Interview: Chris Perfetti on Spending Time at ‘Abbott Elementary’

On Abbott Elementary, Quinta Brunson‘s mockumentary about life in a Philadelphia public school, Chris Perfetti plays Jacob Hill. The awkward and loveable history teacher has some of the most memorable moments on the show. This season, he had some great high points with Tyler James Williams‘ Gregory Eddie, and Jacob became a surprising roommate with Lisa Ann Walter‘s Melissa Schemmenti. Season 3 brought us more white guilt, reality TV, AI with Mr. Johnson, and so much more.   Needless to say, it takes a lot of skill to play the character and make him so charming and likable despite all the corniness.

Over Zoom, we talked to the award-winning actor about inhabiting the halls of Abbott Elementary and bringing Jacob to life. He shared Jacob’s journey for this season, which included some rare wins for the character and the deepening of friendships that we mentioned above that have made him so fun. Perfetti shared his nervousness at first reading about Jacob’s breakup with Zach (played by Larry Owens) on the show, but ultimately, how it was essential to help make the character feel authentic. Perfetti was also full of genuine praise for the show’s writers for giving him fantastic material to work with and for really understanding Jacob – and all the characters on screen.

Perfetti, who has a theater background, likened the show’s lengthy, uninterrupted takes to the immersive experience of a theatrical performance. These extended scenes, he revealed, mirrored what it is like to be a character on stage for a few hours. It was a great chat and worth checking out. There’s even a tidbit in there for Philadelphians. Read below for the full interview, or listen to it above.

Ayla Ruby: Okay, yay. Again, I’m so excited to chat. I love the show and there’s a lot going on for Jacob this season.

Chris Perfetti: There is.

Ayla Ruby: Can you talk about his journey this season? I guess where we meet him and how he progresses? Because there’s so much going on, I have so many questions.

Chris Perfetti: What was so fascinating about this season was we had to trust that the audience would fill in the blanks. We started later, because of the strikes. And so we had this amazing gift of getting to try and get people to guess about what they missed. And Quinta, I feel like in general, is just really great at taking a curveball and making something beautiful out of it. And so yeah, the first time we saw Jacob was quite a while from the previous time. And so yeah, I think the things that were most interesting to me about what we did this season was with that big chunk of time that had gone by, we got to really see how these relationships had changed and the audience had to put together the pieces.

We got to see Jacob win a bunch this year, which I think was fun. It feels like it’s always been a priority of our writers and producers to bust these characters out of the shell that we have maybe set up for them. The documentary format I think is really important if you can craft characters that seem like real people. I feel like most sitcoms are we’re expecting characters to not change and really do what we know they’re going to do. And so yeah, we got to see a lot of the relationships in Jacob’s life fall apart this year. Obviously his best friend left Abbott and he became much closer with Gregory, his longtime boyfriend, and he broke up. And so as an actor, I am looking for those sorts of things. Anything that we can do to turn your expectations of what you know about this character on its head and to make them squirm and make them do a 180 is fun for me. So it was a lot of fun this season.

Ayla Ruby: Well, so you mentioned Jacob’s boyfriend, you mentioned the breakup. Can you talk about that? What was your reaction to reading that? And do you think that’s the end? What was that like to play that?

Chris Perfetti: I’ll work in reverse order here. What it was like to play that was as every scene with Larry Owens is just extremely gratifying. He’s a consummate pro, so funny, so talented, so a blast. I mean, when I first read it and when Quinta and I were first talking about it, my gut reaction was trepidation. I thought there was more to be explored in that relationship, and I love Larry so much, and so I was bummed out about that. But at the same time, like I was saying before, I think the only way that we can portray these people as authentic and real and not two-dimensional and people who have flaws and people who can change, is to do exactly that, is to rip away from them what is close to them. And at the same time that I was a bit nervous about it, I was very excited about what the idea of a single Jacob might mean. And the only thing I’ll say about the future of it all is I feel like we’ve established at this point that when you are Abbott family, you are a part of the family.

Ayla Ruby: Yeah.

Chris Perfetti: And so it is not the end of Larry Owens.

Ayla Ruby: So the breakup led to something really interesting, which is Jacob and Melissa moving in. And it’s hilarious and it’s actually super sincere, which is just really, the friendship is lovely. I’d love to know… And Jacob in general is super funny and just very heartfelt. As an actor, how do you bring that to screen, because it’s a tricky balance, without it becoming too much?

Chris Perfetti: Yeah, I mean, I would say so much of my work is done for me. I feel like the beauty of working on a show this long, which was never a desire or expectation of mine to play a character for this long. There’s now 10 writers and producers who are also experts on Jacob. And so I feel very safe with them. I don’t feel like they’re going to write something that feels like… I’ve never had the experience on set that I feel like most actors have at some point, which is having to say, “My character would never do that.” I feel like we’re a very close-knit family and we’ve gotten very specific about who these people are. And so yeah, I’ll say it’s that.

And equally, I feel so at home and safe with my cast. I really admire them as collaborators and as actors and people. And I really think that does the other half of the work, which is I just trust who I’m acting with. And so I know that anything can happen in those moments. And it’s a beautiful feeling. It’s really only now having done Abbott and done it for this long that I realized how rare that is. There’s usually I have found a certain amount of protecting of your performance that you need to have going into a new environment. But yeah, Lisa Ann Walter is an unbelievable human being and an extremely talented actor, and so she makes it very easy.

Ayla Ruby: So you’ve done a lot of really cool theater work. Acting for theater, is that different than working with Abbott or does it channel the same things?

Chris Perfetti: Yeah, it’s weird. They simultaneously feel like unbelievably different and yet there is some crossover. In general, I think I just feel way more at home on stage. That’s how I trained and how I cut my teeth in New York is doing plays on and off Broadway. And so it feels like acting to me more. The actor I feel like in general is just way more in control on stage. And you are charged with telling the story in a way that an editor or a writer is charged with it in TV and film. And so that said, I have been longing to have the experience of feeling like I am collaborating with an ensemble in TV and film, that I have come to know and love in theater. And I feel like I have that now and that’s just the greatest feeling in the world.

I feel like the beautiful thing about rehearsing a play is you spend a month becoming family and you just build this trust so that you can take risks. And I feel that now with my Abbott family and a part of me felt it from the jump. There’s a word, cosmic, I can’t really put it into words. There was just a feeling, there was just a good feeling. And then I guess the genre of the show, this mockumentary thing that we’re after, I feel like very much lends itself, it borrows skills I feel like from the stage. It’s at times very presentational. We do these incredibly long takes where there’s just three cameras rolling, and so you get to forget for a moment that you’re filming a TV show. And much like you are when you’re on stage and the play starts and you’re not done with it for two hours later. So yeah, they are unbelievably different and yet, I’m very grateful to have what I learned working on plays here with me now.

Ayla Ruby:I love that. I love that. I never really considered that the actor was driving the train in theater versus where you’ve got editors and all sorts of other people to help craft that emotional story. So I’m going to sit with that for a while. So one of the things I love about Abbott is I’m from Philly and I went to Philly Public Schools, so much of it’s just-

Chris Perfetti: Yes.

Ayla Ruby: Yeah, so much of it is, I know this, this is familiar. And I was wondering if anything about Philadelphia has surprised you that you’ve learned or anything about the weird little quirks?

Chris Perfetti: I mean, yes and no. I’ve lived in New York for 15 years now, and so I feel like there’s just a very similar foundation. I feel like we’re not that different. I mean obviously geographically we’re not that far away from each other. But there’s a lot that we have in common. And so when Quinta tells me things about Philly, I’m like, “Yeah, we do that too.” But I will say that one of the supreme joys of working on this show is learning what those differences are and being around Quinta and really a lot of the other people that she knew in Philly and the way that she writes for Philly in the show. I mean, she’s doing many things. I think she’s also writing for teachers and a certain comedic ear. But it’s a facet of what I loved about the show the first time I read it.

When a writer has a bravery that maybe you won’t understand it, but my Philly people will understand this and you’ll get the next joke and everything’s going to be okay. There’s a authority over storytelling that I find very attractive. And I feel like it’s usually those kinds of writers that just get very specific and very real. And so obviously when you get very specific and dial in on Philly, the more Philadelphia the show is, the more universal the show is. And if you do this general paintbrush of what it’s like to be in a school, then I think you lose people a bit and you won’t be able to reap the rewards that we have, just in terms of comedy and pathos.

Ayla Ruby: That makes sense. So we’re getting close on time. Is there anything else you want people to know about the show, about Jacob or anything coming up?

Chris Perfetti: No, thank you. No, I feel like we just wrapped season three and my head is still spinning a little bit, but I’m feeling unbelievably grateful. And I think I work with the best comedy ensemble on TV and I know that I have to be… Look, every actor thinks that they have the best cast and they’re like, “I have the best job.” But they don’t because I do. And I am very much excited to take a break and regroup for what is going to be an absolutely wild season four. But I miss them already, as I said, we’ve really become family at this point and our crew is included in that. And so yeah, just got a lot of love for my Abbott fam.

Ayla Ruby: Well, that’s awesome. Thank you so much.

Chris Perfetti: Thank you. It was great to talk to you.

Note: This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.