Dorkaholics brings you an exclusive interview with Lori Loughlin and Eriq La Salle, two faces from the new series On Call. Filmed during a bustling press junket, Lori and Eriq share insights into the show set in the flavorful city of Long Beach. They discuss the unique food culture featured in the series and explore the dynamic relationships between the seasoned officers and a rookie joining the force. Get an insider’s look at how these elements enhance the storytelling of On Call. Subscribe to Dorkaholics for more exclusive content and celebrity interviews!
Hi, this is Neil from Dorkaholics.
Lori Loughlin: Hi, Neil.
Hi, Lori. Hi, Eric. I just saw you guys talking about juice and food so I gotta ask Eric, when you’re directing episodes, and I can recall these two episodes already where they are having Cambodian coffee, they’re having ribs, do you ever get hungry directing episodes of On Call?
Eriq La Salle: No, but what we do is we really want to show the culture and the diverse culture. And so, it was always like finding these really cool spots because that’s a part of Long Beach. And so you just treat the locations as a character because Long Beach is a character in it. So you have to really show the nuances. So it was fun. I tried to be a little, little strict on eating at a certain time. All that set food makes you crazy. But every once in a while…
Lori Loughlin: This one’s a bit of a foodie!
Eriq La Salle: Hahaha, I do love soon doo boo. Anyway, we had fun with it and went to different places.
Lori Loughlin: Yeah. I thought that was actually so great. I did like how you guys did that with the different cultures and the foods. And it was just a subtle introduction of what Long Beach has to offer.
Eriq La Salle: Exactly. And it ultimately becomes just, if you want to represent it, you got to represent it well. And listen, this was just the first season. We have a long way to go, but we just kind of wanted to put that layer and start introducing that layer and then continue to build on it.
When the show starts off in episode one, it just feels like it’s Troian and the character Diaz learning the ropes together and your characters seem as not the antagonists, but it’s like they’re this hard force imposing right and wrong on these two police officers. But as I started watching the series, I was like, oh wait, this is a lot more complicated. It’s not just about workplace politics, but it’s also people’s differences, uh, I don’t want to say different morality, but they’re different takes on the job. Like…
Lori Loughlin: Their different experiences.
Yeah, absolutely.
Lori Loughlin: And because we are senior to the kids. Yeah. We have, we’ve been on the force longer. We do bring a different lens and a different experience.
Eriq La Salle: And we know good or bad. We know the bureaucracy. We know. So even, it’d be interesting to see who these two characters were when they first started. And so you see the trajectory. And I think that’s what the Diaz character represents is the trajectory of one’s career to come in with such idealism and such a naive point of view. And then life happens. And then the career really happens. You start seeing the nuances and it changes you, and that’s not a bad thing. And I think that’s what we represent. I think we represent the change and ultimately the balance. And that’s what you do. You find that you find the balance. So you’re not all good. You’re not all bad. It’s not all this. It’s not all that life happens in the grays. And that’s what I think embodies the show are the grays. And that’s what we try to find.
Lori Loughlin: That’s what I like about the show too. It’s not so much procedural as yeah, they’re going on calls and there’s excitement and it is high stakes, but this is so character driven. And you really get invested in these characters and who they are just as human beings. What’s their life like? Where did they come from? Where are they going? How do they interact with each other? What is their relationship? You know, I’m interested to see our relationship over the years in the force. We kind of scratched it, it’s touched the surface this season, but I think there’s a lot of history here.
