‘Veep’ set decorators Kimberly Wannop and David Smith on creating the Meyer Presidential Library and more [EXCLUSIVE VIDEO INTERVIEW]

Shooting the final season of “Veep” was an “emotional” experience for set decorator Kimberly Wannop, who had joined the show in 2016. It was especially difficult given that production was halted for a year following Julia Louis-Dreyfus‘s cancer diagnosis. “We started up already saying goodbye, and then really had to shut it down,” she reveals. Once filming finally began it was “hard to say goodbye” to the characters. Watch our exclusive video interview with Wannop and fellow set decorator David Smith above.

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Because she was pregnant, Wannop brought on Smith to assist on the series finale, so it was the only episode of the long-running political satire he ever worked on. In fact, she gave birth on his first day of production. It was like “being thrown off the diving board into the deep end of the pool,” he admits. “She had warned me how busy the show was, but I was really surprised by the scope of what we were trying to do for the episode.”

The finale, which finds presidential hopeful Selina Meyer (Louis-Dreyfus) fighting for the nomination during the Democratic convention in North Carolina, was “something special” for Wannop. There were “a huge number of sets” that had to be dressed, from the convention center to the Meyer Presidential Library, which we see decades in the future. “It really showed the amount that we had to go through to get the finale up to par.”

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Wannop already won an Emmy for “Veep” in 2017. She was also nominated for the show in 2016, and before that she was in the running for her work on “Bones” in 2009. She has also contended at the Art Directors Guild Awards for “Parks and Recreation” (2013 and 2014), “Veep” (2017 and 2018) and “The Good Place” (2019).

Smith previously earned Emmy bids for “NYPD Blue” in 1996 and 1997. And he competed at the Daytime Emmys for “As the World Turns” (1986 and 1987) and “Guiding Light” (1989 and 1990).

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