‘Veep’ Actors Discuss How Real-World Politics Came To Mirror Political Satire at IOP Event
Three cast members of “Veep,” the acclaimed sitcom that captivated audiences with its merciless satire of American politics, reflected on how the show brought humor and humility to Washington, D.C., at an Institute of Politics forum on Wednesday — but warned that the capital itself looks increasingly like satire.
The actors — Anthony R. Hale, who played political aide Gary Walsh; Timothy C. Simons, who portrayed politician Jonah Ryan; and Matthew P. Walsh, who was cast as press secretary Mike McLintock— discussed “Veep” before a packed house at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum. The show follows fictional U.S. Vice President Selina Meyer and her staff as they navigate D.C. politics.
The cast members said the show continues to bring laughs to American viewers nationwide. But, they added, the sitcom has come up against the challenge that real-world politicians have increasingly resemble the very caricatures the actors portrayed.
“The writers of the show tried to come up with the single dumbest thing any politician could ever do,” Simons said. “And then ultimately a politician would do it.”
Simons pointed to the character he played: Jonah, a White House aide who eventually becomes vice president and who at one point has sex with a high schooler. While the plot point might have been humorous when it was fictional, Simons said, allegations that former Rep. Matthew L. Gaetz (R-Fla.) regularly paid women for sex and had sex with an underage girl were “a lot less funny.” (Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing).
“Very funny on a television show,” Simons said. “It becomes a lot less funny when you’re presented with it.”
Satirizing American politics has only become more difficult in recent years, cast members said. Walsh said American politics was less volatile under Barack Obama’s presidency, when the show was first being aired, compared to the politics found in Washington since.
“It is the predictability that I think the show began in, and there was a sense of normalcy,” Wash said.
Simons said the shifting political climate affected the ending of the 7-season show, whose final episode aired in May 2019, three years into Donald Trump’s tumultuous first presidency. The series ended with Meyer sacrificing friendships to return to the nation’s highest office.
Simons did not specify how the show’s concluding episodes might have differed, but he said he was certain that the narrative of “Veep” would have taken another route under different political circumstances.
“I do know that the actual ending of the show, had we filmed a year previous, would have been entirely different,” Simons said. “But it came from watching an entire year of, ‘Oh, there are no consequences for anything. Yeah, you can do anything, and it’s all still fine.’”
Hale said he views the show as a “cautionary tale” of how a single-minded fixation on accumulating political power will inevitably lead politicians to isolate themselves and destroy their relationships with their closest friends and loved ones.
“It was all about her climbing to the top, destroying whoever she’s destroying, including the only person that really loved her,” Hale said of Meyer. “And then in the end, she’s sad and she’s isolated.”
“That’s the equation throughout history that’s gonna happen,” he added.
—Staff writer Sidhi Dhanda can be reached at sidhi.dhanda@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @sidhidhanda.
