- 4 months ago
'Abbott Elementary' cast members Quinta Brunson, Tyler James Williams, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Janelle James, Chris Perfetti, Lisa Ann Walter and William Stanford Davis join the Comic-Con Variety Studio Presented by Google TV.
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00:00Well, you know something, I think back all the way when we first started, that very first week we were together,
00:08Quinta told me that she knows exactly what's going to happen with this show for the first five years.
00:15And she said something else, but I want to know who's pregnant.
00:21That's what I want to know.
00:23Wow.
00:30Okay, Lisa-Ann, you gave me one of the most joyous moments of my week earlier this week,
00:44when you gave us the crossover episode we've been waiting for, when The Parent Trap met Freaky Friday,
00:50you, Elaine, and Lindsay Lohan on that carpet together.
00:54You know, what does it mean that people still have such an affinity for that film, for those characters, for you?
01:02I mean, what was that like?
01:04Well, I'm extraordinarily proud of not just Lindsay for being in her glory right now.
01:12I mean, as popular as she was when she was a kid, she still is.
01:16And as a mother, and the person that she is now, she is just lit from within.
01:22I loved seeing her so happy and so self-possessed and poised.
01:28She really knows what she wants, and she's going after it.
01:31And I know there was a time when she was coming up that there was a big industry around young women
01:38and following their foibles and making it worse than it was.
01:42And she was in the middle of all that, so for her to come out the other side and be in charge of her life, I'm thrilled.
01:49And on top of that, my best friend Elaine Hendricks also being in it was, I was just there to support.
01:55But the fact that people still respond and love it and are comforted by it and feel like it's part of their childhood,
02:03there's no better feeling as an actor than to think you were part of that.
02:06I feel like this show is going to be another one of those same projects that people still feel the way that they felt when they first started watching it.
02:15They'll feel like this in 20 years.
02:17She left a table read, and I knew that she was going to that premiere, but when I saw the pictures of them, I got all emotional.
02:25Like, I didn't know she was going, so it is pretty crazy.
02:28No, it's one of those things.
02:30And also, y'all just also looked fantastic.
02:33Well, that was the most important part.
02:34I didn't want to start with that, but thank you for noticing.
02:39It's okay.
02:40We didn't want to be vain, but sometimes we just got to call a spade a spade.
02:43Elaine came with me for the SAG Awards when we won, and she was my date, so she wore a tux, and I wore a gown,
02:50and so on this one, she wore a pretty pink dress, and I wore a suit.
02:54Just to add to the rumors.
02:57What rumors?
02:58You mean the spinoff rumors.
02:59You mean the sequel rumors.
03:00Yes, but listen, why don't we also, yeah.
03:04That is the thing about Abbott.
03:06Abbott, at this point, we are entering into season five, but maybe we've had a crossover, so should we also start talking about spinoffs?
03:13Should we start talking about 17th and a movie?
03:16No.
03:17No.
03:18Winter's face.
03:20No.
03:20Y'all are giving us exactly what we are getting, and we were happy for it.
03:25Hey, thanks, Angelique.
03:26That part.
03:28Nice little cleanup.
03:28That was nice.
03:29Well, speaking of giving us what we wanted, what we were looking for, the Will They or Won't They with Gregor and Janine is now officially, they are.
03:40What has it been like to explore their relationship more this season?
03:46Do you want to go first?
03:47I feel like it's been a lot.
03:49It's been fun.
03:50It's been nice.
03:51It's like, I said this kind of at the panel, we spent the majority of the show having these two characters go through these bumps trying to be together and being awkward around each other.
04:02It was a new, really nice, fun color to play with.
04:05Now, what does it actually look like with them together?
04:09We spent more time not doing it than doing it, so I think in a way we're still finding some interesting things here and there.
04:13I think one of the most fun things to me is the possessiveness of Janine and how she can get a little jealous at times, which is a color we just never thought we would see on her.
04:26This is another way to find out more about these characters, very similarly to what's happening with Ava and O'Shawn.
04:32Any relationship can crack open a character differently than anything else.
04:36To that point of possessiveness, you hesitated to call D something that could be also the word for a very fine dog.
04:47How much fun?
04:49Yes.
04:49When you read that script.
04:53Yes.
04:54So, well, that was fully written by the Sonny writer's room.
05:00And it was fun to say, or it didn't seem that jarring to me.
05:04It's not like I don't cuss me.
05:07Well, that word is also just like wild in British, but I just like don't, it's not very American swearing.
05:14But so I just.
05:15Is that the C word?
05:16Yeah.
05:16So I just said it and I read my lines and I did my job, right?
05:19That's how I felt going over the Sonny, which felt really good for me.
05:22I like when I just get to be an actor and read my lines and do my job.
05:25That was really fun.
05:27And so it wasn't until it aired that I saw it.
05:30It was like, yikes, that's wild.
05:32And the reactions were really upsetting.
05:35There have been so many disappointed mothers in my inbox.
05:38Yeah, it's been really bad.
05:40Like people.
05:41Because it's more than mothers.
05:42Oh, not that.
05:44Did you.
05:44It's very.
05:45It is jarring.
05:46Like even me seeing it on screen.
05:47I was like, that's kind of crazy.
05:49Yeah.
05:49Yeah, it was jarring.
05:50The kids don't watch it Sonny anyway.
05:52Yeah, it was a lot.
05:54But it was fun.
05:56Sure.
05:57Well, if you would like to speak to the mothers directly, I mean, here's the moment.
06:00Here's the camera.
06:01I don't like to apologize for things.
06:04It was on cable.
06:05You know, it was on FX.
06:08But you know what a lot of them said in the messages?
06:10They said, I am still a supporter of Abbott.
06:13I still will watch the show.
06:15And that's all.
06:16I like the relationship of you're still going to watch.
06:18You just got a little disappointed for a second.
06:19It happens.
06:20It happens with all parents.
06:21My mom's disappointed in me like once a week and then she comes back around and everything's fine.
06:26You get another Emmy nomination and she gets over it.
06:28And there you go.
06:29How in the world is your mother disappointed in anything you did?
06:31Mothers are amazing because they can always find ways.
06:34That's a good point.
06:35Yeah, that's one of the end.
06:35There's always a way.
06:36There's always a way.
06:38Unless you rent your kettle.
06:41They're just good at it.
06:42Why are we all like speaking from like deep acceptance?
06:44I know.
06:45Everyone has that one leg.
06:46My relationship with my mother is great, by the way.
06:48But yeah, they can find ways.
06:49Find the smallest thing.
06:51No, I did not have that experience.
06:52You tell your mom he was going after my man.
06:54Huh?
06:55Huh?
06:55You tell mom he was going after my man and that's...
06:59What?
07:01Just giving moms the back story.
07:03I had to say it because it was, you know, you had to say it.
07:07So, too, again, to that relationship point, Gregory is now, you know, got that second job as an Uber driver.
07:16Uh-huh.
07:17It's going super well.
07:18Uh-huh.
07:18Why is it?
07:19I don't know.
07:20So, are we sure that he's saving for a rent hike, not a ring?
07:26Unfortunately, you've never been a man in a straight relationship.
07:29It's for the relationship.
07:30Yeah.
07:31Oh, no.
07:31This is all practical.
07:33Yes.
07:33But as a man in a straight relationship, you take on another person's things.
07:37And that's just, he just can't find a way to make ends meet.
07:39He's trying.
07:40He's just really trying to.
07:41Oh.
07:42I know.
07:42It would be nice if that's what it was for.
07:44I know.
07:45But, no, that's kind of just what it is.
07:46I'm just saying that Google's AI algorithm suggests a solitaire with a round, brilliant, oval or cushion-cut diamond.
07:54It's practical.
07:54Oh, my God.
07:55It's durable.
07:56You know, just the case.
07:56For Janine specifically?
07:58Specifically.
07:59Are we getting...
08:00I don't even know if that's correct.
08:00We get lost Google AI.
08:02I don't know if that would be accurate.
08:04How many carats?
08:05Doing a lot of driving.
08:06I feel like with Janine, it would be like a ring pop.
08:08He's a teaser.
08:09One.
08:10He gets one.
08:12That's big.
08:12That's a big deal.
08:13Well, listen.
08:13There's always lab-grown.
08:15There's always lab-grown.
08:17The kids don't like the bloodline right there.
08:20That is expensive.
08:22She's really little.
08:23Bring it in for a second.
08:23So, a half a carrot on Quinta looks like...
08:27No, on Janine.
08:29Oh, on Janine.
08:30I think he is just trying to get the rent.
08:31No, he is broke.
08:32He's broke.
08:33He's broke.
08:33That's what it is.
08:34It's not nothing deeper than he's broke.
08:36Yeah, that's pretty much what it is.
08:36He is a broke boy.
08:38Listen.
08:38Yeah.
08:38The fans want to know, so I have to ask.
08:42That's fair.
08:43But you already mentioned it.
08:44Ava and O'Shawn was a huge moment this season.
08:48This idea of kind of opening Ava up and having her go through this transformation.
08:53How much fun has it been to play this romance story?
08:56Oh, it's been super fun.
08:58And also, just the episodes outside of the school, it almost, being inside of it, it's
09:04almost like being on a different show.
09:06I kept telling Quinta I feel like I'm in a rom-com, which is like my favorite genre.
09:10So, that was like lovely.
09:12And then to, you know, ramp up Ava's attitude even more, which I didn't think was possible,
09:16and feel that, and relate to that, and then see other people relate to it was amazing.
09:25In the moment, I was like, she is being too mean.
09:27But just like a lot of the show, it's based on real personality traits that people have.
09:33I will not admit that it would be me at any point in my life, but maybe.
09:39So, yeah, I thought it was like exciting to do and also important to show that self-sabotage
09:46that both men and women do when trying to have adult relationships.
09:54Not all of us.
09:56Well, I mean.
09:57Not me.
09:58I'm healed.
09:59But, yep.
10:00I'm not.
10:01I self-sabotage all the time.
10:03Oh, my God.
10:04So, it was for Lisa.
10:05You see what I'm saying?
10:06It was.
10:07100% it was.
10:08For the Lisa's of, and so, yeah, no, I was good.
10:11I felt like it was such an important, I'm talking about specifically the date.
10:14I felt like it was such an important episode and scene.
10:19Like, it really did more than I even thought it was going to do.
10:23So, it was great to do.
10:25Yeah.
10:26I know you guys have about six episodes, scripts written for season.
10:30Eight.
10:31I think it's eight.
10:31Yeah.
10:31Eight.
10:32Okay, we're almost, I guess that's like a third of the way of the season.
10:36So, I would love to hear from everyone in the loosest terms possible, what you're most
10:43excited to explore with your character this season.
10:45If there's like a word or two of vibe that you're going to be bringing with the new season.
10:50Chris, I'm looking at you.
10:51So, I'm going to start with you.
10:52What are you feeling about Jacob this year?
10:54I don't know, I don't know how specifically I can speak, but I just feel like every year
10:59our writers, you know, know more and more what we can do and the exact sound of our instrument.
11:07And so, you know, we've, I'm trying to say something without giving anything away.
11:10They're certainly like leaning into the physical comedy, you know, that I find really fun.
11:17And that, I think, looks particularly goofy on Jacob.
11:22Yeah, I, I, I don't know.
11:25What are you guys excited about?
11:28Way to.
11:29Exactly.
11:29What?
11:30Way to throw it to us.
11:32I think what, what we've established in four, I'm looking forward to those things kind
11:36of playing out.
11:37It's like those little things like Gregory having money issues.
11:40Like there's something about this show that works really well when they're realistic issues
11:45that we just kind of let manifest and play out.
11:47Like that's not something that's going to go away in the, in, at the, somehow in the
11:51off season.
11:52He still has that problem.
11:54I think finding interesting ways to get around everyday problems is what, I think it's the
12:01same thing Janelle was talking about that connects with Ava dating with O'Shawn.
12:04That's what connects people to the show is watching people on screen deal with the exact
12:08same issues that they're dealing with.
12:09So that's what I think I'm looking forward to for this year.
12:13This show historically, you know, we've established, Quint has established in the writers, these
12:18characters so beautifully that there was an initial way that we kind of expected them
12:23to behave.
12:24And every season has a little bit different and a little bit more.
12:30And personally for my character, just because I don't know everything.
12:34And I just want to also say, I appreciate the way you asked that because that is a different
12:38way to ask it than any of the times we're saying, what are you doing this year?
12:43And to that, we're like, we don't know.
12:44She's sneaky.
12:45Right.
12:46She's good.
12:47She's good.
12:47For me, what I look at with what I've read so far is there was a way that Melissa has
12:55always kind of been, and a lot of it is guarded.
12:58And a lot of it is, I have set ideas about things and you are not going to deter me.
13:02And some of the stuff is like, maybe, maybe I can look at things a little different, like
13:08moving her off of what's comfortable, what's normal, and how she's always behaved within
13:14her neighborhood, her family, her people.
13:17So the experience of these people and getting closer to some of these young people has changed
13:23her a little bit.
13:24You ate that right on up.
13:26That's very, yeah.
13:27Did I guess right?
13:28No, I mean, you didn't guess.
13:29You didn't guess.
13:30You ate.
13:30You're locked in.
13:31That's how we talk about it in the room.
13:33Oh, okay.
13:34Good.
13:34I loved getting a chance to see that side of Melissa with Sweet Cheeks.
13:38Also, we have a new mascot at Abbott.
13:42I mean, and actually, apparently Sweet Cheeks is like running around Comic-Con.
13:46Sweet Cheeks is, that's the spinoff.
13:48Yeah.
13:48You can have a giant Sweet Cheeks.
13:51There's rodents around the world.
13:52Like Ghostbusters.
13:53You shoot the whole thing from this perspective.
13:54Cheap to produce.
13:54Yes, yes.
13:55It's like a sunny crossover backwards.
13:57Right.
13:57I think that's a pretty genius idea.
13:59Quinter, did you write that down?
14:01I wrote it down.
14:02I wrote it.
14:03You got your feeling.
14:04I got it, yeah.
14:05Cheryl, what about for you with Barbara?
14:07Well, you know something?
14:08I think back all the way when we first started, that very first week we were together, Quinter
14:15told me that she knows exactly what's going to happen with this show for the first five
14:21years.
14:22And she said something else, but I want to know who's pregnant.
14:29That's what I want to know.
14:31Wow.
14:31I remember the conversation.
14:34And it's Barbara's daughter.
14:36And I just want to know.
14:36Yes, thank you.
14:38It was your daughter.
14:39It was your daughter.
14:39It was your daughter.
14:40It was your daughter.
14:43It was your daughter.
14:43But I also think about what makes...
14:45It's not Melissa.
14:47What makes a character like Barbara Howard stay in so long?
14:52What makes her be there that long?
14:55And I think about that often of all of the Barbara Howards that I've met and even the
15:00ones that I'm meeting now, they all say the same thing.
15:04They love what they do.
15:06And they love it so much that they want to keep doing that, which to me I find so fascinating.
15:13Because I love what I want to do too, but I look forward to the break.
15:16They're not looking forward to the break.
15:18And I love that.
15:19That's something really nice with Barbara and Melissa is the writers do a really good job
15:24of helping them find another gear every year.
15:27That's such a big thing that kind of looms over every school year that I think that people
15:32take for granted and kind of saw it with Ava's firing this year of like, these people
15:36don't need to stay in this school.
15:39Every year they have to choose to stay here.
15:42That's right.
15:42And that's the top of each year.
15:45Finding that new character motivation for what keeps them here is always really fun.
15:48It's a beautiful way to reflect what teachers are living in this country as well, which
15:54I find heroic.
15:55But I really wonder, what is the janitor doing?
15:57Why does the janitor keep coming back?
15:59I want to know what Stan wants to see.
16:01I mean, this guy, he's worked all over the world and I get surprised every season when something
16:05new that he's done, I don't know, maybe he's an astronaut.
16:09I don't know.
16:10Maybe he is.
16:11Maybe.
16:11Maybe.
16:12So I'm always surprised in the writing when I see it and it's, I try not to laugh out loud,
16:17but you know, it's, I'm waiting to see what they're going to do this season.
16:21There you go.
16:21I would love to see Mr. Johnson go to space.
16:23Oh, please.
16:24Spinoff.
16:25He might have been there already.
16:27He's already been to the moon.
16:28Yeah.
16:28He can tell us all about it.
16:30Well, y'all, I appreciate you guys so much.
16:32I'm so excited to see you.
16:34Thank you again for having me.
16:35on your panel and thanks.
16:37It's been so much fun.
16:38Thanks, Angelique.
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