On Tuesday night, Veep's Timothy Simons revealed the real-life inspiration for his irascible, odious character Jonah Ryan, and the answer makes all the sense in the world: Ted Cruz.
Appearing on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Simons noted how the political world, under the Trump administration, has managed to outpace even Veep's over-the-top awfulness. He said of his own character, "He's charmless, and he's graceless, and he's narcissistic, and he doesn't care about anybody but himself."
At first, Simons noted, Ryan was based on "D.C. lackeys that all they care about is proximity to power." But as Jonah somehow managed to ascend the political ranks onscreen, Simons said, "the person, speaking of charmless and graceless and just universally disliked, I based a lot of it on Ted Cruz."
Noting how Cruz has "fallen ass-backwards into some sort of power," Simons said, "and that is very much Jonah's vibe," which just proves how truth really can be stranger than fiction.
Topics Politics
