"I bought a piano off Craigslist," Vella Lovell says, explaining how she occupied herself during the pandemic. Playing piano and frequent Zoom chats with her Mr. Mayor castmates kept Lovell busy. "We sometimes joke that we are 'season-five close' because we Zoomed a lot. We skipped the small talk and went straight to 'Are you okay?'"
Mr. Mayor — about a wealthy businessman who becomes mayor of Los Angeles — returns to NBC on March 15, following a first season cut short by the pandemic.
The show's sterling pedigree includes three Emmy winners — Ted Danson as Mayor Neil Bremer, Holly Hunter as Deputy Mayor Arpi Meskimen and Bobby Moynihan as interim director of communications Jayden Kwapis — and creators Tina Fey and Robert Carlock, both of 30 Rock and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt fame.
"It feels like the Olympics!" Lovell says. "You have to warm up, you have to go to the comedy gym!" She's felt that way ever since the first table read. "I was so intimidated and terrified to be there," she recalls. "A normal page of comedy has two or three jokes. But here, every line is a joke."
Lovell, who plays chief of staff Mikaela Shaw, is no slouch herself. Born in New Mexico, she has a degree from New York University and studied acting at Juilliard. Perhaps best known for her four seasons as a regular on The CW's Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, she also appeared in the indie film The Big Sick and last year in Comedy Central's Hallmark-esque telefilm, A Clüsterfünke Christmas.
On Mr. Mayor, she says, "I feel like my character is very much in the mix. Even if she doesn't have a million followers, she kind of behaves as if she does. She's living the life of an influencer, even if she's not."
Mikaela may live online, but Lovell is quick to point out that she doesn't have a TikTok account. It would just take away from her piano time.
This article originally appeared in emmy magazine issue #1, 2022, under the title, "Ready Player."
