Sheryl Lee RalphknewAbbott Elementaryhad “it” when they were filming the pilot.
And I said, ‘Man, you feel it too, don’t you?'"
“We both felt that we had something very special.
Lisa Ann Walter, Sheryl Lee Ralph, and Janelle James on ABC’s ‘Abbott Elementary.'.Ser Baffo/ABC
And it was absolutely magical.”
Ralph has been part of several popular titles in her 45-year career, but she admitsAbbottfeels very different.
“As amazing asDreamgirlswas, it’s definitely not quite like this.
Pamela Littky/ABC (3); Barbara Nitke/Peacock
As much as people loveSister Act 2, it’s definitely not like this.
It just feels so good.
“I don’t really have a technique or preparation,” James admits of her acting approach.
“But I feel like that kind of lends to this character that she’s unprepared maybe.
I’m prepared by being unprepared.
I really don’t have any [pre-conceived] notions about what acting is supposed to be.
I just really felt like this is a person that I know and I get her motivation.”
But it’s James’ natural approach that is of great appeal to Brunson.
“I look at Ava as like a brand new archetype on television.”
She basically told me not to.
… All I heard was less working and less money spent for me, so I didn’t.”
And he was absolutely down.
It’s something we kind of knew from the moment we started the writers’ room.
So, in a way, it was always there, but it wasn’t.
It just came about for his character when we started writing episode 2."
Elsewhere in the podcast, EW’s Kristen Baldwin chats withDr.
DeathstarJoshua Jackson, who plays now-imprisoned former neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch in that Peacock limited series.
His go-to weight-loss method: “stress and anxiety,” he says with a laugh.
