worked and some didn’t. So I came down to the writers room and we were trying new material, and Stephen introduced me to each person in the room."

Colbert on 'The Late Show'.

Scott Kowalchyk/CBS

She continued, "I was struck by the heaviness of this moment and I told them how much I appreciated what they were doing and the value that I believe this show brings to our culture, and of course they’re a part of that."

Louis-Dreyfus reflected on the conclusion of *The Late Show*. "It’s definitely a great loss, and I felt it when I was in the innards of the show with those guys," she said. "He holds a very powerful mirror up to our democracy. I believe that it’s the comedians who we rely on in these trying times. This is right out of the authoritarian playbook, so I’m deeply concerned as an artist. Period."

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The *Veep* star also said she'd consider working with Colbert on whatever he does next.

"His bright future is so bright. I can’t wait to see what he does," she said. "This man is so intelligent and has so much to offer, he’s just going to move onto bigger and better things. This I know for sure in my heart, and I can’t wait to witness it — and who knows, maybe even be a part of it. I just love him to death."

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