Selina hits the campaign trail as HBO's 'Veep' kicks off final season

Talk to just about any actor who has played a character over multiple seasons and they'll talk of a withdrawal and a sadness they feel when it comes time to say goodbye.

For Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who has inhabited the skin of Vice President/President Selina Meyer in the HBO political satire "Veep," which begins its seventh and final season Sunday, March 31, there were mixed emotions that came with the end of the Emmy-winning series.

"I was so overcome with joy and grief, a joy and grief mash-up, as this show ended," the actress explains, "and it really was very surprising to me ... . And I think that's because this show frankly has been my baby for now eight years... . You know, it's not lost on me that that is not something that comes along with frequency. And so saying goodbye to it was a very hard thing to do even though it was our decision to do it. Ultimately it was a very sad thing. I don't know how else to say it."

Her sadness is understandable. Louis-Dreyfus has enjoyed arguably her greatest professional success playing the self-centered, foul-mouthed former chief executive, winning six Emmy Awards as lead actress to go with three more for best comedy series (of which she is an executive producer). This in a career that has won her multiple awards and critical praise in series such as "The New Adventures of Old Christine," "Saturday Night Live" and "Seinfeld."

As "Veep" gears up for its final round, few details were available on the seven episodes that make up Season 7, save for the fact that Selina will be back on the campaign trail as she runs for president and much of the cast - including Tony Hale as aide Gary, Anna Chlumsky as Selina's right hand, Amy, and Rolling Meadows' Gary Cole as Kent, her political strategist - will be back.

A trailer made available recently features a montage of scenes from the new season, including one that is very emblematic of the times, in which Selina complains to her staff, "This entire country is getting more disgusting by the second," to which Kent replies, "That's a demo we're targeting on Facebook."

"I think that given our current political climate," Louis-Dreyfus says, "it's been more challenging for us to sort of push boundaries, so to speak. But having said that, we have this virtue of having not identified party in our show and not really identified any contemporary political figures, and so we're in an alternate universe, and that's helpful, particularly now. I think it's, in many ways, why the show has lasted as long as it has, because it kind of invites everyone to the party ... and I think it's, in a way, more apt than it ever has been given the current insanity that we're all living in."

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"Veep"

Returns at 9:30 p.m. Sunday, March 31, on HBO

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Local ties

"Veep" has employed a number of stars from the suburbs and Chicago in key roles:

• Gary Cole (who plays Kent Davison) grew up in Rolling Meadows.

• Matt Walsh (Mike McLintock) lived in Darien.

• Anna Chlumsky (Amy Brookheimer) is from Broadview.

• Julia Louis-Dreyfus went to Northwestern University in Evanston.

• Kevin Dunn (Ben Cafferty) is from Chicago.