Julia Louis-Dreyfus On The Cusp Of Making History

With her seven-season run of Veep, a most acerbic roast of American politics, Julia Louis-Dreyfus won our hearts and minds. Now, the actor-comedian is on the cusp of making history

Julia Louis-Dreyfus is nestled into a corner booth at the San Ysidro Ranch on a gloomy late spring day, a few weeks after Veep’s seven-season flambéing of US politics has come to its ash black finale. Airpods in and curly brown hair pinned to the nape of her neck, she’s 3,000 physical and psychological miles away from Selina Meyer, the soulless DC swamp creature she played on the HBO series.

You might even mistake her as one of the rarefied women who can while away a Monday afternoon lunching at one of the finest establishments in all of California. “I said to my husband, I’m taking July and August off, and he kind of laughed,” she says. “I’m going to try to stick to it,” she continues, then pauses. “I’m looking for a new psychiatrist as we speak.”

Louis-Dreyfus has won the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for each of the show’s previous six seasons. Combined with another in the category for her work on The New Adventures Of Old Christine in 2006, and one a decade earlier for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy for Seinfeld, Louis-Dreyfus is currently tied with Cloris Leachman for the most acting Emmys in history.