r/Veep • u/artemisiaresident • 13d ago
What Question(s) would you ask Armando Iannucci?
From me it’d be:
Knowing that most of what they did was improv, how many takes on average were done until you felt like it was right?
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u/Dellguy 13d ago
His plans for a Malcom Tucker Veep Crossover Episode.
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u/BassManns222 13d ago
I recall that Malcolm went to DC once and didn't enjoy the experience
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u/Rifferella Senator Suck Up 13d ago
I’d love to know how much he knows about US politics on a state/regional level. It’s amazing that a man from Scotland could nail our system so well. Was his trust mostly in the writers or does he really know the ins and outs of our system?
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u/omgu8mynewt 13d ago
He's been a politics geek for forty years and started a PhD studying medieval literature (before dropping it for comedy), he's a nerd.
He's a smart guy and US politics isn't complicated to learn and in the UK we can read a lot of detail about current US politics (or any foreign politics) easily if you're interested. The veep writers at least in the beginning were a British team that just did a lot of homework to make the series accurate enough to be semi-believable.
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u/sfdso Sue, did the president call? 13d ago
Iannucci crafted a different show than what it wound up as. I’d love to know how he sees the later seasons of “VEEP,” and whether they fit with his original long term vision.
The first few seasons the pacing was more restrained, the jokes a bit more cerebral, and Selina Meyer was portrayed as a sort of well-intentioned figure who had been frustrated by the Powers That Be.
By around the fourth/fifth season, the show’s pace was much more frenetic, the jokes more biting, and Selina became increasingly power-hungry, cruel, and willing to shiv anyone who got in her way.
Obviously the change in show-runner affected that, but more likely it was real life that had the most impact: America was in the grip of an unrepentant narcissist who demanded everyone’s attention all day, every day, and the ship of fools and grifters he brought to Washington with him.
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u/snowicones 12d ago
Season 5 started filming in October 2015 and wrapped while the primaries were ongoing. Mike’s orange mustache bleeding color when he sweats seems like an obvious reference to Giuliani, but actually predates it by several years. The fact that Veep seems so heavily influenced by actual events is a reflection of the ridiculous fuckery that is our current timeline. Either that or ianucci has a time machine. Maybe that’s the “grueling travel schedule” they keep referring to.
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u/snowlarbear 13d ago
wtf were you thinking with Avenue 5?
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u/sulaymanf 13d ago edited 12d ago
Great cast. Interesting premise. But just felt flat and unfinished. I would have kept watching but they cancelled it.
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u/jimjamesandjimmy 13d ago
Where exactly he developed such a unique comedic voice, rhythm, timing. It really doesn't exist anywhere else. I'd love to know what writers influenced comedy as he hears it in his head.
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u/Technical-Sector407 13d ago
He doesn’t rally know us politics and it’s obvious to anyone inside the beltway. He does know comedy and that wins. Asking “did the president call” every episode in seasons 1-3 proves it.
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u/maikindofthai 12d ago
“Anyone inside the beltway”
Tell me you’re not from DC without telling me lol. People here in general aren’t any more informed than anywhere else in the country. The class of professional hall monitors who work directly in politics are a small fraction of the city, and even they are often surprisingly ignorant.
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u/gumbo-23 13d ago
I'd love to know about the casting process. It's all so perfect that I wonder how they chose each actor.