When “Veep” premiered in 2012, it was easier to make a show about an incompetent, ridiculous, profane, selfish, self-involved misanthrope who was a heartbeat away from the presidency — and make it seem like comedy.
Seven years later, executive producer/star Julia Louis-Dreyfus and showrunner David Mandel both say it’s gotten harder to seem outrageous.
“Given our current political climate, it’s been more challenging for us to sort of push boundaries,” Louis-Dreyfus said. She thinks what happens in the real world is often “too extreme for our show.”
“You go back eight years ago ... and it was like, ‘Yay! Obama’s in the White House. We’ve beaten racism,’” Mandel said. “And now I’m the only one without a blackface photo on his yearbook page. ... Sometimes it feels like they’re another show and that they’re kind of stealing from us.”
The central character in “Veep,” Selina Meyer (Louis-Dreyfus), hasn’t been caught with a blackface photo in her past, but she’s had more than her share of missteps. She’s a former U.S. senator whose presidential campaign failed, forcing her to accept the powerless position of vice president — and the humiliation of irrelevance.
Selina launched another run for the White House and suddenly become president (for eight months) when her predecessor resigned ... only to end up in an electoral college tie and then out on her ear when the vote went to Congress. At every step, she’s been overmatched, unprepared, ill-served by her staff and embarrassed.
Some have pegged Selina as a Republican or Democrat, but “Veep” has never identified her political party. Louis-Dreyfus attributes some of the show’s success to that, and to the fact that it exists in “an alternate universe” where no real politicians reside.
“It kind of invites everyone to the party,” she said. “In a way, it’s more apt than it ever has been, given the current insanity that we’re all living in.”
If you hadn’t already figured it out, Louis-Dreyfus is not a fan of Donald Trump, who she called a “pretend president.”
“I am a patriot, and I’m very unhappy with our current political situation,” she said, making it clear she was speaking for herself, not the show. “I have no idea who I’m going to support in 2020, except to say that it will be a Democrat, and that’s for g--damn sure.”
But both Louis-Dreyfus and Mandel caution against trying to draw close parallels between “Veep,” Trump or any other real-life politicians. When it seems like the show is reflecting the news, it’s often the other way around.
David Mandel, center, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, foreground right, and the cast and crew from Veep winners of the award for outstanding comedy series pose in the press room at the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday, Sept. 18, 2016, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
“We kind of touch on things that then sort of happened or are happening purely by coincidence,” Louis-Dreyfus said, including an upcoming plotline about vaccinations.
“Obviously, we didn’t write that thinking that everyone in Washington state is going to die of measles, but that may happen by Monday,” Mandel said. “So that’s ‘Veep.’”
And Mandel said that some viewers fall into a “slight trap” of “assuming that somebody is Trump and somebody is Hillary. And that’s a good thing for us because it means we get to always surprise you.”
And they’re promising more surprises in the final, seven-episode season, which begins Sunday at 10:30 p.m. on HBO.
“I can only tell you they’re crazy, jam-packed episodes,” Mandel said.
Louis-Dreyfus said she’s “very happy about” how the show ends, “And I think it’ll surprise viewers, too.”
“I think it’s the right ending for America,” Mandel deadpanned.
