Did the president call? No, but Sufe Bradshaw one of the stars for the Emmy nominated, HBO powerhouse VEEP did! I spoke with the talented actress about her character, the hilarious and brilliant Sue Wilson, her new film Imperial Dreams, and how awesome the cast of VEEP is!
Your character seems to be the most qualified person on the Vice President’s team. Is it fun playing the most competent person on Selina’s staff, or are you anxious for the episode where Sue completely loses it?
Sufe Bradshaw: I don’t feel anxious for that kind of an episode, I think it’s fun to play Sue in general, she’s really funny and smart and assertive, and it’s nice. You don’t see people like that all the time in the real world and I don’t know if she’s the most confident but she is definitely coldblooded. (Laughs)
Sue has such a dry and direct sense of humor, what was the original character description for her like, what did you bring to the role?
Thanks! Pretty much there wasn’t a lot of dry and assertiveness. With the audition though a lot of the words were very much there on the page because of the great work of the writers, so all I had to do was pretty much bring something to her. What I did do was I built her from the outside in, with the hair and the clothes, shoes, and her office. I just tried to tackle her from what her actual job description is and than I was able to come up with the character. I would equate a lot of that to the writers, they wrote it really, really well.
Has playing Sue changed the way you live your everyday life? Do you ever find yourself wishing you could be as cool and collected as she is when put in certain situations?
(Laughs) I always wish I could be more cool, calm, and collected. It’s been so fun, I think she is such a drastic character from who I am in my life, so it is extremely enjoyable to play her.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus is one of the best actresses on television, is there anything you’ve learned while working with her?
She’s such a great person in general; I think it’s important to be a good person as well as a good actor, and I’ve certainly learned that from Julia. It’s really great to watch her work, she’s so funny, and she’s very much about getting the best work done. She’s always refining the scene and always trying to find the funniest parts and keeping it really; really funny which is awesome to watch. She’s a real affable person, and she’s such a joy to be around.
Aside from Sue, which character is your favorite?
I really love watching the entire cast; it’s just really funny. I often find myself breaking a lot and just laughing out loud; it’s really awesome to watch everyone. I would actually have to say that the answer is just to watch the ensemble. It’s really great to watch them all play together.
A film you worked on, Imperial Dreams recently made it into Sundance. Can you tell us a little bit about that film?
It’s an amazing movie about a gentleman who gets out of detention in a correction facility and he is looking to reclaim his life. He has to find his child and it’s such a really great human story, it’s an urban story, it’s also a story about redemption. It won an audience choice award at Sundance so that was cool, it won and that’s not easy to win. I play a detective, Detective Gill. Her and her partner, Detective Hernandez (Maximiliano Hernandez) are on the case trying to pretty much help this young guy make better decisions.
My editor wanted me to ask you, what was it like acting in STAR TREK Universe? Was it a special role for you? How was that whole experience?
It was great I played an alien. It was one of my first jobs in Hollywood so it was nice, I had to sit in hair and makeup for three hours, which was arduous, but it was fun to play. It’s such a great franchise and they are such great people, it was amazing to see the process. I was early on in my career so it was just amazing to be a part of that process of movie making. I think syfy is some of the coolest stuff to do, so I had a blast.
I just have one last question for you. When you signed on to do VEEP did you think it would receive as much critical acclaim and praise as it has today?
That’s a great question, you never know. We certainly had the power behind it with Julia and Armando Iannucci, who is the creator of the show, and Tony Hale, Anna Chlumsky, and all of the guys and girls we’ve been working with. We had the makings to be a great show, I’m just really grateful. It’s always a lottery, you never know if a shows going to do well or not, this one thankfully did very, very well. You just never know how it’s going to turn out, but I will say we definitely had all the ingredients of an amazing show. 
You can watch the season 3 premiere of VEEP tonight at 10PM on HBO, and you can follow Sufe on twitter at @sufebradshaw
Victoria Nelli loves TV so much that she is paying $30,000 a year to learn about it in College. When she’s not learning about TV she enjoys writing about her favorite shows, interviewing anyone in the industry that will let her, and ranting about how underrated Parks and Recreation is. She is very much aware of her Netflix addiction, and no she will not be seeking help anytime soon. You can follow her on Twitter @VictoriaNelli