VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Scott Grimes & J. Lee On Working With ‘Perfectionist’ Seth MacFarlane On ‘The Orville’

The Orville, the critically acclaimed Seth MacFarlane sci-fi comedy is back for Season 3.

The show’s stars Scott Grimes, who plays Gordon Malloy, and J. Lee, who plays John LaMarr, sat down with uInterview founder Erik Meers to discuss working with MacFarlane and how The Orville has separated itself from shows like Star Trek. 

“[Seth] just pays extreme attention to every detail, even when we shoot with a character that’s not necessarily in the frame,” Lee said. “He always is so aware of where the camera needs to be in the frame to allow room. I think that’s just a testimony to how every aspect of this show is from his own mind and he’s just extremely methodical about getting it.”

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“He’s a perfectionist without it being annoying to us,” Grimes revealed. “He knows almost better than you do how he wants your lines and your story to go and your character to be because he created it. Your job is to make that happen for him. He’s a great director, never makes anyone feel uncomfortable, in fact, the opposite. It’s weird to sit there and talk about someone who cares about the buttons on every shirt but doesn’t annoy anyone with it. You want to be there with him, because you’re like, ‘Oh, he wants this to be the best and so do I.’ He elevates everybody’s job.”

While the show pays homage to the iconic Star Trek, the actors say the show has managed to shed the comparison.

“At first, everybody compared it. ‘Oh, this is the funny Star Trek, right?'” Grimes said. “Now, we are The Orville. We are our own show. It’s hats off to these other shows. It’s not stealing. It’s not making fun. It’s its own thing. How we got there, I have no idea, because we were fighting against it at first. People were not haters, but they were going ‘Oh god, Seth MacFarlane’s fart version of Star Trek.’ No, It’s always going to be its own thing.”

“I think it’s impressive,” Lee interjected. “I don’t know how you make something in a space where there’s already a bunch of stuff in that space. Seth cares about this show, so I think it comes out. It’s hard to do something in this space because there are so many things and so many people, and people care about this so much that you have to do it correctly.”

The Orville New Horizons is now streaming on Hulu.