Watch Julia Louis-Dreyfus in her first film role in ‘Troll’ (VIDEO)

Julia Louis-Dreyfus often finds herself in uncomfortable situations on her HBO sitcom "Veep," but her interview on Jay Leno's show earlier this week trumped them all.

The 52-year-old "Seinfeld" alum called the "The Tonight Show" host an "a--hole" twice on Monday night when Leno trotted out a clip of the actress's film debut. The scene has a 20-something Louis-Dreyfus emerging from some leaves virtually naked, in the form of a sort of wood sprite, and laughing at her future real-life husband, actor Brad Hall.

The film in question is the 1986 cult classic "Troll," about a wizard transformed into a troll, which possesses the body of a woman in an apartment building. Which raises the question: why did Louis-Dreyfus agree to do such a potential clunker at all?

"The were going to fly us to Rome," she told Leno. "We didn't have a penny to our names."

Louis-Dreyfus, who married Hall a year after the film's release, reportedly took the role while she was still a cast member on "Saturday Night Live." She left the NBC show in 1985 to pursue a career in film appearing in Woody Allen's "Hannah and Her Sisters" and "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation."

But it wasn't until 1989 that Louis-Dreyfus landed the role of Elane Benes on "Seinfeld," which she played for nine seasons.