Tyler James Williams interview: ‘Abbott Elementary’
Three seasons into playing first-grade teacher Gregory Eddie on “Abbott Elementary,” Tyler James Williams continues to find himself surprised by some of the layers and quirks the writers of the Emmy-winning ABC sitcom add to his character. “There’s a big [reveal] that happens later on in this season that gave me so much context, I think, as to who Gregory is and why he is the way he is, particularly how he relates to not only, I think, [Quinta Brunson‘s] Janine, but everyone that he’s had in his love life,” the actor teases about the remaining episodes of Season 3 during a recent webchat with Gold Derby (watch the full exclusive video interview above).
Something Williams definitely didn’t expect is the spoof of “The Bear” star Jeremy Allen White in the two-part Season 3 premiere. “I pride myself on being able to find jokes — and really anything at any given time,” the actor admits, “so I was immediately embarrassed that I didn’t see [it] coming.”
As the notoriously inept Ava (Janelle James) begins taking her principal duties more seriously after completing her education degree over the summer break, canceling the teacher’s free periods and prohibiting them from going off-campus for lunch, the teachers at Abbott join forces to try to get her to return to her old ways. They convince Gregory to capitalize on Ava’s crush on him by having him stand in the doorway of Ava’s office and flex his biceps, hoping the principal will fall for this ploy. But she doesn’t, telling Gregory to put his arms away and calling him “Jeremy Allen Black.”
“For the tables to be turned and have to judge Gregory from being so objectified for so long to then now trying to use that to his advantage was very interesting,” Williams says of the scene, which is closed out by a humiliated Gregory covering his arms with his sweater and quickly retreating from Ava’s office. “So the moment after, that wasn’t scripted, him feeling so vulnerable… When we shot it, Randall Einhorn, who was directing the episode, and I were trying to figure that out, we were sitting there going, like, ‘Well, how does he feel now that he’s done this, try to use [Ava’s crush] towards advantage and it did not work?’ I mean, I think it was Randall’s idea, where he was like, ‘Let’s see what happens if he, like, becomes very insecure.’ And that’s what came out of it. And I think that’s, like, the beauty of making a choice like that, to have Gregory shift the power position, because now we figure out all these other little things about him from that decision.”
Gregory, of course, had been chosen to be the principal of Abbott before Ava blackmailed the school’s superintendent into giving her the position instead. So when Gregory starts working at the school, as a substitute for a recently fired teacher, he has his eye on the position that had been taken away from him. “He sees success from this kind of God-like view, like in the sense of, ‘What gives me the most power? What do I think will allow me to affect the most change?'” Williams explains about his character’s attitude at the beginning of Season 1. “And I think that’s why his position is so rigid and how he wants things done, because he thinks that’s what change is.”
Over the course of the show’s three seasons, however, Gregory’s definition of success changes as he further settles into his role as a first-grade teacher. “This season, we have the ‘Alex’ episode [the ninth], where he realizes it boils down to just getting one kid to go to school — you get that one kid to stay in school [and] that butterfly effect will be greater than you running this school — that’s where the important work is,” Williams highlights. “So I think now, he’s learned how to root himself in these tiny day-by-day successes that no one would imagine would be that consequential but ultimately are.”
One thing that hasn’t changed as the workplace comedy has progressed is Gregory’s search for a “sympathetic ear” at Abbott, as Williams puts it. “In a lot of ways, he finds that with Janine,” the Emmy-nominated performer says. “But his emotional feelings for her complicate that a bit.” Indeed, Gregory and Janine’s relationship, considered the ultimate will-they-won’t-they of the show by most fans, has experienced quite a bit of turbulence, especially in the third season. That’s because in the premiere, Gregory avows he’s put a “period” on it after Janine confesses she still has feelings for him, and Janine leaves Abbott to work for the Philadelphia school district. But Janine isn’t the only person who gives him a sympathetic ear at Abbott, Williams maintains; he also increasingly finds one in the socially awkward but ever-supportive history teacher Jacob (Chris Perfetti).
“I think what he found over time — or Jacob simply wore him down enough to see — was that he did have another sympathetic ear here. He had a male perspective, he had somebody who was also as emotionally involved in him and Janine as he was… He found an ally that I didn’t think he knew that he would have,” Williams contends. “And to me, it’s one of the more beautiful relationships I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing. To start, as an actor, very anti, in a lot of ways, with the character is difficult because it’s really hard to connect with people in the scene, because you’re so anti them… Now, I have more people to make the scene more dynamic, to be able to throw a look to or to have a very specific kind of voice and interaction with. We see a softer side of Gregory, that’s more vulnerable, with Jacob that we would have never seen [without him].”
Hence, for Williams, Seasons 1 through 3 of the show haven’t been about the will-they-won’t-they of Gregory and Janine. “It’s [about] the will-they-won’t-they of Gregory and Jacob,” he opines. “That’s what a lot of people have been missing.”
