Since Veep premiered in 2012, the happenings of Vice President Selina Meyer and her colorful cohorts have hit increasingly closer to home. A lot has happened since the political sitcom’s 2019 finale, but its star Julia Louis-Dreyfus thinks the ship has sailed on a reboot: “I don’t know how we could,” she told Variety.
The former Seinfeld actor said that she’s been asked to reprise the role of Selina Meyer before, but she’s turned it down: “[Americans need] multiple years of normalcy in Washington before we could revisit something.”
Veep certainly took inspiration from real-life events on Capitol Hill, but Louis-Dreyfus thinks satirizing something along the lines of the January 6th, 2021 insurrection would be in bad taste. “I don’t know how we could,” she said, unable to think of a joke. “I don’t know how to make that funny, especially when people lost their lives.”
Neither Seinfeld nor Veep are the most politically correct shows around. However, Louis-Dreyfus went on to say that she thinks veering too far towards either extreme — either being too ruthless or too sterile — wouldn’t work out. “It’s tricky,” she added. “I’m in favor of sensitivity. When people complain about being too politically correct, I start to question what their motives are. I believe in irony and satire — there must be a place for it for a culture to survive — but I also believe in being sensitive and kind at the same time.”
Veep may not be up for re-election in the foreseeable future, but the real-life Louis-Dreyfus has still found ways to participate in politics. She tore Donald Trump a new one speaking at the 2020 Democratic National Convention, corralled the Veep troops for a fundraiser benefitting Democratic Party of Wisconsin, and reunited with Seinfeld co-star Jason Alexander and co-creator Larry David for another fundraiser benefitting the Texas Democratic Party.