Zooey Deschanel has unintentionally crafted one of the season’s standout holiday films with her latest romantic comedy, Merv.

“When I first read the script, I didn’t realize it was a Christmas movie. It struck me as a rom-com featuring a dog, which I was thrilled to be part of,” Deschanel, 45, shared in an exclusive interview with Us Weekly leading up to the film’s release on Wednesday, December 10. “Then I discovered it was set during Christmas!”

While Merv contains its share of holiday spirit, Deschanel noted that audiences shouldn’t expect a traditional Christmas narrative filled with elves, Santa, and reindeer, akin to her 2003 holiday hit, Elf. “Christmas is more of a backdrop,” she explained. “What I appreciate is that it includes Christmas, but it’s a story you can enjoy any time of the year.”

The holiday season serves as an emotional backdrop in Merv, which follows ex-partners Anna (Deschanel) and Russ (Charlie Cox) as they navigate co-parenting their cherished dog after their breakup. Discovering that Merv is battling depression—prompting the vet to mention “Xanax”—the pair resolves to put aside their differences for their pet’s sake.

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“The joy of setting something at Christmas, and having a holiday as a backdrop, means that emotionally, everything is a little amplified, because to be lonely or to have broken for that festive season is much more challenging than in the middle of the summer, when everything isn’t about love and Christmas and everyone being together,” director Jessica Swale explained to Us. “So, I think it’s fun from an actor’s point of view in terms of storytelling, because it gives you an extra level of stakes to play, turning up the heat underneath the drama.”

Deschanel agreed, noting that audience empathy also climbs during the holiday season. “If you think about a guy alone on a Tuesday night, you’re like, ‘Meh,’” she said with a shrug. “And then you go, ‘A guy alone on Christmas? Oh no!’”

It turns out Anna, Russ and Merv are all lonely from the breakup, but that all changes when they take a trip down to Florida at a doggie dream hotel (OK, Russ and Merv go and Anna follows). Time in the sunshine state give Anna and Russ a way to work out their unresolved issues, while Merv is surrounded by plenty of fellow furry friends.

It was a setup that didn’t always make for the most organized shooting days, Swale admitted, but did provide plenty of “joy” in its constant ‘“spontaneity.”

“Quite a lot of those scenes had 20 or 30 dogs in them that were not professional performer dogs,” Swale revealed while laughing, “They don’t have Gus’ [who plays Merv] discipline in his Hollywood stardom, and so they were a bit more rogue, and things could be a bit crazy.”

Swale pointed to one specific scene during dog yoga as particularly zany. “I had a bunch of trainers behind the camera all trying to communicate with all the different dogs in the room, and all the dogs going, ‘Ah, a sea of people making different hand signals, where am I looking? I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be doing!’ It was a bit chaotic.”

Luckily, Swale planned ahead by making sure the doggie hotel, aptly titled Dog Beach, was more of a laid back destination where dogs could feel free to be their energetic selves. “It’s supposed to be a normal holiday place where people bring their pets from all over the country to have a nice time, it only seemed appropriate to me that dogs were just being dogs,” she said.

Deschanel admitted as a self-proclaimed cat mom, visiting a dog resort has never been on her to-do list. She has, however, traveled with her felines on vacation in the past, which her kids, Elsie Otter, 10, Charlie Wolf, 10, adored. (Deschanel shares Elsie and Charlie with ex-husband Jacob Pechenik.)

“The cats were actually totally happy and my kids were just like, ‘Cat vacations are the best vacations!’” she recalled. “They loved having the cats there.”

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The cats also provided emotional support when Deschanel and her kids evacuated their home during the Los Angeles fires earlier this year. “We were all stuck in a tiny hotel room, and the cats were being so cute and sweet. They were snuggling every night,” she said. “They were crawling up on me. My little white one would come and purr so loud, like, underneath my chin that she would keep me awake. It was very sweet.”

Snuggling with the family pets is just one of the many things Deschanel loves doing with her little ones — especially during Christmastime.

“One of my favorite parts of the holiday [is] listening to Christmas music, singing Christmas music, singing with groups,” the She & Him singer told Us. “It’s really fun and such a nice way to connect with people. I also grew up doing a lot of baking cookies, decorating cookies. I love doing that with my kids. It’s really fun.”

Merv is available to stream on Prime Video now.