Watch for HBO’s “Veep” to have fun with freshman New Hampshire Rep. Jonah Ryan (actor Timothy Simons) and his new congressional staff, “Veep” director Dale Stern, who recently earned an Emmy nomination for heading up the season five episode of “Mother,” told The Daily Caller.
“Oh we are going to have fun with [building his staff],” said Stern.
According to Stern, “Veep” Executive Producer Dave Mandel, who took the program reins after show creator Armand Iannucio stepped down last spring, and the “Veep” writing team traveled to Washington multiple times to research what life in the House of Representatives for Jonah could be like.
“And you know his uncle [actor Peter MacNichol] is going to be involved. [MacNichol] is another walking talking comedic genius. He showed up on the set and I worked with him on another show called ‘Baby Geniuses,’ so I was excited to see him again.”
Stern continued, “But I was trying to figure out what’s he going to do and how is he going to play this? Literally, take one on his very first day on the set, everybody was just falling out of their chair, because he is just so explosive and so funny. We realized, ‘Oh, we just struck gold here.’ He’s just an amazing character on the show. He and Jonah working together is just magic.”
Simons’s first day on the set was just as memorable recalled Stern, noting the first scene the crew ever shot with Simons was at the Daughters of the American Revolution Museum.
“We were shooting a scene and it was his first chance up and we were doing the same. Take one. And I’m standing there at the monitor with Armando Ianucci at the time.”
HBO’s “Veep” Director Dale Stern (Courtesy: CW3PR)
Stern explained, “And we are watching, and I bump Armando in the arm and say, ‘Hey man, that’s your star right there.’ He goes, ‘I know he’s amazing. He’s fantastic.’ And I yelled ‘cut’ and I looked in the monitor and [Simons] just turned ashen. He looked terrified. I walked out there and he looked so scared. I said, ‘That was amazing.’”
Simons appeared shocked, according to Stern.
“He goes, ‘Oh really? I thought I was fired.’ He literally thought he was about to get sent home and recast I said, ‘No. That was amazing. That was fantastic.’”
Simons explained his first day fears to The Chicago Tribune last year saying he and fellow “Veep” co-star Tony Hale contact each other every time one of them completes a first day on a new job.
“Tony and I have a long dialogue now — like a four-year dialogue — of essentially calling each other or getting in touch after the first day of a new job. Because the first day of a new job, no matter what it is, at the end you go home and you’re like, ‘I’m (expletive) garbage. I’m terrible at this. And I’m going to be fired.’ It’s because it’s the first day and nobody knows what they’re doing. And it’s actor-brain. So we can talk at the end of a first day and be like, ‘I’m having a first day feeling.'”
And what is in store for the embattled now former veep and former President Selina Meyer (played by Julia Louis Dreyfuss) herself?
Stern says he cannot say for sure right now.
“I don’t know what’s planned for next season. You know, it’s framed with certain ideas. It’s a whole new world and a whole new beginning for the show. It’s outrageous. It’s hysterical. It’s going to be very fun to work and play with it. I don’t know exactly what path they are going down. Where she is or what she’s doing.”