Xuenou > Movies > I Can’t Look At “Abbott Elementary” The Same Way Again After Finding Out These Behind-The-Scenes Facts From Writer Brittani Nichols
I Can’t Look At “Abbott Elementary” The Same Way Again After Finding Out These Behind-The-Scenes Facts From Writer Brittani Nichols
I Can't Look At "Abbott Elementary" The Same Way Again After Finding Out These Behind-The-Scenes Facts From Writer Brittani Nichols,"I get to go make jokes and try to make content that makes people feel good after a bad day, or helps people feel seen, and it just feels like a worthwhile thing to put a lot of my time and energy into, if I have to do anything."

I Can’t Look At “Abbott Elementary” The Same Way Again After Finding Out These Behind-The-Scenes Facts From Writer Brittani Nichols

Amy Sussman / Getty Images for WGAW

Writers are often inspired by real-life experiences. How has being a queer, Black woman influenced your writing?

I think it really helped position me as a good straight man, ironically enough. That’s the correct term I should be using. Because I think I just am always in the position of noticing the weird thing that’s happening before anyone else, because I carry myself in such a way that I sort of have to be on the lookout for a weird thing happening for safety reasons. 

I think that just bled over into comedy, where it’s like in an improv scene, or in a real written scene, where someone is just saying something that feels a little off, or is trying to hide something, or cover something up. I’m just the first person to be like, “Wait a second. Stop right there. And let’s investigate that.”

Has it also influenced the projects you attach yourself to?

Absolutely, yeah! I think I am, at all times, trying to create something that a younger version of me would have appreciated or thought was cool. There have been so many times in my career where I’m doing something, and I’m like, “Oh man, teenage me would love the shit out of this!” Or, “If teenage me had seen this, this could have helped me come to some conclusions earlier on about things.” So, just trying to use art to give people a sense of community. 

A lot of the things that I work on, I want it to feel like people are in the room with the characters, and that if they don’t have that for themselves in their real life, for that brief period of time, they feel like, “Oh, these are the sorts of people that I know I want in my life.” Hopefully it inspires people to seek that sort of thing out if they don’t have it.

Momodu Mansaray / Getty Images

Have you ever felt like being a part of these perse communities was ever used against you when trying to find work?

Hmm…I honestly think that it’s only protected me, because I think that anyone who doesn’t want to work with someone because of the identities that I hold is not something I want to work with anyway. I think it’s really helped me find projects that I am drawn to, honestly. 

If people are coming to me simply because of an identity marker, there are plenty of times where I’m like, “Oh, just because this is a Black thing or a queer thing, it still doesn’t line up with who I am as a writer, or performer, or a person.” But when it does, it makes it that much more special.

How did you first meet Quinta and how did that meeting lead you to writing for the show?

So, I originally met Quinta when we were both acting in a BuzzFeed web series called You Do You, and we just continued to see each other around town. I think the last time I saw her, before Black Lady Sketch Show, was in Larry Wilmore’s office. We were both just going to meetings with different people in the office. Then we worked together again on A Black Lady Sketch Show. I think she just had an appreciation for the weirdness that was present in some of my sketches,  and I wasn’t coming back for Season 2 of A Black Lady Sketch Show because I had a show in development at Quibi — RIP. And I won’t say this…

Prashant Gupta / ABC via Getty Images

Which character do you enjoy writing for the most?

Season 1, my favorite was Tariq (Zack Fox), and Season 2, my favorite has been Gregory (Tyler James Williams).

Which character has posed the biggest challenge for you when it comes to writing their story?

I think the characters that challenge us the most are the kids, just because we’re not children. There are plenty of times where we slip things through and we’re like, “There’s got to be one weird kid that knows this information.” I think so many of us were the one weird kid that knew some pop culture reference that we had no business knowing. That’s a cool way to flesh out the the kid characters that we don’t get to see as much, but we give them really specific things so that you sort of know this kid’s interests. 

And if we have a storyline later that is about something sort of off kilter, we know to bring those kids back. But you just want to be careful that you’re not making them sound like Young Sheldon or whatever. They’re not all these geniuses trapped in second grade, like they’re just second graders. We’re trying to just make sure that it sounds like something that kid would say.

Scott Everett White / ABC via Getty Images

Love that! As a writer, how do you feel about improvised lines? Are you a stickler for making sure the words in the script make it on screen? Or are you okay with the actors playing around with their lines?

So, I come from an improv background, so I am very comfortable with actors improvising when the time is right. It doesn’t happen that much on the show, honestly. I think part of it is, we have pretty short days, and people sort of enjoy having those short days. I feel like a lot of the times when you’re doing improv, it’s to surprise the crew, right? It’s to surprise your fellow performers, to maybe make something feel fun if it was feeling a little dry. I think that we’re already having so much fun with things as scripted. This set is so loving and just enjoyable, that we don’t need to inject improv in. 

But at the same time, there are plenty of times where actors have ideas and jokes that they bring to us as writers. We’re super open to it, because it’s a collaborative process. Every episode is strengthened by every single person that is collaborating, from set and hair, the director, lighting…every single department that is collaborating is adding something, and if an actor has something that they want to add to the mix, I see no reason not to leave the door open for it. But we work really hard on the scripts, so, fortunately, the actors don’t feel like they need to jazz it up.

Speaking of people bringing ideas to the writers, Twitter is very vocal about what they’d like to see on the show. Before he actually guest-starred on the show, people on Twitter were pushing for Orlando Jones to star as Tyler James Williams’ father. Now, I don’t know if that had anything to do with you all putting him in the show, but how do you feel about people pushing these guest stars on the show? Does that influence you guys at all?

I will only speak for myself, but I think there are other people who feel the same way: We do not like it. It’s not fun for us. It’s not that we feel pressure, I just think that it’s a business and there is a very specific way that you go about trying to get cast on a show. And it is not to DM writers or to add us on Twitter. That’s just not the way that things happen for the most part. 

What the hell do I know? Maybe there are other shows where they’re like, “Yes, please tell us your casting ideas.” I think it’s fun for people to dream-cast on Twitter. That’s all fine and good. It’s just when it gets sort of directed to us where it’s like, “Hey, do this. Cast this person, this will be fun.” It’s like, “Well, don’t you like the show? Don’t you find the show to be enjoyable?” We have a pretty good idea of who works on the show. If that’s a person that we think fits into the world, they’re gonna come up in conversation already. We don’t need to depend on Twitter to do casting for us.

It just hurts their chances more than anything. The thing that could happen is that we just get annoyed and then we’re just like, “No, just to make a point, we’re not gonna cast that person!”

Pamela Littky / ABC via Getty Images

Noted. I will not be recommending guest stars on Twitter [laughs]. What has been the most rewarding and the most challenging part about being a writer?

The most challenging, I would say is how inconsistent work can be until you sort of get to a place where you don’t have to worry about working. There’s not a lot of middle ground. I think people don’t realize being a writer means that you’re looking for a job all the time. Like, imagine if just every six months, you had to find a new job. That’s the mental experience of being a writer early on in your career, and then all of a sudden, something snaps, and it’s just like, “Okay, I’m good.”  

That’s been my experience. Everyone might not feel like that. So, that concern of how am I gonna continue to live in this very expensive city with an industry that is constantly changing and is not built for people like me to even exist in it? Like, how am I going to make ends meet? 

And then the most enjoyable part of being a writer isn’t as fun. I mean, I am the last person on Earth who’s going to tell you that having a job is good, I don’t really understand why this is the way humans have decided to exist. Labor is pretty sucky. But to be in a system where you have to work, this is a pretty good job to have. I get to go make jokes and try to make content that makes people feel good after a bad day, or helps people feel seen, and it just feels like a worthwhile thing to put a lot of my time and energy into, if I have to do anything.

Earlier, you mentioned the work days are typically short. Can you walk us through a typical shooting schedule for Abbott?

So for on set, we are built to do 10-hour days instead of 12-hour days, which is why our crew really loves being on our show. A lot of the time, we are well under that. There are some days where we’re wrapping before lunch. So, we’re finishing in under six hours. Then in the writers room, we get in at 10 a.m. and we’re usually out by 4 p.m.

Phillip Faraone / Variety via Getty Images

If you could write for any show — whether it’s currently on the air or not — what would it be?

Right now, I think my answer would be Reboot. It just went off the air. Well, it didn’t go off, they got canceled. Unfortunately, a lot of the shows that I really like have been canceled recently, like Southside. But Reboot was really clever and really sort of character-driven and understated, but still a lot of laugh-out-loud moments. It’s also a show where I feel like I could have been additive, because I think there’s a lot of time where I’m watching shows, and I’m like, “Oh, they’re killing it! I’m not gonna get in there and help.” And then there are shows where it’s just like, “Oh, I think that I could help this. I could make this even funnier. I could really dig in and make the show even better.” And that was one of the shows where I was like, “Man, this is funny!” I think I would have had fun in that room. Or maybe not. I might not have had fun in the room. Rooms can be wild!

Lastly, what’s next for you?

Who knows [laughs]? I have a show in development at Netflix and a couple of features that I’m trying to sell. I have my own stuff that I am trying to get off the ground, but it truly does not feel urgent, because I do love Abbott so much. There are not a lot of other shows that are quite frankly going to pay 22-episode network money. And I like having the ability to pay my rent [laughs].

ABC

Be sure to tune in tonight for Brittani’s episode, aka the Season 2 finale of Abbott Elementary, at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.