Julia Louis-Dreyfus Admits She 'Wept Like a Baby' on the Last Day of Veep : 'I Was Hysterical'
Julia Louis-Dreyfus was overcome with emotion when Veep officially ended.
On Tuesday night, at the premiere of the show’s final seventh season, the actress, 58, revealed that she had a tough time on the last day of filming the hit HBO political satire series, which has been on the air since 2012.
“I wept like a baby,” she said at the New York event. “The whole deal. I was hysterical.”
Louis-Dreyfus, who has won six Emmy Awards for her portrayal of President Selina Meyer, also told PEOPLE that of all the things she would miss from the show, her fellow castmates and flawed character were at the top of her list.
“What I’m gonna miss most is being with all these wonderful people, whom I adore more than I can possibly articulate,” she shared.
“But I am going to miss playing a hyper-dysfunctional, narcissistic, undeveloped, ruthless human being,” the actress jokingly added.
After portraying the politician for seven years, Louis-Dreyfus said that her character’s tendencies began to rub off on her personally and the way she approaches her acting career, especially in a male-dominated industry.
“I think I have asserted myself in a way, in my career, that is important,” she told PEOPLE.
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“But I understand Selina’s frustration and that certainly helped fuel the character,” she said, adding that it was “easy to tap into” her own frustrations and express them through Selina.
Last month, HBO announced that the seventh and final season of the hit political satire will premiere on March 31.
Speaking at the Television Critics Association panel after the news, Louis-Dreyfus said saying goodbye to the show was “a very hard thing to do.”
“I was so overcome with a joy and grief mashup, as this show ended, it really was surprising to me,” she said. “I’m an emotional person anyway, but it really caught me by surprise. I think that’s because this show has been my baby for now eight years that I’ve felt fiercely protective and proud of. We were on location for four years, this team of actors and writers, then we moved to Los Angeles, and it worked, and you never know, it’s such a risk.”
“We’ve been through a lot as a group, with illness and losing people, it’s been an enormous, huge journey but one that’s been extremely powerful for us personally,” Louis-Dreyfus added. “To be a part of something like this is incredibly gratifying, and it’s not lost on me ��� saying goodbye was a very hard thing to do, it was a very sad thing.”
The actress previously admitted she had a difficult time after wrapping the final season in December.
Louis-Dreyfus posted a series of photos of herself making silly faces with a handful of her costars at the show’s wrap party, including Matt Walsh, Anna Chlumsky, Sam Richardson and more.
“I’m going to miss these people more than I can express,” she wrote. “Actually I already do miss them. I’m gutted.”
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Production of Veep‘s final season was delayed after Louis-Dreyfus found out she had breast cancer. The star went public news of her diagnosis in September 2017.
A post shared by Julia Louis-Dreyfus (@officialjld) on Dec 19, 2018 at 4:58pm PST
In January 2018, she completed her last round of chemotherapy, and in February she underwent surgery. By August 2018, the star was back to Veep and documented her return with a photo of herself at the table read with the cast.
“Guys, we just learned how to take a picture of ourselves on my phone! How cool is this? @veephbo Table read episodes 2 & 3 Season 7, baby!” she captioned the group selfie.
In a separate post shortly after, Louis-Dreyfus expressed her gratitude to be back on set with her castmates.
“So deeply grateful to be back together with all these superb people,” she wrote.
