Note: This story contains spoilers from “Abbott Elementary” Season 5, Episode 14.
While Luke Tennie has been acting opposite comedy greats like Harrison Ford and Jason Segel in “Shrinking” for the past three seasons, his stint on “Abbott Elementary” has gotten him out of his comfort zone as he embraces a new format of TV: the sitcom, and, more specifically, the mockumentary.
Tennie admits he’s faced “a bit of a learning curve” as he adjusts to the filming style of the ABC comedy, noting that while “Shrinking” does coverage — putting together various camera angles of a scene — he’s learned to embrace the camera operator as “one of your scene partners,” explaining “you have to wait until the audience, who is the DP, finds you.” As Tennie acclimated to the new filming style, he leaned on his new cast members, including Tyler James Williams, who directed one of the episodes and encouraged him to think of episode as a play.
“It’s such a wonderful way to capture comedy,” Tennie told TheWrap. “There’s a reason why some of the favorite comedies over the past 20-25 years have been done in this format — I think ‘Abbott’ is really the culmination of all that refinement.”
As Tennie explores this new style of comedy, he recalls a quote from Bryan Cranston from his time on “Malcolm in the Middle” about saving the laughs for the audience. “There’s a skill that he has a lot of people like Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler — all these comedic legends — is they lock in and they play how the character will actually perceive the moment,” he said.
“They’re just worried about what’s actually taking place, and that’s what makes it so funny and so hard not to break when you’re working with these GOATs — Jason Segel, Jessica Williams, Quinta Brunson, Tyler James Williams, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Lisa Ann Walter,” Tennie said. “It’s just about how prepared you are to be the person you’re supposed to be on that day. So everyone can lock in and make sure that the best laughs, the biggest laughs, you save for the viewer.”
While Tennie joined “Abbott,” which was just renewed for a sixth season at ABC, earlier in the fifth installment, his character, Dominic, steps into the spotlight in Episode 14, as he stands up against harmful stigmas plaguing the ADHD community. Tennie breaks it all down — and his pitch for joining Apple TV’s “The Studio” — below.
TheWrap: This episode sees Dominic step into the spotlight with this ADHD conversation. What conversations did you have ahead of time with Quinta, Justin and Patrick and is it a topic that resonates with you?
Big time. I’ve got family members who are diagnosed with ADHD. It’s one of those things that is potentially common with a lot of artists, so I think it’s going to resonate with a lot of the people in our business, because to be able to create art consistently, especially to make a living doing it, you tend to have a lot of stereotypical ways of thinking that artists would have, and what’s stereotypical for artists generally is what they call neurodivergent for the rest of humanity.
But more importantly, I think a lot of kids are going to feel very inspired, because when I was a youngster, I really enjoyed this arc on one of my favorite TV shows, where Theo Huxtable, he became a teacher, but the thing was he struggled with dyslexia when he was in school. I didn’t struggle with dyslexia, but I knew something was off, and I thought, “Well, this guy grew up and actually became a teacher. He’s teaching kids,” and then I’m looking at what I get to play in “Abbott,” and there’s a big similarity there to one of my favorite arcs in that show, and it’s just an honor. Also, shout out to the late great Malcolm-Jamal Warner. He will be missed.
Dominic leans on Jacob about Melissa and Barb’s comments, which leads to a hilarious misunderstanding. What was it like working with Chris for those scenes?
I was really trying hard not to break that. I really had to lock in. He’s so funny, but here’s a sincerity and a conviction with which that character, he’s not playing him for laughs, and that’s what is so funny. As soon as I’m used to the “Abbott” timing by this episode, I’m figuring out how the show is done … I know how to resist breaking, how to keep the corners of my mouth from curling up into a smile. And just when I think I got the timing, Chris will push that pause a little bit longer, and I feel it. I can feel the giggle sneaking up about my throat. It’s so challenging.
Working with Chris in particular was hard because he’s just so funny. It looks like he’s not even trying, but he works very hard. That’s what kills me about working with him and doing scenes with him — Jacob is a very different dude than Chris, like he’s really transformative. When he turns that switch, you got to be ready, because if you’re not on your toes when you work with him, you’re going to get knocked over.
Dominic then has a very meaningful conversation with Barb, who was previously his teacher. What was it like building that dynamic with Sheryl and how did you craft what their interaction would look like?
Usually the way the scenes are built on “Abbott” is you read it, then you read it again, then you start finding the blocking. And once you find the blocking, then they start really nailing what the camera operators are going to do. Once we layered the blocking, then we had the operators on, and then they kind of nailed the timing with everyone. Once we had built that, it really felt like Miss Sheryl Lee and I nailed what the show’s tone was going for.
1) It’s very important to see somebody who has this condition be able to articulate themselves successfully about what the condition is. 2) It’s very important to see someone in power be able to understand and own a mistake they may have made in communicating about said condition, and then 3) watching these two people resolve something amicably might just be the ideal — It might not be how it’s going to go in real life, but it exemplifies that there’s hope. This is for students and teachers who may be struggling with the condition, or struggling with students with the condition … it’s an example of what could happen when things go right. And I think “Abbott” lending itself to that community being an example is so beneficial, particularly because “Abbott” is a primarily Black show that for a lot of the Black students watching, they’ll be able to say, “Perhaps if I communicate myself articulately, I can be able to get what I need to even though I have this condition.”
Can we look forward to seeing more of Dominic throughout the rest of the season? Was this a way to bring Dominic further into the group?
You’re gonna see Dominic again. I can tell you the last episode that I shot was my favorite. It was a crescendo. I didn’t think anything was going to be cooler than the mall, but I was wrong, because we shot this, and then I didn’t think anything was going to be cooler than that, because I just got to kick it with the cast a little bit more. It’s my favorite episode of “Abbott” that I had the chance to be in, and I’ve been in some cool episodes. Y’all, they went and kicked it with Kyle Schwarber.
What was it like shooting in the mall?
It was a dream. It was so cool, because a lot of the crew who works on “Abbott” —a lot of them are locals, so they were talking about the memories that they had growing up in that mall. I’m big into this trend on social media where people will share what they call liminal spaces, so being there I just kept having these thoughts about all the different things that could shoot there. I’m a filmmaker myself, so I’m like, “Oh, I wonder how I’ll be able to use this space if I wrote something for this mall.”
I got to work with the kids a lot that episode. That’s the next generation of stars — those kids — they are incredible actors, so being able to start those relationships so they remember me when they all end up as Michael B.’s and Violas, they can cast me.
You’re quite booked and busy. What are you hoping to do next?
Well, look, I’m being mad greedy saying this, but I’m on a bunch of Warner shows, and the last time somebody asked me that, I said, “The Pitt,” and lo and behold, I get to work on that show. I hope they bring me back for the next season. We haven’t seen Crus Henderson yet, but April 2 he drops, so stay tuned.
The next WB show I want is “The Studio,” and I have a pitch. I want to play myself every time somebody is like, “Hey, aren’t you that guy from that show?” And they say the name wrong, and they call it “Shrinkage.” I’m like, “No, that’s not what it is.” And then they try to recognize me from the show, but I never get to finish a sentence — just kind of an unimportant background character … just trying to explain some idea about some new concept, some new script, and then it’s, “Oh yeah, I’ll get right back to you,” and we just never hear him finish. I would love to just be a fly on the wall. And I think a part like that would allow me to watch the show and be in it at the same time.
All of the shows that you’ve mentioned based in L.A. How does shooting in L.A. impact opportunities?
I had told my representation that I need to focus on being in L.A. right now [with] my wife and I got two young kids, I’m trying to be home. This is not the late ’90s or early 2000s so despite the fact that I’m on all these TV shows, I make relatively normal money. I can’t afford to have people watching my kids — that’s not how I work anymore. It’s a different business — inflation, California and all of that — to be able to provide for my kids … we need to stay here. We need to be based in one place at one time for the youth of these kids, and doing these shows in L.A. has been such a blessing. But I think it was that mental commitment to I can’t afford to leave here. Perhaps I would be able to earn more money to provide for my family, but I would not be here with my family, and that provision, to me, is more important than being able to get a new car. These shows and being able to to work in L.A. has really enhanced my position as a provider in my family, as a father, because a lot of people think provision is just financial, but that’s not the case in my family. It’s about being there.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
“Abbott Elementary” airs Wednesday on ABC and streams the next day on Hulu.
