Animal Fair dropped by the set of Scrubs, and Judy Reyes was on call to tend to all our needs. Listen in as the sexy siren gives us the scoop on her hit show and favorite leading man, her dog Chulo!
AF: Who is this handsome pup?!
JR: Chulo is a love dog. He’s seven years old. My husband actually found him living under an equipment truck when he was working on a film. I had just been obsessing about getting a dog, so it was perfect timing.
AF: Have you grown up with dogs?
JR: We lived in the South Bronx, a pretty dangerous neighborhood, so my father always got attack dogs. He wanted a dog that would protect our property. Chulo is a Chow-Shepherd mix. He’s very sweet and protective. He enjoys people more than other dogs.
AF: Any quirky personality traits?
JR: Chulo has very serious allergies. He can only eat turkey, duck, potatoes, fruits and vegetables. He absolutely loves tomatoes. He loses his mind over them. He hates water. He likes to drink it, but doesn’t want it anywhere near him. He can not stand a bath or being groomed. When you pick him up, all he does is complain. He will sit in the back seat and talk to me the entire time. He’s like, “I can’t believe you left me there! You know how much I hate water! Grrrr.” Chulo sleeps with us whenever he feels like it. He’s very moody that way. If you touch him, he’ll get off the bed. He doesn’t like to be bothered. My husband has been gone for the past few nights and Chulo has been spooning with me. But if I try to hold his paw, he’ll move away. When I fall back asleep, he comes right back up and spoons me.
AF: Dogs run free on the set of Scrubs. What’s that like?
JR: I love it. Mondays are especially crazy, because the dogs haven’t seen each other all weekend. Chulo likes to hang out in my room. He’s very much the guard dog. The other dogs on set really like him. One of our producer’s dogs has a crush on Chulo. When she sees him, she’ll throw herself on her back in front of our dressing room and start crying. Chulo is just beside himself. He’s like- “Get out of my room!” He’s quite the heart breaker. Chulo really doesn’t like to go anywhere without me. He’ll walk me to the elevator when I have to shoot a scene and he’s waiting there when I get back.
AF: Tell us about your character on Scrubs.
JR: I play sassy Nurse Carla Espinosa. She is married to Surgeon Turk, who is played by the wonderful Donald Faison. We just aired our 100th episode, which was directed by the extremely talented Zach Braff. This season, the whole story line revolving around Carla is that she’s doing everything she can to have a baby. Working with this cast is amazing. It’s a very open and free environment here. We have an awesome writing team, production team and crew. It’s the dream gig.
I’ve been acting for over fifteen years now and being on set is one of my favorite things in the world. Living in the moment and trying to create that magic is the ultimate rush.
– Maria Akl
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