Julia Louis-Dreyfus Says Mitt Romney Taught The ‘Veep’ Creators About ‘What It’s Like To Lose’

With a brand new season of HBO’s Veep ready to repopulate our imaginations with fresh insults for Timothy Simons’ Jonah Ryan, Emmy Award-winner Julia Louis-Dreyfus visited Jimmy Kimmel Live on Wednesday to promote the show. Among other things, she revealed the story behind Amy Brenneman’s cameo and former President Barack Obama’s intense love for the program. Yet the most entertaining, if not somewhat too real, story Louis-Dreyfus shared with host Jimmy Kimmel concerned Veep fans Mitt and Ann Romney, whom the cast and crew wanted to talk to for a practical reason.

“We actually had the privilege of spending time [with the Romneys]. They came and talked to us a great length,” Louis-Dreyfus explained. “It was really useful because we really wanted to talk to him about what it’s like to lose.” Between laughs, Kimmel asked, “Is that how you explained it in the phone call? … ‘We want a loser here who we can really mine.'” All jokes aside, however, she noted Romney was “very generous” with his time and advice, which the Veep team found useful going into the sixth season:

“The thing about Mitt Romney I should say is that he is very dedicated to his family. He has a life well beyond politics which, of course, Selina Meyer does not. He said a lot of really interesting things. I asked him about that ’47 percent’ moment… I was asking him about how did that happen, how did he recover, and he said, ‘The truth is when you’re running, if you’re explaining, you’re losing.’ And I thought that was such a great expression. Anyway, we put it in the show.”

Between the recent discovery of Romney’s actual “binders full of women” and his embarrassing dinner with Donald Trump, it’s about time the failed Republican presidential candidate and potential Secretary of State got some good press.

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