Emmy-nominated Tony Hale on his leather man-bag in Veep
How do you get all of your stuff — your wallet, keys, maybe a few papers — to the office? If you’re Gary Walsh, personal aide to President Selina Meyer on HBO’s Veep, you grab your leather man-bag, sling it over your shoulder and never let go.
The bag was a running gag for all seven seasons of the show. So perhaps it’s no surprise that when actor Tony Hale— who portrays Gary— was asked which item he wanted to keep from the set of Veep he immediately said: “The Bag.”
“There's something about holding it on my shoulder and that leather,” he said, laughing during an interview with Yahoo Finance’s Jen Rogers. “All Gary's emotional trauma was just in that bag. It became his source of abuse.”
And it became his tool for solace: Every time Gary was insulted or threatened, he clutched The Bag even harder. “He would just always look down (at the bag),” said Hale. “It became Linus's blanket for Gary, and I wanted to hold onto that.”
And just how much money does Hale think Gary stashed in that bag? “That’s a good question,” Hale said, chuckling.”I would think he would have a lot because Selina never lets him expense anything ever. So he can't have any (credit) card or business card. But he's so desperate to make her look good, and if there's a new shade of lipstick out there that she doesn't have, man, he's got to get it. So he has his own cash to go to Sephora and grab whatever she needs and she won't know about it because he worships her.”
‘Veep’— which wrapped forever in May— won two Emmys for best comedy and was nominated each of its seven seasons. Hale has been nominated for his turn as Gary six times, won twice, and may win again this weekend at the 71st Emmy Awards ceremony. Meanwhile, Hale has been busy, launching his own animated Netflix (NFLX) series earlier this month and voicing the lead character in “Forky Asks A Question” which debuts in November on Disney+ (DIS).
Still, his iconic character is never far away. All it takes is “The Bag” to bring Hale right back to Gary: “It’s very wild how I put it on my shoulder and I touch the leather and it's like this kind of emasculated kind of sense comes over me where I'm just like, ‘Where's Selina and how can I help her?’”
My Three Cents with Jen Rogers is a weekly interview series that explores celebrities’ history with — and relationship to — money and career. Find it exclusively on Yahoo Finance.
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