LOS ANGELES – Julia Louis-Dreyfus took home her third straight best actress in a comedy Emmy on Monday night, but that's not what she'll be most remembered for when people talk about the 2014 Primetime Emmy Awards. Before the “Veep” star took the stage to accept her statue Bryan Cranston stopped her and smacked her with an epic — and intentionally comedic — kiss. It was a continuation of a bit the two television icons had concocted when the presented earlier in the night. When Louis-Dreyfus arrived backstage to speak to the global press corps it was the first thing anyone wanted to talk to her about.
“Well, you saw it on TV, you tell me,” Louis-Dreyfus replies when asked about the kiss. “It was pretty good, right? He went for it, man. I appreciate that. He goes for it in everything he does.”
The former “Seinfeld” star has become something of a one woman savior of awards shows recently. She found Tony Hale coming up with her on stage during last year's Emmys to “play” his assistant charter from “Veep.” She also was a willing prop for Tina Fey and Amy Poehler during last year's Golden Globes. All moments that were clearly planned out beforehand. So, like a lot of great comedy, it wasn't as improvised as it seemed.
“When Bryan and I were talking about it on the phone about what we were going to do for the presenting bit it dawned on me as we were speaking that this would be a nice part three of the joke,” Louis-Dreyfus says of the kiss. “So, I asked my husband if he would be OK with it and he said 'Sure.' And Bryan checked with his wife and she said 'Sure' and so we said we would go for it. We want to really make sure the presenting stuff worked in and of itself because, obviously, I might not have won. That was very stiff competition.”
For more on Louis-Dreyfus' thoughts on her Emmy win and playing a fictional Vice President check out the embedded video at the top of this article.