Listen up, class—Sheryl Lee Ralph has something to say. At a Wednesday virtual panel for the Television Critics Association, the recent Emmy winner made her feelings known on Jimmy Kimmel’s actions as her co-star Quinta Brunson accepted an award for outstanding writing in a comedy series. Kimmel lay down and played dead as Brunson climbed on stage and began to speak, ignoring her even as she prompted him to get up. “I was absolutely confused. I didn’t know what was going on,” Ralph told reporters. “I was like, ‘I wish that man would just get up off of the ground.’ And then I realized it was Jimmy Kimmel, and I was like, ‘Ooh, the disrespect, Jimmy!’ But that’s just me.” Ralph added that she had confronted Kimmel about the gag, widely seen as tasteless: “I told him, too! To his face! And he understood.” For her part, Brunson echoed her own previous comments, saying on the panel that she wasn’t upset about the incident.
