Kevin Dunn arrives at PALEYFEST 2014 - "Veep" on March 27, 2014, in Los Angeles. Veteran character actor Kevin Dunn, who's known for having a gentle, genial demeanour, is relishing being able to swear all the time on the expletive-rich political comedy series "Veep." THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, Richard Shotwell/Invision

TORONTO - Veteran character actor Kevin Dunn, who's known for having a gentle, genial demeanour, is relishing being able to swear all the time on the expletive-rich political comedy series "Veep."

"It's pretty liberating," the 57-year-old said with a laugh in a telephone interview.

"You spend most of your time, depending on the project, towing a certain line — but with 'Veep' it's like all bets are off."

The Chicago native plays Ben Caffrey, chief of staff to the U.S. president, on the Emmy-nominated HBO series that's into its third season and was recently renewed for a fourth. It airs Sundays at 10:30 p.m. ET/MT on HBO Canada.

Ben first appeared on the show last season and became a blunt, curmudgeonly confidante to Vice-President Selina Meyer, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

While Selina and the rest of her comical staff race around in a foul-mouthed frenzy of crisis management and scheming, Ben sits back and responds to how everyone else is reacting.

"Ben can calm her down a bit because he's such a cynic and such a pragmatist, even more cynical than she is, and he's able to boil things down to the way things are and the way things have to be," said Dunn, who played a police major on season 1 of "True Detective."

"So he does have her ear and she does trust him somewhat, I think."

That trust can only go so far, though.

Ben has a manic depressive side and self-medicates with pills and a nine-cup thermos filled with who knows what.

And as Dunn put it, despite Ben's collected demeanour, sometimes "you think he's just going to go off on a bender somewhere and you won't be able to find him."

"It's like everyone on the show — you don't know what their tipping point is or when they might lose all control of their faculties. They all have this kind of Achilles thing where you get that uneasy feeling that something is going to go wrong."

Ben has emerged as a fan favourite this season as he tries to ingratiate himself with Selina, who is building a campaign after the president announced he doesn't plan to run for re-election in two years.

Like Selina's staff members, Ben is trying to prove he's indispensable as she decides who will be her campaign manager.

"Ben has a little bit of a tougher job now, because his meal ticket is going away," said Dunn. "He has his work cut out for him, because he has to enter the fray and prove to Selina that he could be worth having around in a much more pronounced way."

Such scenarios are true to life, said Dunn, noting politicians have remarked on how the show taps into the notion that they're always walking on thin ice and desperate to stay in the game in Washington.

"Everything is always about, 'Oh, we might have a strong view about something but you can't really express it or else you'll be in political trouble.' It's all about what the perception of who you are is, and it's all motivated and guided by public opinion and also money."

"Veep"'s fictional world will remain as such, though.

Dunn said politicians have requested to be on the show, feeling it's an apolitical forum that doesn't espouse any particular values, "but that's not going to happen."

"(The writers) have created their own reality and they don't want to stray out of that by having stunt casting of actual politicians or people connected to that world in the show."

Dunn first worked with Louis-Dreyfus on the short-lived late-'80s series "Day By Day" and was close to co-starring with her on "Seinfeld" after auditioning for the role of George Costanza.

"I think I was on the short list way back when," said the veteran thespian, who's worked on dozens of screen projects.

Dunn added he's "admired her for a long time" and feels her work just gets better and better — particularly her physical comedy, which shines in the third season of "Veep."

"You'll just be rehearsing or shooting and she just comes up with physical stuff all the time, but it's directly connected, it makes perfect sense. That's why ('Veep'), I think, is so successful and so rare.

"It's a combination of really very literate writing and then totally caustic, foul language and incredible physical comedy."

Ben is one of several politicians Dunn has played over the years.

In the 1993 comedy film "Dave" he played a White House communications director, in the '95 Oscar-nominated drama "Nixon" he played the president's special counsel, and in the miniseries "The Path to 9/11" he played National Security Adviser Samuel (Sandy) Berger.

Of all his characters, "Veep" "absolutely" comes with the most amount of profanity, he said with a laugh.

But it's not gratuitous, Dunn added, noting the writers craft rich zingers and then embellish them with foul language, depending on the character.

"It's not just everybody swearing away. Everybody has a particular voice and then their insults always land in a different kind of way."

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News from © The Canadian Press, 2014