Girl Crush: Julia Louis-Dreyfus

I’ve never been a huge fan of Seinfeld, although I’ve seen almost every episode now because I own a TV. Jerry, George, Kramer – meh. I didn’t care much for their characters. But Elaine! She of the awkward dancing and curly hair and ’90s wardrobe and GET OUT shoving? Elaine, I liked.

It wasn’t until The New Adventures of Old Christine put Julia Louis-Dreyfus in the lead position that I started to appreciate the woman’s skill as a comedic actress. Christine was a mess. Insecure yet oddly self-confident. Emotionally unbalanced yet possessing a backbone. Incredibly self-involved yet incredibly loyal. Gym owner who hates exercising. Somehow Julia managed to merge all of these traits into a character so lovable, I still seek her out in reruns.

And then came Veep. Not only is Julia the lead in this HBO comedy, but she’s playing a woman with some real power and real ambition. Surrounded by a crack team of crackpots, her Vice President Selina Meyer is going to make the world a better place whether we like it or not. Determined to be the first female President, she insists on being granted a seat at the table for important operations, even when doing so comes back to bite her in the rear. Again plagued with self-doubt and buoyed by self-confidence, Julia has honed this character to such a sharpness that watching her week to week is like a master class in comedic acting. The season 2 finale was nothing short of flawless as Julia sent Selina scrambling between soaring triumph, the depths of despair, and back again (and again). The image of her tiny self and her team sprinting down a hallway is so hilariously perfect that it makes me chuckle even now, weeks after I watched it.

Julia’s brand of tiny, fierce, generally off-kilter, razor-sharp comedic timing is such a joy to watch, I’m about ready to petition HBO for more episodes of Veep so I don’t have to wait so long for my fix.