In real life, Julia Louis-Dreyfus is almost always a winner. But on Veep, her alter-ego Selina Meyer is almost always a loser. On Sunday night’s season finale, after a season of scrambling to break a presidential election tie in her favor, Selina lost in just about every way. Not only will she not be president, not only will she not be vice president, but she has lost the one title she thought was hers forever, as America’s first and, thus far, only female president. Because Selina’s successor is not Tom James (Hugh Laurie), her conniving former vice president who screwed her (literally and figuratively), but is Laura Montez, a senator from New Mexico.
Montez is, really, a white woman from Ohio who married a Mexican-born man and moved to the southwest, where she apparently started pronouncing her name with a comically extreme accent — LAO-ra Mon-testh! — to win over an increasingly Latino electorate. Played by Andrea Savage, Montez is all artifice, a lily-white midwestern woman who realizes she can charm the country by sprinkling her inaugural address with a few choice lines in Spanish. Savage spoke with ThinkProgress about improvising with Louis-Dreyfus, Montez’s impressive, if repulsive, pandering skills, and how playing president in Veep’s America influences her thoughts on the presidential election here in real America.
What’s your Veep audition story? I imagine they couldn’t tell you a whole lot because your role is a giant spoiler.
They were extremely secretive about this role. They had fake sides; they weren’t even telling anyone what the role really was. I was just called in to meet Julia and to come in and just kind of read some sides that they gave me, where I just knew that it was a senator who was from New Mexico who maybe wasn’t as Hispanic as she was claiming. So I just went in, did the sides, and Julia said, “Let’s put that to the side and improvise.” And they gave me a big speech to cold-read, and I thought, “That’s weird. When would I be doing a big speech?’” And it wasn’t until after when I heard it was to be the incoming president, and I was not Hispanic, and I’d be using it to my advantage. But I really didn’t know before that.
Getting to improvise with Julia Louis-Dreyfus in an audition sounds like it would be both the most amazing opportunity and the most intimidating experience. What was it like?
For most comedy women, she’s our everything. She is what everyone is aspiring to be. So originally when I read the sides, I thought the role was supposed to be Hispanic and I thought, do they know i’m not Hispanic? I don’t want an Emma Stone in Aloha situation. I didn’t realize I would necessarily improvise with her; I thought I was just reading the scene. So that was probably better, because I could just be in the moment and go with it. If I had known in advance, I would have been really nervous.
What’s your take on Laura Montez, now that you know her deal? How do you feel about her faux-Hispanic heritage?
I thought it was really fun. It’s not too far out of the realm of political reality these days. People are trying to take advantage of maybe some small connection of that heritage. And in the show, my husband is Hispanic and so I sort of use that as my in. It’s a pretty flimsy connection. It was great, too, as it was in the show, just how horrifyingly sad it is that Selina couldn’t even be the first woman president, because hers has an asterisk next to it. And this is now the first elected female president. It’s just another punch in the throat.
It’s such a brutal episode for her character. She does not get a single thing she wants.
When we did the table read, we were reading it and I got so caught up in how sad it was. My line came up, and I was literally staring at Julia, totally distracted. I just got wrapped up in it.
It’s interesting to think, though, taking out all the cynicism and backdoor dealings that went on, how in the America of Veep, our country has had two female presidents, and the one you play actually speaks Spanish during her inaugural address. It’s kind of a better America than the one we’re living in, maybe? As despicable as a lot of these characters are.
Totally! To take away the part of [puts on the exaggerated accent her character uses in the show] Laura Montez where, if she just was like, “Listen, I wasn’t born Hispanic, but I’m very into it. This is a culture I support,” it would take the sting of her using it for her own gain. But I think between having two women vying for the presidency, right there, it’s unprecedented for our country. And to have somebody of a different heritage or language to be president would be incredible. And I do think that happens in my lifetime, I think that will happen.
When you were watching the show before joining the cast, did it influence how you thought about real-life politics?
100 percent. It’s even funny because my mom, who is also a fan of the show, she’s a total Hillary supporter, but she’s like, “There’s a part of me that sometimes thinks this is what people sound like behind the scenes, and it’s horrible and harsh and disgusting and not caring.” There is a little bit of it that starts to bleed into what you imagine is behind the scenes. Which is horrible. Selina Meyer is horrible!
‘Veep’ Star Tony Hale On Playing Washington’s Most Devoted Body ManLast week, Veep’s Tony Hale swapped fake D.C., where he plays Gary, the hapless, hopelessly devoted personal aide to…thinkprogress.orgIt’s a real testament to Julia’s performance that any of us want her to be the president — because really, Selina has not demonstrated that she deserves to hold elected office at all.
She doesn’t. She’s terrible. But there is a vulnerability behind it, and an insecurity that’s underneath it, that still touches you, you know? Because you know it’s just coming out of insecurity and wanting to prove herself, and never, ever being good enough. So there’s still something redeemable in her, even though she’s a terrible parent — I mean, awful — and doesn’t really care about anything other than herself and her popularity.
I know the Veep writers are very careful not to reveal what political party Selina belongs to. Do you know what party Laura Montez is in? Do you need to have a sense of that to portray her?
It’s not a specific political party, other than I am the “other” political party, the one Selina is not in. In my head, I decided I was the more conservative party. Her administration seems a little bit more on the liberal side, so by default, I figured I was more conservative. And also, the guy that was the actual presidential running mate, he was pretty conservative. So to be his running mate, I think I would be on the more conservative side. But they work very hard not to connect people to specific political parties.
There’s something refreshing about Veep and how political parties are never mentioned, when this presidential election — and media coverage of the election — is so overwhelmingly partisan.
I think it’s also interesting because so much, in terms of the coverage we see, is how people are in these political parties and you don’t cross those lines. But I have a feeling that in reality, there’s much more friendships that cross over and alliances and day to day dealings across the aisle, way more than is portrayed in our regular media. There’s probably senators who are friendly and they trade favors for favors and it’s more negotiation than actual stance, and they all live in the same city a lot of the year, and they’re all in the same buildings a lot of the time. I’m sure it’s not like they walk down the hall, and Democrats and Republicans can’t look each other in the eye. Or they’re flashing gang signs at each other. I’m sure it’s much more friendly than they like to make it seem.
And that it’s far more partisan among ordinary citizens than it is among politicians?
I think it is! And I think they work hard to stoke that. Obviously politicians want that, because it motivates people to get out and vote. That’s an important part of party’s agendas, to get people partisan. But when push comes to shove, it’s probably a lot more loosey-goosey.
Can you talk through any of your scenes, either in rehearsal or while you were shooting them? Anything especially memorable stick out to you?
There’s a scene that actually didn’t make the cut but was Selina and Laura on the way to the inauguration, because I guess it’s tradition, that the outgoing president and incoming president share a car on the way to the inauguration. Which is pretty fascinating to think about, what duos have been sharing that limo over time. And how uncomfortable some of those car rides must have been, and how pleasant some other ones were. Ours was particularly uncomfortable. And it was just the two of us in the back of this car, and she is just, honestly, she is so incredible and she is so nuanced and so smart and she’ll just have an idea, make the slightest adjustment in her own performance, and it just bursts out. It’s pretty amazing and awe-inspiring to watch, I’m not going to lie.
I just really liked that it was real, and to imagine that ride in real life. I’m sure Obama and Bush, probably, it was fine. But there’s some other ones, like probably Bill Clinton and Bush Sr., it might have been a little icier. Who knows?
These traditions are really fascinating and bizarre. I love that the outgoing and incoming presidents have to have this coffee together the morning of inauguration.
They have a coffee together that day! There’s so many strange little things that we wouldn’t know happen every time, which are so incredibly awkward when someone has been defeated. Someone serves their eight years and it’s fine, but if they didn’t, they lost and you won and now you’re sharing coffee, in the house where they lived. I think they have to be out by the end of the inauguration. It’s really interesting.
When you’re on set, does it feel like the White House? Or does it feel very fake and like any other TV set?
The last scene where I was walking down the hall as the president, originally we had that part of it taking place as me sitting in the Oval Office behind the desk. And that felt pretty real. That was like, whoa. It looked really real and it did have a little feel of importance to it. The inauguration, I will say, was probably something I will never forget for the rest of my life. Walking down those steps with all those people and giving a full inaugural address. I gave a full speech! Many times. I mean, that was pretty amazing. That felt intense. That was a very cool moment. It was a very surreal — it felt very realistic, which was crazy.
How are you feeling about the real presidential election?
I just want people to get out there and vote because we don’t want any, “Oops, didn’t think it was going to go that way, maybe I should have actually gotten out of the house and voted.”
Do you enjoy reading and watching coverage of politics? Or is it too much to stomach?
I cannot. Very, very little. It’s too upsetting, and it’s too upsetting to watch it treated like sports or a reality show. That mentality is terrifying to me.