How old do you feel? It’s one of the first questions Julia Louis-Dreyfus asks her guests — all women of a certain age, more often than not older than 70 — on her podcast “Wiser Than Me.” The answers come in all over the place, often a decade or three younger than what’s on their birth certificates. (Or five.
Debbie Allen feels 25.) Sometimes the answer is conditional. In her head, Patti Smith believes she’s somewhere between 9 and 11; practically, she feels every one of her 77 years.
And occasionally, the guest offers a blunter reply. “Eighty-two,” Fran Lebowitz answers. “Some days, maybe 92.
” (She was 72 at the time.) How old do you feel, Julia? We’re sitting on the patio of a Pacific Palisades restaurant, not far from her home, sharing a bottle of mineral water, throwing caution to the wind and adding a wedge of lime for fun. The restaurant is part of one of Rick Caruso’s manicured outdoor malls — the website calls it “bespoke,” the kind of L.
A. place where you could easily spot someone who rates as a celebrity these days. At one point during our conversation, Louis-Dreyfus pauses, noticing a paparazzo across the way.
He lingers for a moment, and then moves on. “Probably Kim Kardashian is getting an ice cream,” she guesses. “Anyway .
.. how old do you feel,” she asks me, turning the question around.
Hey, I asked you first. “I feel like I’m 35 — a very experienced 35,” Louis-Dreyfus, 63, says. Why did you land on that age? “I .
