Tony Hale recalls Julia Louis-Dreyfus recruiting him for unforgettable Emmys speech: 'Game on'

"My immediate thought was, 'Oh s---, you are going to win,'" the "Veep" star tells EW.

Tony Hale and Julia Louis-Dreyfus aren't just Emmy legends because of the awards they've won, but the way they've chosen to accept those awards.

While speaking to Entertainment Weekly at the Toronto International Film Festival, where Hale was promoting his upcoming movie Sketch, the actor recalled the planning and execution of Louis-Dreyfus' unforgettable 2013 Emmys speech, in which she and Hale accepted the award as versions of their Veep characters. "She called me that morning and she's like, 'I want you to carry my bag if I win,'" Hale recalled. "And my immediate thought was, 'Oh s---, you are going to win, and I have to show up and do this."

Hale remembered that he and Louis-Dreyfus "talked a little bit about bits if it does happen," but mostly just put faith in their extraordinary chemistry. "I remember that moment, when I heard her name, and I was like, 'Game on.'"

After the actress was announced as the winner, she stopped part way to the stage and looked back at Hale as if silently commanding him to assist her, already in character. "It was that moment like, 'Oh crap, she's serious," Hale recalled, adding, "I was like, 'I can't not get up out of the seat.' Thank God it worked out."

With only a slightly artificially inflected "thank you so much" from Louis-Dreyfus, and with Hale nervously darting his eyes behind his costar, clutching her bag, the two immediately conveyed to the audience that this wouldn't be a conventional acceptance speech.

She thanked the network, series creator Armando Iannucci, the producers, and then hesitated. Hale leaned in and audibly whispered, "my family," which Louis-Dreyfus then anxiously repeated, with comically heightened schmaltz, before also having to be reminded to say she loved them. "I'd also like the cast," she continued, going on to name them one by one - except Hale.

The camera then cut to cast member Anna Chlumsky indifferently texting through the speech, in full character as Veep's Amy Brookheimer. Chlumsky got a huge laugh, seeming in on the original plan, but Hale recalls, "We did not plan that. So that was full Anna Chlumsky bringing it."

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Veep was a Primetime Emmys powerhouse, winning 18 Emmys over the course of its eight-year run. Louis-Dreyfus made Emmys history with the series, winning Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series six years in a row, beating formidable competition like Tina Fey (30 Rock), Amy Poehler (Parks and Recreation), Lisa Kudrow (The Comeback), and Tracee Ellis Ross (Black-ish).

Hale took home two of his own Emmys for playing Gary Walsh, the bagman and self-described "lap dog" to Louis-Dreyfus' Selina Meyer. Hale said he finds it "exciting for people to see [Veep] again" due to a current surge in streams of the show driven by uncanny parallels to the current political climate. There have been more than a few comparisons between the Meyer character and VP-turned-Presidential-candidate Kamala Harris. But Hale rejected those comparisons, saying, "Kamala is nothing like Selena Meyer. Selena Meyer is a monster. I was her lap dog."

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Louis-Dreyfus herself has denied such comparisons, saying that "on Veep, I played a narcissistic, megalomaniac sociopath, and that is not Kamala Harris.” She joked that the comparisons might be more applicable to "another candidate in the race.” Still, she's also delighted by the viewership boost, saying, "I'm happy people are getting a kick out of it. And I know that Kamala Harris is — big time."

Related: Tony Hale recalls near-disastrous guest spot on The Sopranos as Uncle Junior's nurse

Hale is currently on the road with the film Sketch, a poignant indie drama costarring The Good Place's D'Arcy Carden. In a full circle moment, he was chosen to co-announce this year's Emmy nominees with Abbott Elementary's Sheryl Lee Ralph.

With reporting by Gerrad Hall.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.