It’s a hot, smoggy day in Los Angeles, and Ayo Edebiri’s Chihuahua mix, Gromit, is in his usual high spirits. Yes, he’s annoyed that Edebiri has left him stateside while she’s off filming Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt in London (according to him, the two should be together every second of every day), but he’s just taken a luxurious bath and is being offered peanut butter, so not all thrills are lost. After barking at photographer Walker Bunting for a few minutes—his customary greeting of strangers—Gromit is ready for his close-up.
“He was just so chill,” one of three people on set explains, adding that he was partial to the leather-couch and bean-bag setups at Edebiri’s friend’s house. “He would sit and pose for 30 minutes at a time. He was perfect.
” None of this is a surprise to Edebiri, who tells Dogue from London that her beloved rescue has a “freakish sense of sentience.” Indeed he does: Correctly sensing that the shoot is winding down, Gromit makes his way to the top of the stairs and bids Bunting adieu by staring at him intently until he leaves. Because there’s so much more to learn about Gromit than could be gleaned from his photo shoot and Edebiri’s notes from across the pond, below, Edebiri and Gromit answer Vogue ’s Dogue questionnaire.
Ayo Edebiri Vogue : What is Gromit’s best quality? Gromit is deeply loyal, intelligent, and a host of other things, but to be perfectly frank, his greatest quality is that he looks gorgeous in hats and clothes—and he knows it. Sadly, the fact that he knows it is arguably his worst quality. Who would voice Gromit in a movie? Bob Balaban, if available; Zac Efron, a native of San Luis Obispo, where Gromit was rescued (a fact I learned upon googling “San Luis Obispo actors from”); or my friend Lionel Boyce, who would do it for free.
Describe the voice you use to talk to Gromit? Completely normal. Does Gromit have a nickname? No, we are not a nickname household. But he got his name because at the shelter they called him Comet, and I thought, Well, surely we could punch this up.
Where is one place you wish you could take Gromit? Space, the Supreme Court to fix everything, and the now defunct Legal Sea Foods in South Shore Plaza during happy hour so we could get oysters and martinis. Where is the strangest place you’ve taken Gromit? I brought him to the set of The Bear , and he joined the camera department. He tried to run for treasurer of their Local 600 [the International Cinematographers Guild].
It was really scary. If you could tell Gromit one thing, what would it be? I’m sick of the games. I know that he knows how to read and write, I know that he can speak fluent English and chooses not to.
These are things that I know. What is the most human thing Gromit does? His freakish sense of sentience is probably the most human thing about him. And the most dog thing Gromit does? Lick his own asshole.
Gromit Gromit, what is your full name? Gromit. Ayo dropped the Edebiri —it’s cleaner that way. What’s your astrological sign? Aquarius.
Because no one has any idea when I was born, it was decided that I would share a birthday with my namesake, the fictional Gromit of the Wallace and Gromit cinematic universe. What’s your favorite toy? Anything you can put food in. And your favorite meal? Anything that is given to me.
My main passion in life is eating. What’s your worst habit, Gromit? I take umbrage with this question. I am disciplined, principled, and, for all intents and purposes, perfect.
Any rumblings of skittishness or barking whenever the doorbell rings are pathetic anti-Chihuahua propaganda. What’s your strangest habit? I sit, and I think. I think about so many things it would blow your mind.
Sometimes Ayo is like, “Are you thinking?” and I am, I fully am. But it’s not just about grass and squirrels and the urine of other dogs that I’ve smelled—it’s about the idea of God and theoretical physics and the urine of other dogs that I’ve smelled. I can also read, write, and speak perfect English, but I pretend not to.
If you could talk, what would your catchphrase be? I’m a gay, divorced entertainment lawyer who was turned into a dog by a former client of mine who discovered I was skimming a bit off the top, but I wasn’t aware she was a witch. What is Ayo’s worst habit? Not being with me every single second of every single day. Deeply inconsiderate, and, honestly, her loss.
I’m amazing company. See all the cover Dogues here ..
