From show creatorsTina FeyandRobert Carlock, the NBC comedy seriesMr. Mayorfollows retired businessman Neil Bremer (Ted Danson), who runs for mayor of Los Angeles on a whim, and then wins the race. As he tries to figure out what that means, he’ll have to turn to his biggest critic (Holly Hunter), his chief of staff (Vella Lovell), his chief strategist (Mike Cabellon), his director of communications (Bobby Moynihan) and even his teenage daughter (Kyla Kenedy), in order to stay relevant and navigate all of the things that come his way.
During this 1-on-1 phone interview with Collider, actress Vella Lovell talked about being a part of a project where she’s surrounded by legends, the awkward audition process, shooting a comedy during a pandemic, what she learned from her time onCrazy Ex-Girlfriendand the show’s incredible fan base, the unusual position her character finds herself in, what it’s like to work with co-star Ted Danson, and that the goal of this show is simply to make people laugh.
COLLIDER: When this came your way, you must have known it was created by Tina Fey and Robert Carlock, but did you also know that you’d be joining a show with Ted Danson and Holly Hunter?
VELLA LOVELL: Ted had been attached to it for a minute, but I had no idea about Holly. It’s just been an embarrassment of riches to be like, “Whoa, what is going on? I’m surrounded by legends.” It’s been pretty wild, for sure.
When something like that gets presented to you, does it make you even more nervous to actually read the script because even if it totally sucked, you’d probably still want to do it just to work with all of them?
LOVELL: Yeah. Oh, my gosh, completely. I got the audition, but I was like, “I’m not gonna get this. It’ll be fun to try and to get to do a couple scenes for the audition.” So, getting it was super surreal. I still don’t think I’m actually on [the show]. I think I’m only gonna believe it when it’s on TV and actually happening. Then, I’ll be like, “Oh, I guess I got the job,” a year later.
What is it like to actually have to go through the process of auditioning for a comedy like this, where you have to try to be funny in an awkward situation like that, with a room full of strangers that you’re auditioning for?
LOVELL: My first audition was with the casting director and I was really like, “Oh, I’m not gonna get this.” I have way more fun when I don’t think it’s real. And then, the second audition I did, Tina was in the room and I think I passed out. She’s so amazing and has such a presence.Mean Girlswas so important to all of us and it was wild being in the room with her. Me and Mike Cabellon’s character are together a lot, so for that audition, they were seeing us in pairs to see if we had good chemistry and could bounce off each other. Mike wasn’t actually at that audition. I think they saw people for four months, in New York and L.A., and at that audition, I read with two different people. The first person that I read with, I was so nervous and was the opposite of funny. And then, for the second one, I was like, “Don’t blow this. You have to really step up.” That second time I went in, I felt way more relaxed and made [the casting director] do a half-chuckle and I was like, “Okay, I’m good.” My goal was just to get a little smile or chuckle out of her. I tested for it in December, a year ago. That was wild. Ted was there, and Kyla [Kenedy] and Mike. Everyone had been cast already. It was pretty wild. It’s pretty surreal. I’ve had to trick myself into thinking, “This is just fun with friends, and we’re all hanging out with no pressure, at all.” When you start to think about it, it’s like, “What am I doing here? This is wild.”
Especially if it’s a longer audition process, it seems like there’s this weird balance of wanting to connect with the character, but not wanting to get too attached because you don’t know if you’re actually going to get to play the character.
LOVELL: It’s like the beginning of a relationship where you’re like, “I don’t wanna be too intense, but I also wanna tell them that I like them.” It’s a total dance. In general, you do just go for it. You get your heart broken a little bit more, but the only way that they’ll see if they actually wanna work with you is if you can just let your weirdness out and be like, “This is what I would bring to the character, which is my own specific brand of weird.” It’s terrifying, but I think it ultimately pays off, if you connect.
Obviously, you’re all professionals and you show up and go to work, but when you’re making a comedy, is the atmosphere on set different? Is there just a sense of fun and playfulness that’s always present?
LOVELL: Yeah, there is, especially shooting during a pandemic. There has been such a sense of lightness and joy. The world is falling apart and is pretty intense right now, but there’s been such a sense of joy to get to go to work. The script and the words that we get to say are so ridiculous and so funny and so smart, so we really feel free to truly crack each other up. Everyone in the cast has made me laugh so hard. Sometimes it’s really hard to not laugh, which honestly, right now, is such a blessing. That’s what I’m hoping people get out of watching it, that sense of giggliness that we’ve had making it. Even just reading the scripts, anytime I get a new script, I’m like, “How do they come up with this?” It just hits your funny bone, again and again and again, and I just hope that’s what people get out of watching it.
Who’s the first one on set to break when something is funny?
LOVELL: Normally, I’m like, “It’s not me,” but honestly, it could be me. I don’t know. I feel like everyone is pretty good at keeping a straight face, but I’ve definitely broken quite a few times. Bobby Moynihan is truly comedy gold, and some of the stuff he does, just thinking about it, I’m laughing, so I have to really focus and not look at him. With Holly, because I’m used to seeing her as this incredibly serious, intense character actress, which she is, she’s applying that same intensity to this role and it’s so funny. It’s really been exciting to see her in this scenario. And then, Ted is just hilarious. It’s hard to keep a straight face, for sure. So, I might be the one to break first.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriendwas definitely a quirky comedy, so wasDollface, and so isMr. Mayor. Do you feel like that’s the type of comedy and that you’re personally drawn to and that you respond to the most?
Crazy Ex-Girlfriendwas an interesting show because nobody really knew what it would be or what to expect from it, and it really grew and evolved in a way that earned it a really loyal following. What did you learn from your time on that show? How did being on that show for four seasons make you grow as an actor?
LOVELL: Oh, my gosh, these are amazing questions. I was not emotionally prepared for this. Honestly, I grew in a lot of ways. The fan base forCrazy Ex-Girlfriendis small, but very intense and very loyal and mighty. I feel like I actually know a lot of them now, by name. And then, we would do live shows, the last couple of years, and that experience was really touching and moving, in terms of what I think TV can be. It is a living, breathing thing. It’s not a movie that you shot in a bubble, and then gave it to the world, but you’re removed from it when people experience it. It’s like theater, but you’re in a conversation with the audience and you’re constantly being like, “Oh, what did these people like?” WithCrazy Ex, because it was so underground, Rachel [Bloom] and Aline [Brosh McKenna] and all of the writers really paid attention to what people were responding to. By the end, it was just a total conversation with the people who watch the show. In that way, it really like taught me how special TV can be, especially right now. You can really connect with people and be like, “Yeah, we heard what you like and what jokes landed, and what you wanna have come back.” In that way, it was really special and it spoiled me. Just getting to evolve with the character and have them change and be in different situations taught me so much. I still feel like it’s gonna be one of those shows that people keep discovering. It’s still on Netflix, so in 2025 people would be like, “Whoa, what were they doing?”
I was personally such a huge fan ofThe Good Placeand I feel like that show really cemented Ted Danson as a national treasure. What have you enjoyed about developing the relationship between your characters?
LOVELL: I’m excited to see it keep evolving. First of all, all of the rumors are true. Ted, as a person, is exceptionally kind, in a way that’s just crazy, but it’s really real. He’s an incredibly kind, empathetic, good person, which just makes it even crazier. I remember on the first day of filming, it was a scene with me and Mike, and he turned to me and was like, “Oh, I’m so nervous right now.” And I was like, “You’re nervous? What?!” He’s just incredible. He can really speak to you as a human, even though he’s a TV star and legend. He looks you in the eye and treats you like a fellow actor. It’s such a gift. It makes people want to act off of him even more because you really enjoy him, as a person. And then, in terms of our characters, I’ve been looking at it like Neil is Mikaela’s weird uncle, or something like that, that she’s teaching how Instagram works and what the internet is and what he can’t say right now. She rolls her eyes at him, but I also think she respects him, in a way that grows over the season. There’s affection there, but there’s also a lot of, “Oh, my God, I can’t believe this is my job and I have to babysit this guy sometimes.” So far, it’s going back and forth between those two places.
Is there an actual, genuine respect for him, or is it more about her trying to figure out how she can work him to her benefit?
LOVELL: I think it maybe starts off that way, but I actually do think there is a genuine respect for him and it shows up in every episode, in some way or another where you’re like, “Oh, I didn’t think he had that in him.” I think she’s surprised by that. In the first episode, she’s like, “I literally did this. I got him elected.” So, she starts off thinking that he’s maybe a little bit of a joke, and then slowly is like, “Oh, I didn’t see that coming.” She also genuinely wants him to do better sometimes then he actually does. I think it’s a fun relationship to play with, but then it’s always fun when you start out thinking someone’s less capable than they are. It’s a fun journey to go on.
She certainly seems like somebody who is ambitious, so what is it that made her agree to be a part of this campaign, in the first place? What was she looking for, out of this situation?
LOVELL: I think Mikaela was like, “It’s gonna look really great on my resume.” She probably took the job because she was pretty sure he wasn’t gonna win. She was probably like, “This is gonna be great. It’s gonna be four months, and then I’ll have a little political flavor on my resume.” I think she was genuinely counting on him losing. She’s just been focused on literally building her resume, and then with maybe hoping to get a job atBuzzfeedorRefinery 29. She was his campaign manager, and then, all of a sudden, he names her chief of staff and she’s like, “Wait, what?” She literally was not thinking that she would be in local politics. There’s a lot to mine there for hilarity. I think of her as an Instagram influencer meets AOC. She’s so ambitious, but she just did not see herself in politics, at all, and she’s having to grapple with that a little bit. She literally has no concept of what she’s doing, so she’s definitely in over her head, but she also doesn’t wanna admit to anybody that she doesn’t know what she’s doing.
You’ve said that this is more of a workplace comedy that takes place in the mayor’s office than it is a political show. How do you think that works to the show’s advantage? Do you think it helps make it more relatable for audiences?
LOVELL: That’s a good question. I do. We started doing this show before the pandemic started, and obviously did not see that coming, but I think it provides a doorway into talking about so many things. We can literally go anywhere because we’re supposed to be running the city of Los Angeles. It opens the door for us to talk about so many hilarious things and get to make fun of Los Angeles in a fun way that pokes fun at it. I think it also provides a platform for all of these different people coming together. What’s gonna be really fun and satisfying about the show is there are at least six different characters that are completely different and coming at it from completely different angles, but they’re all trying to like work for the city. They all have a common goal, but it’s a total hodgepodge of characters. In that way, it provides the platform of working in politics with the reason for all of us to be there and have a constant flow of hilarious things to get into while truly being a comedy. The goal is to make people laugh and give people a little bit of an escape right now.
