Tony Hale Talks New Season of 'Veep'

— -- Tony Hale is an Emmy award-winning actor, best known for his hilarious portrayal of Buster Bluth, the neurotic, youngest brother on the hit sitcom "Arrested Development.”

Hale, who now plays Gary Walsh alongside Julia Louis-Dreyfus in the HBO original comedy series "Veep," has won two Primetime Emmy awards for “Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series” (2013 and 2015). He is also the co-author of the children’s book “Archibald’s Next Big Thing.”

He recently appeared on “Real Biz With Rebecca Jarvis” for a conversation about his career and what viewers can expect from the fifth season of “Veep,” which debuts Sunday on HBO. Below are excerpts from the conversation. For more of Hale’s interview with Jarvis, watch the video above.

REBECCA JARVIS: How do you think Selina [Meyer] would feel if she were running against Donald Trump?

TONY HALE: My thing is, I think they’d be a better partnership.

JARVIS: Co-presidents?

HALE: I think they should be.

JARVIS: You got your start in New York City in commercials. How did you make the point that, “Hey, I could be more than this.” What did it take?

HALE: I would do all these showcases, where you could do scene work and you can kind of show people [skills] outside of the commercial stuff. I always looked at getting a sitcom as my big thing like, “Oh, when that sitcom comes.” I wasn’t present. If you’re not practicing contentment where you are, you’re not going to be content when you get what you want. When I got the sitcom, I remember thinking, “Oh, I gave this a lot of weight.” It was a real wakeup call of it didn’t satisfy me the way I thought it was going to satisfy me, because I hadn’t been present for most of my life. A friend of mine says, “You gotta wake yourself up a hundred times a day to where you are.”

JARVIS: What else in your life have you given too much weight to?

HALE: I think honestly when I was really young, I gave a lot of weight to fame. I think everybody really does want to be known. I think that’s a part of us. But I think the truth is, if you’re known by people who love you, then that’s all the known you need. And you’re going to try and try and try to get more people to know you, more people to know you, but it’s never going to be enough, A. And B, you’re already as known as you need to be if you’re known by people who love you. My faith is important to me so I would include God in that. God knows me, others know me, and that’s all the known I need.

JARVIS: As an actor, if you’re choosing between New York and L.A., what do you recommend?

HALE: I love that question. I would say, especially now with the digital age, anytime you get in front of a camera, any years of practice you have in front of the camera, any times you get more comfortable in front of the camera, whether it’s local commercials or stage, just doing that and exercising that muscle, make the most of it.

JARVIS: Start at where you are?

HALE: Exactly. Because, I mean, many times people go thinking, “Oh, well that’s where it’s going to happen.” Train and make the most of where you are, and then see what happens.

JARVIS: How did you get into the character of Buster? Was he based on someone real?

HALE: It does scare me, how naturally the character came to me. Two icons of mine growing up were Tim Conway and Bob Newhart. And one thing that they both did that I so appreciate is they sat in tension. Many times in comedy, people feel like they gotta push the comedy, rather than just the circumstances being crazy. “Arrested Development” was crazy. Many times crazy things happen and you just sit there and it’s funny to watch people in that awkwardness. And I thought about that with Buster, because there are so many nutty things happening around him, but him just sitting there, and just kind of taking it in and always being on the defense, he was always on the defense … that’s kind how it came about a little bit.