Despite wrapping up its satirical depiction of a fictional vice president who later rose to the top as the POTUS five years ago, the HBO sitcom Veep has witnessed an election-year resurgence. Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who commanded the show with her titular character Selina Meyer, has often been likened to Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. However, turning that image upside down, the actress has finally admitted that her character shares some similarities with a real-life presidential hopeful—but it’s not the present-day VP.
“In Veep, I play a very unhappy vice president, and at a certain point in a run of the show, I have the opportunity to run for president,” the Golden Globe winner said on MSNC. Although this development and climb up the ladder mirrors Harris’ rise to a presidential bid after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race in July, her following remarks steer clear of bearing any resemblance to the Dems candidate’s real-life arc in the election chapter this year.
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“Now, I do want to say one thing about the character I play on Veep,” she continued, doubling down on her support for the Democratic presidential candidate as she sarcastically took aim at Harris’ Republican rival.
“I do want to say I play a very, shall we say, almost narcissistic, sociopathic, mega-maniacal type of person.”
Acknowledging that her Selina Meyer is “not a Kamala Harris type,” she went on, “ I am possibly much more like someone from the other party whose name I shall not even utter.”
The latest commentary of Louis-Dreyfus, who is a recipient of nine Emmy Awards as the star and producer of the HBO series, comes nearly two months after she told The Times of London that she will be “extra-involved” in Harris’ campaign.
As for her character’s comparisons to the real-life present-day Veep, creator Armando Iannucci also previously turned away from having drawn inspiration from Donald Trump’s Dems arch-nemesis this year. Nevertheless, he agreed that “comparisons are inevitable” between Kamala Harris and the VP character who ended up in the top seat.
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The Seinfeld actress’ remarks emerged a day before she and her Veep costars Tony Hale, Anna Chlumsky, Reid Scott, Timothy Simons, Sam Richardson, Matt Walsh, Gary Cole, Sarah Sutherland, Clea DuVall and Sufe Bradshaw are slated to reunite alongside host Stephen Colbert for a virtual table read benefitting Harris’ campaign.
The event will be live-streamed on Sunday, September 29, at 7 p.m. CT. The ticketed live cast reunion will also include special guests Jason Alexander, Kumail Nanjiani, Larry David, and Kevin Smith. “Anything you donate will be used to ensure that Trump loses Wisconsin, and thereby the White House,” reads an extract from the official online ticketing page.
Veep’s sudden surge in viewership came hot on the heels of the announcement that VP Harris was expected to take over the reins from Biden in the presidential race against Trump. The first season’s viewership rose by 353% on July 22, with 2.2 million total minutes watched, according to Luminate’s Streaming Viewership data.