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Veep star Julia Louis-Dreyfus is open about her dislike for American President Donald Trump, but the show doesn’t take sides, as Julie Eley finds.

What Veep star Julia Louis-Dreyfus really feels about US President Donald Trump.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus can’t escape politics, even in the Austrian Alps where she’s filming a movie with Will Ferrell.

The actress, who has inhabited the skin of US politician Selina Meyer in the SoHo2 satire Veep since 2012, returns to our screens this week in the seventh and final season of the show.

The series attracts millions of viewers worldwide, so it’s hardly surprising that she can’t escape the fans.

“People recognise me for all of these crazy characters that I’ve played in my life,” she says.

But it’s not Meyer’s political ambitions they want to talk about.

“First and foremost they want to know about Trump,” says Louis-Dreyfus, whose breakthrough role was as Elaine in Seinfeld.

“They ask me, ‘What do I think of Trump?’ That’s the question I get, as soon as they hear my accent and know that I’m an American citizen.”

Veep was off air last year while Louis-Dreyfus, 58, staged a public battle with breast cancer.

Executive producer and showrunner David Mandel says the illness provided an opportunity to focus on the direction of the show.

“When we shut down for Julia’s cancer, the odd sort of benefit, if you will, and the reason I gave her cancer (Louis-Dreyfus dissolves into laughter at this point) ...

“It did give us a chance to sort of sit back and kind of try, even though we don‘t have a historical perspective, to kind of go ‘What are politics about?’

“We did actually make some changes to the, not where we got to, but some of the journey and some of the little details.”

And those changes resulted in the usual 10-episode series being reduced to seven.

“I can only say the (seven episodes) are crazy, jam-packed episodes,” says Mandel. “There’s

more than 10 episodes of material jammed into them.”

Trump’s ascent to the presidency has created its problems for Veep.

“I think that given our current political climate it’s been more challenging for us to sort of push boundaries, so to speak,” says Louis-Dreyfus. “But having said that, we have this virtue of having not an identified party in our show and not really identified any contemporary political figures. And so we’re in an alternate universe and that’s helpful, particularly now.

“It’s sort of, I think it’s in many ways, why the show has lasted as long as it has, because it kind of invites everyone to the party ... and I think it’s, in a way, it’s more apt than it ever has been given the current insanity that we’re all living in.” The show has always been ambiguously neutral in its politics and Mandel says there are no plans to reveal Meyer’s political affiliations in the final episode. “The great thing about the show is we never mention a political party, Republicans watch the show and think it’s about Democrats and Democrats watch it and think it’s about Republicans. I pride myself on that fact. “We make jokes at their expense – at the Left’s expense, especially with Catherine and Marjorie (Meyer’s daughter and her same-sex partner) being incredibly PC. They’re often our gateway into making fun of the Left, their inability sometimes to laugh at things – their oversensitivity. We try to be equal opportunity offenders.” In real life Louis-Dreyfus isn’t so even handed politically and doesn’t mince words about Donald Trump. “I think he’s a pretend President. I’m not a fan. “I am a patriot, and I’m very unhappy with our current political situation. This has, by the way, nothing to do with Veep. This is me talking right now. And, no, I have no idea who I’m going to support in 2020, except to say that it will be a Democrat.”

“People recognise me for all of these crazy characters that I’ve played in my life.” – Julia Louis-Dreyfus