When you need comedy, seeing people working with animals is always a great way to relax. Animal Control is the perfect way to spend your Thursday night. Vella Lovell plays Emily Price, and we talked with her about the role and what she would like to see for the character.
Emily is one of those characters so many of us can relate to. She’s sometimes social awkward and has some nervous moments. At the heart of her, she’s a good person, and she wants to do what is right for the animals and the people around her. But come for her job, and she will protect it.
Vella Lovell talks working with animals in Animal Control
Hidden Remote: I’ll admit that anything with “animal” in the title immediately has my interest. I’m a huge animal lover. What’s it like working with the animals?
Vella Lovell: I’m the same way. I’m a huge animal lover, and I didn’t really think about it when I was auditioning for this show. It was an afterthought. It’s a total serotonin booster, and it makes you so happy to just be there. It’s a great work environment.
HR: Are there any animals you wouldn’t want to work with again?
VL: Last season, I did get to hold a frog, and I didn’t realize how terrified of frogs I was until that day. They’re like snakes that can jump, just that level of sliminess. They’re pulsing and they’re ready to jump out of your hands. I’m not a frog fan.
HR: So, you need to get that in your contract. No more frogs.
VL: Yeah, I’m gonna need to renegotiate my contract.
Luckily, Joel [McHale] is the one I would say interacts with the most animals, and luckily he is not scared of a single animal. He can do all those snakes, frogs, spiders, and stuff. That’s fine with me.
HR: What drew you into Emily in the first place?
VL: I guess I connected pretty quickly with that I feel Emily’s the closest to me in terms of characters I’ve played. I’ve really enjoyed stepping out of myself and tapping into other energies and quirks, but I think I found Emily so quickly because she’s kind of a version of me, maybe just turned up a few notches. She’s a total dork, she’s really insecure and she can’t hide it, and she’s a people pleaser.
She’s very capable and smart. That’s why she got the job. It’s been a pleasure just to play her.
HR: Has she met the expectations you had for her in Animal Control?
VL: They give us two scenes to audition with, so you can’t really think where she’ll be in 30 episodes or what she wears. But I think she’s exceeded my expectations.
I think the writers start to naturally challenge the characters and their little quirks. What happens when we put the characters in this situation or put them with this person. I feel like I’ve gotten to really push my limits.
HR: You bring up you’re fortunate to get three seasons so far. It is so rare to have time to breathe. What’s it been like to be able to develop Emily, especially the Emily and Shred storyline?
VL: That slow burn! It’s such a luxury. We’ve actually gotten to do a slow burn with these characters. I feel so lucky that FOX has been so believing in our show in such a real way, because a lot of times, I think you can find examples where comedies don’t really start to gel until the second season or the third season. That’s just because I think we’re dealing with comedy and rhythm.
It’s like being in a band in a way. It’s an incredible freak of nature if, in the first episode, you’re so good at the band and you need no rehearsal. I think there was an element of that for us. I think we’ve really benefitted from just becoming close friends and knowing each other and knowing how we play different instruments.
I wish more networks gave comedies time. In the pilot, people have only known each other for a day. It’s such a joy to play with these characters and the actors.
HR: I have always said to give a show at least three or four episodes. The pilot isn’t written for us as an audience.
VL: Exactly. I wish more people understood that. You’re often judged on the first episode.
I think for us, three episodes of [Animal Control] season 1 had been written before we were cast. From then, they could look at the actors and have a human body and know who they were actually writing for.
HR: I have loved seeing Emily get creative, like dressing up the dogs. What have you enjoyed?
VL: This is why I adore the writers. I have loved finding out they will throw a little line out there and it becomes true about my character. It’s like collecting bits of information. Like the fact she dresses up the animals to get them adopted, or there was one scene last season where you find out she has jazz shoes in her desk. I’m like “okay, she’s doing jazz classes.”
Then we found out a few episodes ago this season that she had an imaginary friend, and she read books at school dances. I can actually relate to that, as I did literally the same thing. It’s just really fun discovering your characters through the writers. This is stuff you could never come up with on your own, so I’m grateful to them for giving bizarre, weird facts about this girl.
HR: Is there anything you’d like to see Emily do that you haven’t yet?
VcaL: Oh, I love that. I would love to see her have fun with Grace Palmer’s character, Victoria. They’re like Betty and Veronica. Emily is a good girl who follows the rules, and Grace is, well, there are no rules. I would love to see what happens when Emily is breaking rules and being a little more fun.
I could see her having a full panic attack about it. It would be really funny, and you know, you want to throw your characters into terrible situations and see how they swim.
HR: I could see her doing something wrong and then needing to fix it.
VL: Yeah. She’d be like “I’m gonna report myself.” She’s such a dork that needs to adhere to rules at all times, and I think it’d be really funny if she was the one breaking the rules.
Animal Control airs on Thursdays at 9/8c on FOX.
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