'Abbott Elementary's' Chris Perfetti Is Having That Network TV Moment [Interview]

Millions of people have seen Chris Perfetti’s work. Over the past decade, he’s starred in the lauded mini-series “The Night Of,” “Looking,” “In the Dark” and was a series regular on “Crossbones.” But, for the most part, Perfetti has lived in relative anonymity. That is beginning to change with his role as the somewhat awkward but adorable Jacob Hill in Quinta Brunson‘s critically acclaimed ABC comedy, “Abbott Elementary.”

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Set in a fictional Philadelphia elementary school, “Abbott” is shot in a documentary style similar to “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation.” The “filmmakers” are primarily following Janine (Brunson), an overly optimistic educator who really wants to do everything she can for her kids. The other teachers at the school often roll their eyes at her, but Jacob is one of the few who is mostly onboard with her new ideas. Filling out the cast are Janelle James as the totally underqualified (but hilarious) principal Ava, Sheryl Lee Ralph as the old school and “seen it all” kindergarten teacher Barbara, Lisa Ann Walter as the Philly-native and morally questionable second-grade teacher Melissa, and Tyler James Williams as Gregory, an educator who lost the principal gig to Ava and is now horrified to find himself substitute teaching first grade.

Speaking to The Playlist last month, Perfetti admitted that he’s actually starting to get recognized in public. And, considering how buzzworthy “Abbott” is on both ABC and Hulu, it was going to happen sooner or later. It’s that network television effect.

“I just went to a play with some friends the other night and walking out of the theater, I just [got] stopped like an outrageous amount of times,” Perfetti says. “And obviously there, I’m sort of like swimming in my own school. Those are people who maybe geek out on theater kind of like I do. And it was really incredible. I mean, jarring to say the least. But yeah, I would say that is like a new part of my life that I am still navigating and certainly never expected or sought out.”

He continues, “I mean, I talked to Sheryl Lee Ralph the other day, who plays Barbara. And she said she went to the mall and she couldn’t do anything because so many people were recognizing her from the show, which is, I mean, at the end of the day, so incredible. I think about all of the times that I have either stopped to say something to somebody on the street or wrote them a letter or reached out to them on social media. I can probably count on one hand just because I’m terrified that I’m going to imposition them or offend them. You know? And so it’s really just like unbelievably gratifying, I would say, at its core. I’m always so happy to meet people who are into the show. And I think it’s incredibly brave to do so. So yeah. It’s totally weird, but it’s totally cool.”

Over the course of our interview, Perfetti reflects upon shooting all of “Abbott” in a bubble before its first episode aired, whether Chris’ boyfriend might return, and much, much more.

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The Playlist: Congratulations on the show.

Chris Perfetti: Oh. Thanks, man. I appreciate that.

You guys shot the entire this fall before it premiered, right?

Yeah.

When you were making the show, did you think it would become this popular?

Oh man. No. I will say the short answer is the success of the show, however you may define that, and certainly the response that the show is getting is to this day a bit overwhelming. I can really only speak for myself and say that I was obviously really attracted to the show. I did it. But I sort of knew early on. You know? I had my own hunches about what I thought was special about it. I’m usually attracted to things that I feel like have not been done before. And obviously, that just tickled me personally. I have these sort of like litmus tests for a project when it’s first coming into my orbit that I tried to read it in a public place to see if it will make me laugh out loud. And I remember reading “Abbott” on the subway. It was the first time I took the subway in a long time because the world was ending. So I kind of always knew that. I thought it was tapping into something new. But no. I think being an actor you become very comfortable with things not working out or people not necessarily picking up what you’re putting down. And so we shot the entire season before anyone was able to see it. And so the moment it’s having right now where we’ve aired all of our episodes is really kind of surreal.

Yeah, I totally get it. You’ve been on television before. Have you feel like you’ve lost some anonymity walking around New York because of “Abbott”?

You know? It’s funny you asked that, Greg, because it is like just starting to happen. I just went to a play with some friends the other night. And walking out of the theater, I just [got] stopped like an outrageous amount of times. And obviously there, I’m sort of like swimming in my own school. Those are people who maybe geek out on theater kind of like I do. And it was really incredible. I mean, jarring to say the least. But yeah, I would say that is like a new part of my life that I am still navigating and certainly never expected or sought out. But yeah. I mean, I talked to Sheryl Lee Ralph the other day, who plays Barbara.

The legend.

And she said she went to the mall and she couldn’t do anything because so many people were recognizing her from the show, which is, I mean, at the end of the day, so incredible. I think about all of the times that I have either stopped to say something to somebody on the street or wrote them a letter or reached out to them on social media. I can probably count on one hand just because I’m terrified that I’m going to imposition them or offend them. You know? And so it’s really just like unbelievably gratifying, I would say, at its core. I’m always so happy to meet people who are into the show. And I think it’s incredibly brave to do so. So yeah. It’s totally weird, but it’s totally cool.

But you know what? Sheryl Lee Ralph shouldn’t be able to go to the mall. She’s an icon. She should be known everywhere. I’m happy actually it’s happened for her.

I think we should start this petition. I love this idea. Sheryl Lee Ralph out of malls.

Yeah, exactly.

I think we would get signatures, Greg. Yeah. I feel you, but I know my girl also loves to shop. I feel like a part of me dies knowing that Sheryl can’t can’t do that.

I want to talk about Jacob, your character on the show. I’m not sure if you auditioned for the show or if they came to you. What about Jacob made you interested in portraying the show? And did Quinta tell you anything in specific about him that helped you even just for the first episode?

I did audition for the show. I did not know Quinta before we started our work together. I would say to piggyback off of like the other kind of litmus test I have for something when I’m first reading is like, “Does it make me jealous thinking of somebody else doing it?” I feel like when I read something good, I can see the person in 3D. I can see that person in the world, and not in the sense that it necessarily comes easy to me or that Jacob and I are very similar, but I feel like when somebody has done their homework and has a very specific idea in the writer’s mind what they’re going for, it’s very attractive to me as an actor. And so I felt like that when I read the pilot. And then Quinta and I talked a lot before we shot the pilot and after we shot the pilot about what we were after. And Jacob was always kind of described to me as like sort of the best friend or sibling that maybe you wish you had or wish you didn’t have. And I think that largely has to do with this sense of loyalty and being an overachiever and kind of a nervous wreck, you know? A bit of a social puppy often to a fault. And yeah, it just seemed very clear to me who this guy was in the world.

Abbott Elementary, Emmys 2022

But yeah, I think the other amazing thing about working on a project like this is that I’ve done a lot of theater. And in theater, the actor is so very much in control. You know? They are in charge of doling out the story at every turn. And in film, the actor is in third position maybe at best, deferring to the editor and the writer and director. So there’s this thing happening now where I’m still learning about Jacob as we finished our first season. There’s a whole room of people whose job it is to dream about Jacob’s past and fantasies. And so it’s a weird thing to kind of be building something in real time as well. So as much as I think I know Jacob, I’m sure there’s going to be a script down the pipeline that’s like, “Oh, O.K., good to know. Jacob’s dad was in the military or something.”

Yeah. Yeah.

I don’t know. Something like that.

Obviously there’s a writer’s room and Quinta is the show runner as well. So, many of the ideas are hers. Are there any ideas you’ve had for Jacob, or is there any moments for improv that’s allowed that have made it into the show?

Definitely. I mean, I’ll say that whatever ideas I typically have in the moment are going to pale in comparison to what our genius writing room and Quinta has come up with beforehand. But the vibe on the set is very much that. I mean, I think in order to accurately capture something that maybe let’s you forget for a second that it’s a story and has some resemblance of documentary, we have to create an environment where anything can happen. And so, yeah, I would say most of the looks to camera and a lot of the talking heads, all of that is kind of a Frankenstein version of what was written for us and what we’re doing. You know? It’s part of the thing that attracted me to the project was this idea that cameras would just capture real life behavior. And God bless them. Our directors and our executive producers and Quinta, I think, really trust that we’ll come up with funny things on the day. And the way that the show is shot is so remarkable and so unconventional, I guess you could say, that we have a lot of time to do that. Because we’re not shooting in this sort of like formulaic wide shot, then two shot, then close up formula, we have a lot of time to do many different versions of things. And that honestly is why I’ve been so excited to watch “Abbott.” Usually, the experience of watching myself on screen is nothing short of torturous. But I’ve obviously had an idea in the script when we shot it, like the plot and how the story for each episode was going to unfold. But it’s been really hard for me to imagine which pieces of that they’re going to use and which camera is going to help tell that story.

One of the really interesting things about Jacob, or I guess refreshing things, is it’s never explicitly said that he’s gay. I mean, as much as I can remember, almost until the episode where his boyfriend shows up, unless I missed something, was that something Quinta ever talked about?

Yeah. I think the experience that you’re having is kind of the intended response. I think the real story around Jacob being a queer character on TV is how little of a story Quinta made out of it. We talked about it. We talked about it sort of early on that in the rejiggering of her story some characters were conflated, and I know that there were other teachers who didn’t make it into Abbott who I think she sort of wanted to cut and paste elements of them.
And so when that was happening, we talked about Jacob being gay. think the first time its mentioned is in the episode called “Work Family” where Janine is really upset that Jacob only thinks of her as a work friend.

Oh.

Janine doesn’t know that he has a boyfriend. And so similarly to you, her character’s response is not, “Oh my God, you didn’t tell me you were gay,” it’s, “Oh my God, you didn’t tell me you had a boyfriend,” which I thought was a very tactful and interesting way to introduce the subject, especially on network TV.

I agree and, I apologize, I forgot the actor’s name, who plays Jacob’s boyfriend.

That’s the brilliant Larry Owens.

The chemistry between you two is great. I mean, that’s a great scene where he first comes in, mostly thanks to Janelle. But I was going to ask, has Quinta said anything about him coming back for season two or you have no idea?

No. Lips are so sealed about season two. No. She hasn’t said anything about Zach, that character. I’m trying to think of what she did say that would be…

That she wouldn’t get mad at you for saying?

Yeah. Safe and interesting to share with you. You know? I talked to her the other day and I don’t know if this is in any way interesting, but I do think it’s safe to say. One thing that really excited me about our next season is that they’re just back in the room. The writer’s room has already assembled and they’re just back picking up where they left off in season one. And I think the decision to not adhere to any sort of outside voice, be it critical or social media, that room has such an authority on these characters. And I think any pressure to give people what they want, I think they have disabused themself of, which I think is very exciting.

Yeah, it is.

I know I have no idea about Zach and if Larry will be back. I hope so.

All right. So I have one last question for you because we both got to run. You just told me..

What movie are you seeing?

Oh. This sounds so pretentious. I go to Cannes. I’m going to the Cannes Film Festival. I have a…

I’ll be the judge of that.

I have a screening at 10:00 AM. This movie called “Aftersun.”

So amazing. Oh my God. You’re in LA? You’re literally talking to me at 9:00 in the morning right now. Bless you.

Yes, I am. But that’s the gig. So having told me that you’ve watched all the episodes, and not many actors watch everything, was there one in particular that you laughed the most at, that you were most happy about?

Oh man. No? We block shot the first five episodes and we worked so quickly that it’s all kind of like a scatter shot blur to me. But I was thinking the other day about this scene where Janine is trying to… I think it may be the same episode. She sort of like held the rest of the teachers hostage in the library and she’s bought them food and she’s determined to get to know them better. And so she has this idea for a game. And it’s not for any like particular outlandish reason, but this scene really sticks out in my mind because it’s sort of the through line of the entire episode. And so we’re just sitting there in the library, eating this fried chicken that she bought us. And I remember eating so much chicken that by halfway through the day, I was so sick for eating chicken, but it really sticks out in my mind as like a day where, for me, the show really dropped into itself. Let me preface this by saying I think there are many elements to the show that are kind of the reason why it’s working and why it’s firing on all cylinders. But I think the scenes where there’s a large amount of people together, be it in the teachers lounge or this scene that I’m talking about in the library where we’re all eating fried chicken, this is when the show really dropped into just like a very satisfying vibe for me. And I, as an actor, am just thrilled about being in a scene with all of them because they’re all so brilliant. And I just think the recipe for comedy is so rich in those scenes when we’re all together. And so I cannot wait to get back and do more of them. So that’s the scene that sticks out in my mind. And of course, the moment when Sheryl Lee Ralph burst into the teachers lounge and said, “Sweet baby Jesus, and the grown one too.” has been tattooed on my brain for all eternity.

“Abbott Elementary” Season 1 is available on Hulu.