Hail to the chief: “Veep” star Julia Louis-Dreyfus has once again won the popular vote, for Female Actor in a Comedy Series at the 2018 Screen Actors Guild Awards. The victory comes as the news was also revealed Sunday that Louis-Dreyfus, who recently concluded chemotherapy in her cancer fight, will return to work to shoot the final season of “Veep” in August.
With this win and the best comedy ensemble win , Louis-Dreyfus also set a new record: She has now won nine SAG Awards, the most of anyone in the show’s 24-year history. Louis-Dreyfus lept ahead of Julianna Margulies and Alec Baldwin, both of whom have eight. She’s also the first actress to win five individual SAG Awards.
Louis-Dreyfus also won the SAG Award in this category last year. She was up against Uzo Aduba (“Orange is the New Black”), Alison Brie (“GLOW”), Jane Fonda (“Grace and Frankie”) and Lily Tomlin (“Grace and Frankie”). She didn’t attend this year’s awards show, as she continues to recover from treatment.
Louis-Dreyfus, who plays former President Selina Meyer on the HBO series, pulled off her sixth consecutive Emmy win in the role last September. That gave her the record for most Emmys won by a performer in the same role for the same series. She also tied Cloris Leachman for the most Emmys ever won by a female performer (at eight).
As for the state of “Veep,” with Louis-Dreyfus returning in late summmer, that will likely push the show’s Season 7 to 2019. Earlier this month, HBO programming boss Casey Bloys told IndieWire, “she’s a trooper. They’ve had a couple of table reads that she’s gone to and I think that’s good for her spirits. We have a plan for coming back. She’s going to go through her treatment and we’ll go back to work.”
The 24th annual SAG Awards were presented Sunday, January 21, 2018 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, and hosted by Kristen Bell. Check out IndieWire’s full coverage here.
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