“I’m corny?!” Jacob Hill, in disbelief, reacts to the accusation from his Abbott Elementary colleague Janine Teagues in last week’s episode of the hit ABC sitcom. “I have Kendrick Lamar on vinyl. Is that corny?” (Yes, Jacob, it is.)
While Jacob was flabbergasted by the not-so-shocking news of his corniness, Chris Perfetti, the actor who plays the history teacher, was delighted. "I'm biased, obviously, because Jacob has a lot to do in Episode 203, and I just think it's a brilliant piece of writing," Perfetti told Esquire over the phone after the episode aired last week. "The way that our writers, led by the unbridled genius of Quinta Brunson, have chosen to zoom in on these very specific stories instead of writing predictable school plot lines, I just think is so brilliant. The dissection of the word corny in this episode, I just feel like is such a tactful way to deal with a larger subject."
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Perfetti has been working on stage and in television for more than a decade, in projects such as HBO’s Looking, NBC’s Crossbones, and in the Broadway productions of Six Degrees of Separation and Picnic. Still, he was wholly unprepared for the barreling success of Quinta Brunson’s Abbott Elementary, a workplace comedy about a motley crew of teachers and administrators at an underfunded Philadelphia public school. (Abbott’s Season Two premiere this September quadrupled its own initial record-breaking ratings.) "I feel like to survive in this business, you have to make peace with things not working out and people not picking up what you're putting down," Perfetti says. "And so the tsunami of love and interest in what we're doing right now has been really surreal."
Perfetti was kind enough to dish on the day Gritty came to the Abbott set, becoming a (fictional) LeBron James super fan, and whether he thinks Janine and Gregory will ever date.
Gilles MingassonJacob embracing his corny.
ESQUIRE: First of all, congratulations on all the success at the Emmys. How was the night for you?
Chris Perfetti: Surprisingly dreamy. I was getting stressed and didn't really know quite what to expect. I feel like going to work every day on this job is such an unimaginable gift to begin with. I was like, the Emmys can only be bad, but I had a blast. To be totally frank, I think myself and many actors feel slightly ambivalent or ambiguous about giving awards to other artists, but I cannot describe the feeling of when somebody who you love and respect's name is called and you're sitting in that room. It is an unparalleled joy.
Have you gotten a response to the show that's surprised you in any way?
The teachers who have said that our show is not only representing them but that it can be and has been worse at times than what we're depicting on the show, I feel like that was surprising. I mean, compliments from teachers are, for me, the most gratifying. I feel like we're making the show, first and foremost, to be funny, but also, very much so for them, and so when teachers say that they like the show, that just is very meaningful to me. But those of them that have said that this is actually what it's like, that has been surprising, because our show is heightened. We're trying to fool you with the mockumentary style that it's real life, but we're trying to do something extraordinary in order to make you laugh, and so, I think it's been a little surprising to hear that it actually is like this.
What’s your relationship to the word corny after last week's episode?
I would say newfound and appreciative. I think I'm biased, obviously, because Jacob has a lot to do in Episode 203, and I just think it's a brilliant piece of writing... And it's a real opportunity with Jacob because in this season, we are going to dig deeper into why these characters are the way that they are. And I feel like as soon as we break down those walls and permeate that layer, we just have so much opportunity, and so I love that Jacob is having this existential and cathartic recognition so early in the season, and not to say that these characters are going to completely change overnight, because this is a sitcom and that's not how things work, but I just think it was a really smart decision on our creator's part to write an episode about Jacob realizing that he's corny.
What's your best memory from set?
I feel like our show really clicks into gear in those big group scenes when we're all together and jokes are flying and the camera is whipping around to a million different people at the speed of light... This scene in particular, when Janine has all of the teachers in the library, she's ordered fried chicken for them to eat, as a bribe. And the group scenes tend to take longer because there's a lot of moving parts, and we usually get them in oners, so the camera doesn't cut at all. And I just remember feeling so giddy and inspired. But I made the mistake of, in the first take, eating a ton of the fried chicken. And then, for continuity purposes, you have to do the same thing in every take so that it all matches up, and so I ate an obscene amount of fried chicken in that scene when we were all trapped in the library, just making each other laugh. And I felt like shit afterward, but the whole process of getting there was truly one of the greatest moments on set I've ever experienced.
Amanda Peixoto-ElkinsPerfetti will storm New York this spring in the play King James, which he says is "very much about what men are talking about, what they’re really talking about when they’re talking about sports."
That's amazing.
Fried chicken has been ruined for me, by the way.
Was it good fried chicken at least?
It was fine. I don't want to throw our prop people under the bus, but it was edible. I certainly ate a lot of it. Was it the best fried chicken I've ever had? Absolutely not.
And now it's the last fried chicken you'll ever have.
RIP fried chicken.
Can you tell me about the time Gritty came to set?
Yes. It's a day I will never forget. Gritty is an exceptional... I don't know what Gritty is. I was about to say, "Human being," but Gritty is a force of nature. Gritty, I will tell you, is in character the entire time that Gritty is within public view, so he is an exhilarating and exhausting presence, and it was a real honor to meet him. I also realize that I'm referring to Gritty as him, but Gritty doesn't speak, so I don't know what Gritty's preferred pronouns are. It was an amazing day. Gritty is very, very good at their job and really, really funny. And they’re in that costume, which cannot be easy, especially when we're shooting outside in 90 degree weather. I'm so grateful that they came to be a part of our first episode, and yeah, I love that there was so much talk and anticipation of our first episode. Quinta was telling me that they had let slip that there was a big guest star and everybody was hypothesizing who it might be, and as you just asked me, putting out their guest star wishlist. I feel like we pranked people a bit and thwarted their expectations in a way that Quinta continually does on our show.
Scott Everett WhitePhilly legends.
Speaking of sports, you're bringing King James to New York in May. Can you tell me about the play, and what playing a LeBron super fan on stage is like?
King James is a world premiere by a very talented Pulitzer finalist playwright, Rajiv Joseph, and it's directed by the brilliant, multiple Tony-winning, Kenny Leon. And we started the play at the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago, and then we brought the play here to L.A. to play the Mark Taper Forum, and then, as you said, in the spring, we'll bring the play to New York. I have spent the last 10 years very fortunate enough to be working on and off Broadway, on various plays in New York, and King James is, far and away, among the best of those plays... The play is this intimate exploration of the place that sports and athletes occupy in our emotional lives, our relationships. The play is very much about what men are talking about, what they're really talking about when they're talking about sports. And the structure of the play mimics the four quarters of the basketball game, and the play is very much about basketball.
But I would posit that basketball here really only serves as a vehicle to talk about the human condition, the state of the world. I can't tell you how many people came up to me after the show in Chicago or L.A., who said, "Not only do I know nothing about basketball or sports, but I loathe basketball and sports," and this play was incredibly meaningful to them. I think basketball is the thing on which the two characters in the play connect, but it is more than that, about tracking this friendship over a long period of time. And the play takes place over 12 years, and you get to see every facet of a friendship through the play. You see them hurt each other, you see them love each other, you see them rely on each other, you see them deceive each other. As an actor, it's a dream role, and it's an incredible thing to get to do every night.
So between your two characters, do you feel more emotionally connected to Philly or Cleveland sports right now?
Wow. No tea, no shade, Philly, love you, Philly represent, but I don't know, the experience of working on King James has... Sports were very big in my family and where I come from, but I learned very early on that I was going to have nothing to contribute to sports. And I was also just way more distracted by and interested in the artsy-fartsy things, and so, I didn't play sports in high school. But again, where I come from, sports is a big deal, and so working on the play has been like a reintroduction. There was a lot of education that had to happen on my part, in order to think the thoughts of somebody who is as obsessed with LeBron and basketball as the character that I play is. I went to Cavs games in Cleveland and spent a lot of time with the writer, who was born in Cleveland and is a lifelong Cavs fan. So I dare say, the answer to your question is, I'm Cleveland, baby. I also come from Upstate New York and there's a lot of crossover between Cleveland and where I'm from. It's a similar kind of people, it's a similar biting cold, and so, that's who I'm rooting for.
Gilles Mingasson"Watching the saga that is Janine and Gregory, I will say I am personally rooting for that to happen," Chris Perfetti tells us.
OK, final question: do you ship Janine and Gregory?
Do I ship Janine and Gregory? Oh, man. I've never heard that used as a verb before. What exactly does that mean? Do I wish a relationship on them?
Do you support them as a couple?
I love that. Oh, gosh. I've been watching our show, and it's something that I am usually very unlikely to do. I find, typically, the experience of watching myself on camera to be nothing short of torturous, and I've been watching our show just because of the way that it's shot. I want to know what pieces they picked. It's so amazing, the way that we shoot our show, that it almost feels like we're not shooting a show. So, I've been watching our show, and therefore, watching the saga that is Janine and Gregory, and I will say I am personally rooting for that to happen. But, and this is by no means an informed opinion because nobody tells me anything, but I have a hunch, and I think this speaks to the specificity with which Quinta has approached the show and the ways in which she has subverted expectations at every turn, I would not be surprised if it doesn't happen for them, because I think people are expecting that and people want that. And who knows, man? I will be just as devastated as everybody else though, if it doesn't.
And does Jacob?
Oh, I think Jacob would be the president of the fan club. I think Jacob is obsessed with both of them so innately and so deeply that the thought of being able to hang out with both of them at the same time, I think is an unconscionable joy.
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