OnlyOnAOL: Here's the rub on 'Veep' star Anna Chlumsky

By: Donna Freydkin

On HBO's "Veep," Selina Meyer is an embattled president. And running the numbers game for her is her chief of staff, Amy Brookheimer, who's back in the inner circle after an epic lambasting of Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) in season four.

"She can't stay away. No willpower whatsoever," jokes Anna Chlumsky, who has earned three consecutive Emmy nominations for playing Amy on the show, airing Sundays on HBO.

The University of Chicago graduate is based in New York and is pregnant with her second child with her husband, Army Reserve member Shaun So.They have one daughter, Penny. And Chlumsky is taking things in stride as she contemplates her growing family.

"You do it. Everything is a different phase. Right now is not too bad to juggle because I'm just being pregnant. I'm at home. I don't have a job to go to right now. I can be at home cooking and being with Penny," she says.

The show shoots in Los Angeles now, and Chlumsky says rolling with the punches is key to figuring out all the logistics.

"For the first two seasons, Penny came with me. This last year, she was older, she was at a nursery school, so I did the commute. You are flexible and it's always tiring but it's ok because you love everything," she says.

Playing Amy for five seasons requires a different mindset. After all, she's uptight, controlling and has a beautifully foul mouth.

"I always do a data dump. Once the project is done, you move on. With Amy, each massage I get after playing her gets it out of my system. I have to. She doesn't breathe. She's the opposite of what's good for an actor," says Chlumsky.

And she's deeply appreciative of those three Emmy noms: "It's nice. It's wonderful to be able to say that."

What she loves most about the show, besides the camaraderie among the cast, is its incisive take on current events, which is done without naming names. "We really do our own story. When we satirize government or politics, everything is fair game. We've taken inspiration from real life, but we're very careful to not lampoon any one person or situation. That would limit us. It would get into agenda-world," she says.

After two stints on Broadway, most recently in "You Can't Take It With You" and "Living on Love," Chlumsky is hankering to take the stage again.

"​Definitely, once I get hired. I was supposed to do a play this season but then I got pregnant. I haven't had the second kid yet so I don't know how tired I'll be. I love doing a good play. That's the nice thing about having kids – you get more picky about projects. Is this one worth getting out of the house?" she says.