Veep star Julia Louis-Dreyfus on life after hit show

She’s the master of comic acting. But Seinfeld legend Julia Louis-Dreyfus says she wants to take a radically new path when her award-winning political satire Veep wraps up.

It’s fair to say nobody wants multi-award winning political satire, Veep to finish.

Not its legion fans, not any of its ensemble cast and certainly not its producer, co-creator and star, Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

But brilliant comedy is all about timing, and for the writers who brought us seven seasons of the irredeemable, on-off American president, Selina Meyer, it’s time to go.

“It felt as if the stories have dictated this decision,” Louis-Dreyfus tells News Corp Australia, ahead of the premiere this week of the seventh and final season of the HBO comedy.

“We didn’t want to start repeating ourselves. For instance, in this season she’s running for president again. We had to find a new way of doing that and that was our challenge and I think we rose to it. But at the end of the day, there’s only a certain number of stories to tell. That’s how it felt to us.”

Julia Louis-Dreyfus says the time is right for Veep to come to an end.

Knowing the time was right to wrap up the series — which has garnered critical acclaim and taken a swag of awards including 17 Emmys — doesn’t make it any easier.

“It’s crushing me to say goodbye, to tell you the truth,” Louis-Dreyfus says.

Although they play some of the most venal, backstabbing, foul-mouthed characters on the small screen, the castmates Louis-Dreyfus, has worked with since Veep’s first season in 2012 have come to feel like family.

“I had no idea how much I would enjoy playing this part and creating these relationships onscreen and off-screen with all of my friends,” the 58-year-old former Seinfeld favourite said.

“So it’s a hard role to say goodbye to for a multitude of reasons. And also to play somebody so narcissistic and so undeveloped and so full of rage, has been delightful.”

Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s Veep has won a swag of awards including 17 Emmys.

That bond was only strengthened when the show took a hiatus in 2017 in order for Louis-Dreyfus to undergo treatment for breast cancer.

Sarah Sutherland, who plays Selina’s beleaguered daughter Catherine, said that meant many tears from the cast as they finished filming.

“The last day that Julia wrapped her final scene, everyone was crowded around,” she said.

“We were all there and stayed afterwards for hours on the set and that was really moving and intense. It was brutal.”

Like her castmates, Sutherland praised both the leadership and performance from Louis-Dreyfus.

“She’s such a talented actress, but in equal measure, she makes everyone around her look good,” Sutherland says.

“Because there’s such chaos to the show, I think the more characters over the years, the more chaotic it got. And I think she just loves having so many different energies and flavours to play off.”

Julia Louis-Dreyfus in the role that made her a star — Elaine in Seinfeld.

Louis-Dreyfus brushes off the praise of her peers, sharing the show’s success with the whole team.

“As much as I would love to take credit for being the secret sauce, I think the secret sauce of this show is fundamentally an excellent concept, supported by super writing,” she says.

“And then we can lay on our stuff, but without that in place, you’re screwed.”

Veep thrust the absurdity of modern politics into living rooms long before the American presidency was a twinkle in Donald Trump’s eye; and many of its funnier moments came to seem prescient or even borrowed from the headlines.

While Louis-Dreyfus is no fan of Trump, she said the show always sought to expose all of Washington’s political underbelly, rather than taking sides.

Indeed, although Selina Meyer plays the first female president, her political party has never been disclosed.

The cast members of Veep have become a family, says Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

“We didn’t identify a party in our show,” Louis-Dreyfus says.

“There were no Democrats and Republicans and that was very deliberate on our part, because we wanted to invite everyone to the party. So it was more a comment on the culture of politics as opposed to a necessarily a partisan point of view.

“Having said that, I’m very partisan personally, and that has never changed. So, you know, my activism as a citizen of the United States is in place and, and will be quite rigorous at the next election and so on and so forth.”

But that doesn’t mean Louis-Dreyfus would ever consider public office: “No, definitely not. I’m not running.”

Instead, Louis-Dreyfus — who masterfully portrayed Seinfeld’s Elaine Benes for almost a decade in the 1990s — says she wants to search for another substantial project.

“I don’t really think about my next project is being necessarily comedic or dramatic,” she says.

“I know I’ve gotten a lot of roles in comedy, but I would very much like to exercise other muscles, including dramatic muscles. (That’s) something I’m very interested in doing and hopefully in the process of doing that.

“I’m hoping to work with very fine actors and writers with material that’s a very high calibre. So easy to say, not …. ‘low hanging fruit’ necessarily, but that’s what I’m after.”

Veep’s quickfire, curse-filled dialogue, biting satire and willingness to joke about everything from race in America to abortion, sexual harassment and workplace bullying, has seen it labelled a game changer in television.

Louis-Dreyfus said the experience had also changed her.

“I mean it has changed my life because it was an incredible opportunity to play this remarkable woman. And for that, I’m forever grateful,” she says

“Having said that, I’ve also sort of learned … and it’s taken me a long time to do, to get to this point, but to not be apologetic about asserting myself. “

Assertive she may be, but not Selina-level assertive, because, Louis-Dreyfus admits: “Selina is kind of a horrible, rancid person, in a way that’s palatable.”

* Veep streams 7.30pm, Tuesday, Fox Showcase