“Veep” producer David Mandel started his weight loss journey after a health scare forced him to focus on his well-being.
Two weeks after production wrapped on HBO’s hit political comedy back in December 2018, Mandel suffered a pulmonary embolism, a blood clot that can stop blood flow to the lungs.
According to Mayo Clinic, a pulmonary embolism can be life-threatening.
“Needless to say, [it was] a bit of a wake-up call,” Mandel told Page Six on Monday at the premiere of HBO’s “White House Plumbers.”
Mandel admitted he has not weighed himself since losing the massive amount of weight and said he shed it by walking.
“I’ve got a dog and a hill,” he explained, adding that he has changed his eating habits as well.
“But what I guess I’m trying to say is, so far no Ozempic or whatever,” the “Seinfeld” producer shared, naming the diabetes drug used for weight loss that has recently taken Hollywood by storm.
“Just doing it the old-fashioned way,” he told us. “And, by the way, I wish I was doing it better but that’s a separate issue.”
Mandel directed the limited series, “White House Plumbers” which tells the true story of Watergate henchmen E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy and how their inept bungling led to the downfall of President Nixon.
Even though there are moments of great humor in the series, which stars Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux, Mandel says it’s very different from “Veep.”
“On ‘Veep’ we write jokes, we draft lines, People say things that normal people don’t say and it’s very foul and very funny,” he shared. “With this, we didn’t write jokes, we allowed these comical situations that were real, that you can’t believe were real — how they broke in four times — and you’re laughing at that, not necessarily at any line of dialogue.”
“And that’s a very different thing,” he added. “Really to me, it’s a drama, a very funny tragedy. It’s like a giggle at a funeral. It’s absolutely inappropriate but you can’t help yourself.”
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The “Curb Your Enthusiasm” producer noted the irony of the break-ins being completely unnecessary as Nixon was set to win in a landslide.
“It’s certainly a great example of even today, true believers, people who are willing to put the belief in the party or the leader above their very own well-being.
“And the real question that the show attempts to answer is, ‘Well, why did [Hunt and Liddy] say yes so quickly?’ And the reason was, they were hungry to be close to power. And that’s really what it’s about. It’s about proximity to power.”
Harrelson and Theroux joined Mandel at the premiere along with Kiernan Shipka, Ike Barinholtz, David Krumholtz, Judy Greer, Kathleen Turner, and Lena Headey.
“White House Plumbers” debuts on May 1.