Lauren Cnare and her dog, Calvin, in a scene from the coyote hazing PSA.
Lauren Cnare has never done any acting, but she says she didn’t do anything special to prepare for her starring role in a public service video about hazing coyotes.
Cnare — a former Madison council member — says the role came easily to her.
“I didn’t have to come in and read for them, I didn’t have to do anything like that,” she says. “I’m a parent; I do have to act tough sometime. And I do have large animals.”
The video, produced by Public Health Madison & Dane County, has quickly gone viral thanks to Cnare’s performance, where she demonstrates the proper technique for “hazing” coyotes — i.e. making sure that they feel wary and uncomfortable around humans.
In it, she screams “Get out of here, go, go,” shakes a can filled with coins, throws sticks and sprays a hose at a would-be coyote.
“My daughter said something like, ‘See, you do have anger issues, ha, ha, ha,’” Cnare says with a laugh. “I do not think this is a career move for me, but it was a public service, and it has been an issue on the east side. I have seen a coyote trot down my street.”
The role wasn’t entirely one-dimensional for Cnare. She got to show a softer side, walking her black Lab, Calvin.
But Cnare did not resort to method acting for the role. There were no long rehearsals or numerous failed takes. She believes she was offered the part because she lives near John Hausbeck, environmental health supervisor at Public Health.
“All they said to me is, can you do this, can we do it at your house, and they read the instructions to me,” she says. “It took at maximum, maybe an hour.”
Although Cnare plays a tough character in the video, she has never actually hazed a coyote in real life. But she says she will in the future.
“I think people are typically so dumbfounded they say, oh, my gosh, I don’t know what to do. The hardest thing is stopping and saying, I’ve got to do something about this, not run for the hills.”
Cnare admits that her acting might get the attention of even a coyote. “They’re curious animals. You may do all those crazy movements, and they’ll stop and look at you like, ‘What the heck?’” she says. “The key is to keep doing it, you are not wanted here.”
Cnare works as communications director for St. Vincent de Paul Madison. She represented a far-east-side district on the council for 10 years before stepping down in 2015.
She missed the job at first, she says. “I felt very out of the loop, but then I realized the world is running just fine,” she says. “I miss it a little bit, and I miss the camaraderie, but I have more time at night.”
She admits to being a little weirded out that the video has gotten so much attention, potentially going viral on the Internet.
“I’m usually the person getting someone else in front of the camera,” she says. “But it’s good to volunteer for your community, and it’s an important thing for the neighborhood.”