There’s going to be more than one veep involved in the Kamala Harris’ campaign.
“Veep” star Julia Louis-Dreyfus promised to be “extra-involved” in the vice president’s presidential run and even teased a possible appearance at the Democratic National Convention later this month.
Louis-Dreyfus made her remarks to The Sunday Times and later cut an advertisement aimed at telling Americans overseas how to cast their ballots.
She mused about the advice that her alter ego in the show Selina Meyer would give to Harris but cautioned the VP against taking it.
“If Selina had any advice for Kamala, she had best not take it. I think Kamala is so intelligent she wouldn’t take the call,” Louis-Dreyfus joked.
Louis-Dreyfus’s political satire show “Veep” has roared back into the spotlight after the life-imitates-art moment when President Biden announced he was stepping down and endorsing Harris to replace him.
Some critics have compared Harris to Louis-Dreyfus’ character on the show, who is at once incompetent and vicious.
In the HBO show, Meyer becomes the first female president after the incumbent steps aside. On Friday, Harris secured the delegates for the Democratic nomination after President Biden threw in the towel last month.
Harris and Louis-Dreyfus crossed paths at a state dinner in 2022 and the actress who is also famous for her role as Elaine Benes in “Seinfeld,” dished on how their conversation went.
“We talked about — how shall I say? — how much ‘Veep’ got right in terms of the culture of Washington, both behind the curtain and in front of the curtain. She was a big fan of the show,” she told the outlet.
Louis-Dreyfus, who grew up in Washington, DC, and backed Biden before the mutiny against him, suggested that people pegging similarities between Harris and Meyer are doing so because of sexism.
“Female candidates are more scrutinized,” she told the outlet. “That is the reality and we played into it and used it to our comedic advantage.”
“There is an episode in which a character suggests Selina open a speech with ‘As a woman’ and she said, ‘I can’t identify as a woman! People can’t know that! Men hate that and women who hate women hate that, which I believe is most women.’ So we used that for a lot of fodder,” she added.
The show’s creator previously stressed that Meyer was not “in any way modeled on Harris.”
“Veep” wrapped up in 2019 before Harris ultimately became the VP, something that Louis-Dreyfus cheered at the time. The show won 17 Emmys.
“We couldn’t satirize anything anymore — the Trump presidency was doing a better job,” she chided.
“I think in the last few years the culture of politics has become much more venal. So when we started we were pushing against reality, but now less so, certainly in terms of the nastiness of the communication.”
Meanwhile, Harris is scrambling to select her veep pick. She planned to meet with at least three of the top contenders at the Naval Observatory Sunday — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, and Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), the Washington Post reported.
Harris is expected to unveil her VP pick imminently and then stump with them Tuesday in Philadelphia.
She had a crunched timeline to make the big decision due to her abrupt ascension to the top of the Democratic Party’s ticket.
Now that she has officially clinched the delegates to be the party standard bearer, Harris is set to formally accept the nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago later this month.
Louis-Dreyfus hinted she may be there as well.
“I probably will be, yes,” she told the outlet when asked.
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