Posted in: Fox, TV | Tagged: Animal Control, vella lovell

Animal Control: Vella Lovell on Series Success, Emily, Animal Costars

FOX's Animal Control star Vella Lovell spoke with Bleeding Cool about the sitcom's success, character growth, animal co-stars, and more.

Vella Lovell has been a force on TV with her work on The CW's Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Hulu's Dollface, Prime Video's As We See It, and NBC's Mr. Mayor. Her latest is Fox's Animal Control as Emily Price, the good-natured director at the Animal Control Northwest precinct. The series is set in Seattle, where the employees at the local Animal Control begin to see their lives complicated by humans and not so much by animals. Lovell spoke to Bleeding Cool about the secret to the sitcom's success, how she's grown as Emily over three seasons, and occasionally working with live animals.

Animal Control Star Vella Lovell on Emily Finding Her Voice and Confidence, and Animal Co-Stars

Bleeding Cool: What do you feel has been the secret to the success of 'Animal Control'?

Interesting. Our dynamic as an ensemble between the cast was randomly strong from the beginning. After our first table read, we all felt like we gelled well, and then as the years go by, you often find that comedies start to flourish in the second and third seasons because you start to know each other's rhythms, become real friends, your personalities start bleeding into the characters, and then your dynamics as people start showing up. We've all strengthened our bond and become better friends. The ensemble, for me, has been getting stronger, and this past season has been our collective favorite season to date.

How do you feel you've grown as Emily in these three seasons, and what's been your favorite in-character moment?

When the series started, she had this ongoing insecurity about being a boss and overseeing people. She has huge imposter syndrome, feels like she's not qualified, and doesn't want to tell anyone what to do. Every season, she's stepping a little bit more into the leadership role. This season, she's starting to get more confidence in terms of disciplining people or yelling at people, letting people not like her as much as a boss, which is hard for her. The fun thing about this character is she's a boss, but a people pleaser, who wants everyone to like her, and those things don't go together. She doesn't understand that which is inherently funny. Her arc as a character is how can she step into this leadership role and lead confidently when she's so insecure and wants everyone to like her. What was the other question? My favorite moment?

Your favorite Emily moment, yes.

Like in the whole series or this season?

Whichever.

It's an episode that aired a couple of weeks ago ['Baby Kangaroos and Chickens']. Finding her physical comedy has been fun for me, and an exciting challenge to just be a total clown and embrace how awkward she is. What aired was probably short, but it was an episode where I had to kind of be awkwardly fumbling with this poster board and ruining a sexy moment that Joel [McHale]'s character and Grace [Palmer]'s character have with Lucy Punch. Doing that over and over was so fun and stupid. Those moments where you're genuinely trying to make your other cast members laugh were fun and silly.

With more productions in Hollywood generally going from relying more on CG than real animals, and 'Animal Control' uses real animals, how does it affect your performance? Are you ever truly prepared for the spontaneity of your animal co-stars, even with trainers present?

We do use a mix of CGI puppets and real animals. We have a recurring storyline this season with a penguin and there was no penguin on set in Vancouver. We're acting at times with paperweights or stuffed animals, which is its own thing, then acting with an animal is so…at this point, it's like if you're acting with a live animal, I think we're all pretty good at it now, but you're on their time, basically. You must know your lines and know your things because it's not about you once there is this animal on set.
We have a lot of improv on our show, and we have a lot of organic moments that come up. That must be in part because we are used to acting with beings that are not self-conscious at all. They're not trying to remember their lines or do a certain thing. They're just alive, and so you must roll with the punches when you're acting with an animal because you don't know what's going to happen, so that's what's fun.

Animal Control, which also stars Michael Rowland, Ravi Patel, and Krystal Smith, airs on Thursdays on Fox and can be streamed on Hulu.

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