‘Animal Control’s Vella Lovell on the highs and lows of network TV, improv, and why we need sitcoms
As we experience a drought of weekly comedies, at least we still have workplace sitcoms like Abbott Elementary and Animal Control to pull us through. Fox’s Animal Control, which, as the name suggests, follows a group of animal control employees as they deal with rogue animals, HR violations, and office crushes, is a breath of fresh air.
Vella Lovell, who plays office boss Emily Price, recently spoke to The Mary Sue’s Rachel Leishman for Animal Control season 3, giving her thoughts on her character, her time on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, why we still need network TV, the comfort of sitcoms, and what it’s like to do improv with co-star and Community veteran Joel McHale.
TMS: “I think it’s so interesting how your character on Animal Control differs so much from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. You’d be afraid to deal with your character [Heather] on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and you get to play a bit of a pushover in Animal Control. For you as an actor, which side is more fun to lean into, the people being afraid of you side or…?”
Lovell: “Emily is more close to me. It’s almost like they’re both fun because Heather is so different. Heather was my fantasy of how I move through the world, which is like, ‘I don’t care,’ and I am gonna speak at the speed that I want to speak at, and like truly judging everyone. And then Emily is having squirrel panic at all times and is so nervous that no one likes her and wants to make everyone happy. So I’m a little closer to that. I don’t know. Sometimes it’s really natural to play someone close to you and you’re kind of just like tapped in. But it’s also really fun to just put a different hat on and not care at all.”
TMS: “It’s exciting that shows like Animal Control are doing so well because I miss NBC Thursdays. We used to have comedies all the time. I’m literally in the middle of writing a whole piece about how much I miss Parks and Recreation and things like that. When you’re part of a Fox comedy, you know, they had New Girl, they started with Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and now you guys have Animal Control. How does it feel to be one of the only network comedies—other than Abbott Elementary, there are not many network comedies like this.”
Lovell: “I feel so lucky because… I feel like our show is like, kind of a vintage sitcom. There is something that fills me with so much joy about it. I actually feel pretty passionately about network TV for a lot of reasons. I feel like it’s really accessible. It’s also supposed to be something that… allegedly, you’re supposed to be able to turn the TV on and your grandma could watch it and the kids could be okay watching it. And I think there’s something really sweet and great about that. It’s so rare also to get multiple seasons of a show and actually get time and breathing room to create these characters.
You’re really just creating a world where the stakes are kind of low and it’s okay. People wanna hang out with you, you know? And that’s such a different thing than, you know, like solving the murder every week, which I also like, you know, I’m obsessed with White Lotus and I’m here for that. But it’s also, I think we’re almost kind of trying to say, come on into our world and hang out with us for a little bit and join our family. It’s a different kind of goal, I think. I feel really lucky because I, you’re right, there’s not a lot of network TV that’s lasting right now. I feel really lucky to have been on now three network shows and to have people who are championing them too.”
TMS: “What I was gonna ask you, because you and Joel [McHale] were both on two shows that I remember watching as they were live and I remember fighting for people to watch so that the show didn’t get canceled. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, the same with Community. How does it feel now for you? People are watching Animal Control and it is getting the attention it deserves without having fans fighting for people to watch it.”
Lovell: “I mean, honestly, I’m like, ‘Are people watching it?’ I feel like sometimes you create these shows in such a bubble and then you don’t know. It’s kind of different from theater where you see who’s in the audience, you see the immediate connection. You’re like, that’s who came to see me tonight. And I genuinely don’t know who’s watching the show, but I do remember, on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, they had us on, I don’t know if you remember this, Friday nights, I think our airtime was like 9:30.
You know, everyone home watching TV Friday night at 9:30. I think we were the worst-rated show on television so that definitely felt like we were somehow skating by, or we were kind of dodging lasers and stuff and somehow getting renewed every year. I mean, knock on wood, we don’t know if we have another season [of Animal Control], but Fox has been so supportive of our show and so encouraging and putting it on a Thursday night and that is a different feeling. When you’re Community or Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, I do feel like those shows then create this kind of underground fan base that are fighting to keep it on the air. Like the Crazy Ex fans are so die-hard. And it’s really amazing. Honestly, that show taught me how beautiful fan bases can be and how these people love this show. I hope we’re creating the same thing for Animal Control.”
TMS: The newest hurdle of network comedies is when you have a comedy on say Apple TV, you have a lot of freedom to do and say whatever you want on that comedy. You don’t have the requirements of network television—you can’t swear, you can’t do this, you can’t put that storyline in. Has there ever been a moment on Animal Control where you’re like, ‘If we were on Apple TV, I could be doing this?'”
Lovell: “We have a lot of improv on our show and so this happens all the time where we’ll say something, we’re like, that was an amazing line. They’re like, ‘Yeah, no, you cannot be saying that. That will not make it onto the air.’ There are so many moments, especially when Joel improvs—I mean, we all improv a lot, but Joel is saying just crazy things, and a lot of it is not seeing the light of day.
On the flip side of that, I do feel like, with network TV, because it has so many constraints and barriers, it can kind of produce some gems that wouldn’t happen if we just had carte blanche and we could say anything. Because there are these constrictions, sometimes the things that the writers come up with or that we come up with are super creative and silly and stupid. I don’t know if anyone caught this but, in maybe episode four or five of this season, they wanted me to say ‘Jesus Christ,’ but instead, I said, ‘Squeeze us twice.’ Which is like, what? I don’t know, it’s just silly and weird. The Good Place did it so brilliantly with, you know, not being able to curse and using these other weird words. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend did it all the time with double entendres. I think it can sometimes, in the right hands, create even more creativity. But sometimes you just wanna curse and say gross things and you can’t.”
TMS: So obviously, you’re in season 3 of Animal Control, which is always an exciting season because I feel like that is where a lot of comedies have found their footing and they get to really thrive. For you, what is the most exciting part about fans getting to see this season and see where the characters are versus where we met them in season 1?
Lovell: “We’re all in agreement that this was our favorite season to shoot. It was our favorite season script-wise. We’re all also just friends now and we know each other. People are probably sensing we’ve just gelled more as a company; it’s like everyone just found their kind of groove and I think we’re getting weirder and quirkier and I love that. I love the weird things that are just creeping into the scripts and into people’s characters. I can tell a difference and I think people watching it can too.
We have three seasons, so you could actually watch from the beginning. And I think people would all agree that we’re finally off to the races. You know, episode one, it’s a script that’s written already and we’ve just met each other, and now you’re just in a completely different place by season 3. I think, as you said, a lot of comedies kind of start gelling in the third season.”
All three seasons of Animal Control are now available to watch on Hulu.
(featured image: Fox)
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