After the Abbott Elementary Season 3 premiere, Gregory (Tyler James Williams) and Janine (Quinta Brunson) have called it quits once again on their will-they-won’t-they situationship. But something new has entered the picture for Gregory, says Williams—although this is a different kind of a relationship. It’s a bromance, shared with energetic co-worker Jacob (Chris Perfetti).
Janine has left the Abbott building; she’s now working as a fellow at the school district, leaving Gregory without his closest confidante at school. Who will Gregory go to when he needs to whine about his job? With Janine gone, Gregory needs a reliable new bestie.
“It’s definitely Jacob,” Williams tells The Daily Beast’s Obsessed. “Over the course of this season, you see more and more of that. Jacob has always been the viewers’ eyes of Janine and Gregory’s relationship, so he’s the one confidant Gregory feels like he can go to who isn’t going to get annoyed with his questions.”
We see the bromance in action when Gregory faces a crisis in the most recent episode of Abbott Elementary, “Gregory’s Garden Goofballs.” The fourth graders won’t leave him alone, trespassing in his classroom during lunch, free periods, and after school. The students pester him for advice about girl problems and won’t stop farting, and Gregory needs help. Jacob comes to the rescue, telling Gregory that he’s now become the so-called Cool Teacher of Abbott.
Below, Williams raves about working with Perfetti, reveals all the Abbott child actors are buzzing about, and explains why Gregory had to turn down Janine’s advances in the season premiere.
The moments in this week’s episode where Gregory breaks the fourth wall while he chats with the kids are too funny. Are those looks to camera scripted, or are they an acting choice?
Usually, it’s my call. I work very closely with the camera department. It’s not even something that gets shared with the director. I’ll walk over to Camera A and be like, “Hey, I have a moment in here where I feel like I can tag you a bit.” It’s working with them in sync, so I have to really be aware of where they are at given times.
Interestingly enough, this season, [the writers’ room] has been writing them in. But [the looks] are never where they’re written into, ever. I always read it and I’m like, “I’m definitely not doing that.” It’s a network note, so they can feel it out, but that’s never how it actually goes.
How do you identify the funniest times to give those looks?
I can’t really plan anything ahead of time until I’m there on the day with the actors actually doing it. I have to be listening, and then, as we get a take or two off, I’ll start to find where they’ll be placed. Usually it gets found kind of organically in that second or third take. The camera team, they know that’s what I’m looking for, so we just start to really refine it down so it can be as well put-together as possible.
But that’s not really something you can plan or prep ahead of time. You have to wait until you get the other actors there on the day to see how the scene takes form. That’s what keeps it fresh. We can’t really rehearse that.
Your scene partners in Episode 3 are mostly the students. What’s different about acting with child actors as opposed to your adult co-stars?
Their lack of experience is the golden piece of it. With older actors, there’s this idea of: There’s a way to do it right. What’s really nice with the younger actors is they don’t have that yet, so it keeps [the set] really fresh and interesting. From take to take, I’m not really sure what I’m going to get. It’s really nice to watch them play and have fun with it.
Kids will eventually get bored, so they’ll find stuff to keep themselves entertained once you’re doing five, six, seven takes. It’s really nice to keep them in there and not necessarily make it too formulaic or too actor-y, if that’s a term.
Quinta Brunson and Tyler James Williams (Disney/Gilles Mingasson)
Gilles Mingasson/ABCThe chain scene in this episode cracked me up—Javon, a fourth grader, wants to buy a chain for himself as a birthday gift to his girlfriend. This turns out to be a huge trend. Similar to that, are you ever picking up on what silly things the Abbott kids are fixated on?
There is this interesting thing that’s happening in Season 3 where there are kids who have been here since Season 1—we refer to them as our “vets.” You’ll hear them coaching the other kids as to what’s happening or what needs to happen. You’ll hear, “swinging a lens,” and the other kids will be confused, but you’ll watch these kids from Season 1 step up and be like, “That means that they’re shifting this, and we have this many more takes to go.” It’s cute to watch them be upperclassmen on the show.
Is their advice accurate?
They always know. They pay attention—never underestimate how much a child pays attention. They’re always spot-on. We now begin to lean on them a bit. Some of the younger kids have a harder time focusing. The question that always comes up is, “How many more do we have?” It doesn’t really work like that. But that’s when [the vets] will start helping us out, especially when we have these big auditorium scenes.
Let’s talk about the Gregory-Janine relationship. Why did Gregory turn her down at the start of Season 3?
It was the mature thing to do. They’ve been so up and down that he wanted it to be normalized in some way. He wanted some sense of stability in this. When someone puts themselves out there and it doesn’t necessarily go the way they wanted it to, as difficult as that may be, there is a nice sense of closure. There’s not this lingering thing where you want to say, or you’re hoping gets pushed forward.
I don’t necessarily see it as a rejection, but Gregory maintains what it’s been over the summer. There’s something nice about that sense of closure right now—there’s something peaceful about knowing that there is a boundary here. He would like to attempt to maintain that boundary. Now, whether or not that’s actually possible has yet to be seen.
You have this new character in the mix, Manny (Josh Segarra), who viewers have speculated may be a new love interest for Janine. Does Gregory see Manny as competition?
First and foremost, Gregory is always concerned about the safety and wellbeing of Janine. There can be times where he’s rather suspicious of people and how they interact with her, but I truly believe that, from a friend perspective, he just wants to see her happy and thriving, wherever it is that she needs to thrive—be it at the district, be it with whoever it is she may be dating. He just wants to see what’s best for her. It’s not as much the jealousy of it all, but it’s definitely a suspicion to—who is this? Are they going to be able to handle you with care?
Is Quinta around less, now that she’s shooting most of her scenes in new locations?
She’s not around any less—it’s just as much. Although from the show’s perspective it feels like she’s somewhere else, it doesn’t feel that way for us. We still have a fair amount of scenes that take place inside of the school, so I definitely don’t feel like I’m missing a scene partner in any way, shape, or form. She’s already been juggling the writing and producing and editing side of the show very well, so this storyline doesn’t take her away any more.
What makes Abbott Season 3 unique from the first two seasons?
We’re having more fun this year. There’s this chaotic comedy mood that we’ve been in since [Episode 3]. After the “Gregory gets a lashing from everybody in the hallway” scene, it set a different tone for us. I’m not sure what it was, but everyone has been going balls to the wall and throwing any inhibitions away. It feels like we’re having fun, and it’s a little more chaotic in the best way. It’s not as refined. It’s messy. Comedies begin to thrive when they get messy.
Is there anyone in the cast who frequently makes you break character or laugh while shooting?
Chris Perfetti. There are several scenes that I’ve been very concerned about, because I’m like, “I don’t know if we got a clean take from me.” That scene in the hallway was one of them. We had five or six different alts as to how the scene ended, and each one was top-tier comedy. He has another scene that’s coming up later where I’m like, “I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do here.” He’s in a different gear this year.
You mentioned earlier that Jacob and Gregory are becoming closer friends. How have you and Chris worked together to make that relationship evolve?
When we started the show, I would say Chris and Janelle [James] were the two I was least familiar with and didn’t really have any history with. Over the course of the show, they’ve become some of my favorite scene partners. I get really excited when I’m about to do a scene with Chris Perfetti, because there’s just a certain energy that we find with each other.
We did that classroom scene—where I’m asking him to keep his kids out of my class—at least eight different ways. I don’t know what made the edit. I try not to watch. Some of my favorite scenes now are the Gregory-Jacob scenes, and that started at the end of Season 2. There’s some really good stuff coming between the two of them.
We’re talking all about duos here. What’s your favorite Abbott Elementary pairing to see filming a scene together?
Zack Fox and Sheryl Lee Ralph. It’s such a chaotic pairing. When I read it in the table read for the first time, it physically scared me. Putting that chaotic energy with her stoic energy is so unhinged of a choice by the writers’ room, but it works so perfectly for that reason. That’s one of those pairings that I think really thrives in the sitcom format. The longer you go, the more you find two scene partners who were never supposed to be in a room together, and you stick them in there.
