‘Veep' star Julia Louis-Dreyfus will be employing her highly-tuned “f**-instinct" for the fourth series of the political comedy, which starts tonight on Sky Atlantic.
The scripts for the hit show are as littered with F-bombs as anything else to come from the stables of show creator Armando Iannucci, and Julia reports that read-throughs often consist of counting the asterisks.
"We often go through the script and do a f***-count on it, and if it’s too many we’ll reduce it," the show's star tells Evening Standard. "It’s an instinct, a f***-instinct.”
Julia Louis-Dreyfus finds her character Selina Meyer promoted to President in the new series of Veep
This series sees Selina Meyer elevated from VP that gives the show its title to the Oval Office and the main job, a decision made by show runner Armando Iannucci before he stood down from day-to-day writing duties on the show.
Armando took me aside and said: ‘I’m thinking maybe she becomes President. What do you think?’” recounts Louis-Dreyfus. “It was so unexpected — we were throwing out the whole premise. But I said: “Yeah, let’s go for it, let’s push the envelope here and see if it works.”
Fans of the show will be relieved to learn, though, that Selina’s elite squad of lieutenants will not be left behind, with Mike McLintock (Matt Walsh) still honing her speeches between juicing, Dan Egan (Reid Scott) and Amy Brookheimer (Anna Chlumsky) competing for alpha status, and Gary Walsh (Tony Hale) still in charge of Selina’s favourite lipstick.
The crack squad is back in action in the corridors of power
Of course, this series runs alongside Hillary Clinton’s real-life campaign to be the first ever female President, a situation that earns her fictional counterpart’s sympathy and admiration.
“The scrutiny that female politicians are put under is pretty intense — that’s why we changed Selina’s hair. I was keenly aware of the fact that when a woman changes her hair or her look in any way, people just won’t let it go.”
“Hillary Clinton has gotten so much shit for her hairstyles over the years,” she says. “Which is remarkable when you consider what it is she does for a living. But hair, for some reason, is a really big deal.”
'Veep' returns to Sky Atlantic tonight at 10.10pm. Watch the trailer below...