Exclusive: Lisa Ann Walter Dishes on Season 4 of Abbott Elementary
If you loved The Parent Trap, you probably remember Lisa Ann Walter as Chessy, the lovable, sharp-eyed housekeeper who stole our hearts. But thats just the start! Since then, Walter has tackled roles in major hits like the 2017 comedy film Bruce Almighty and Netflix‘s comedy-drama Glow.But, these days, you cant miss her as the no-nonsense, fiercely loyal Melissa Schemmenti on ABCs breakout sitcom Abbott Elementary. As a tough second-grade teacher, she brings charm, grit and humor to the showand fans cant get enough!
Since its 2021 debut, Abbott Elementary has been a runaway success. With a cast playing passionate teachers navigating the highs and lows of their Philadelphia public school, the TV show masterfully balances heart, humor and real-world struggles. Now four seasons in, Abbott has racked up four Emmy wins (and 24 nominations!), including awards for Outstanding Casting and Directing. Its a show that resonates with viewers across generations, keeping fansyoung and oldtuning in week after week.
With season 4 recently premiering on Oct. 9, Readers Digest caught up with Walter for a deep dive into what we can expect this season. She dishes on the shows direction, her experience balancing comedy and acting, and how shes using her platform to advocate for menopause awareness as a 61-year-old actress thriving in the industry.
So, whether youre a die-hard Abbott Elementary fan or have followed Walters career for years, stick aroundweve got the inside scoop straight from the star herself!
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
GetReaders DigestsRead Up newsletterfor more heartwarming stories, humor, cleaning, travel, tech and fun facts all week long.
Reader’s Digest: Dogs or cats?
Lisa Ann Walter: Dogs.
Reader’s Digest: Aisle seat or window?
Lisa Ann Walter: Aisle seat.
Reader’s Digest: Mornings or nights?
Lisa Ann Walter: My whole life, I would have said nights. I was always a night person, but now that I do Abbott, I just jump up in the morning because I can’t wait to go to work. I’m going to shock myself and say mornings. I really love getting up and having a full pot of Starbucksespresso, decafand doing my day.
Reader’s Digest: Would you rather time travel to the past or future?
Lisa Ann Walter: Past. I’m a history fanatic, but I have to be able to come back to the modern times for the healthcare [laughs].
Reader’s Digest: What advice would you give to your younger self if you could?
Lisa Ann Walter: Forget about the 10 poundsjust be the way you’re supposed to be. You’re going to ruin your metabolism and be miserable for your whole life. Forget it. And it’s someday in the near future that big butt that you have, that Sicilian Koolie, is going to be so popular that girls are going to try to buy it. So stop hating your butt.
Reader’s Digest: If you werent an actress/ comedian, what would you be doing?
Lisa Ann Walter: An esthetician [laughs]. I say that, but I probably would have become a lawyer and then a politician.
Reader’s Digest: Melissa Schemmenti is such a bold, dynamic character. What aspects of Melissa do you personally connect with, and how do you think shes evolved over the course of Abbott Elementary?
Lisa Ann Walter: There are a lot of similarities. My family is Sicilian [and] I think I’m kind of a natural teacher. My mom was the teacher, a Sicilian teacher in a public school, and so all of that resonates with me. The food thing came because week one, when we shot the pilot, I was already bringing food to everybody. I had a big ziti; I had meatballs. I went and picked up Italian pastries because it was Easter Week, and I got all these Easter pastries for everybody. And so they started writing that into the character, and I love it because any scene they have where I get to cook, it’s just very natural.
One of our executive producers, Randall Einhorn, is a big gourmet foodie, so he and I talk food all the time. When we started out, Melissa was toughmaybe mobbed up, at least connected. And [she’s] a really good foil for Sheryl [Lee Ralph’s character] Barbara Howard. I love that they are true girlfriends, ride or die. That part resonates with me 100%. Being of a similar age, I’m glad that they wrote that.
I think some of those things that I really enjoy about Melissa now is that we don’t just see the tough, the mobbed up and all of those jokes, but that she is vulnerable, and the tough is probably to cover the vulnerable. She’s a really good teacher, she loves her students, would do anything to protect them and I love those stories too.
Reader’s Digest: As we look forward to the continuation of Season 4, are there any exciting storylines or new developments for Melissa that you can tease for the fans?
Lisa Ann Walter: I will tease that episode three of this season is one of my favorites that I’ve ever done on Abbott. You’ll see a different side of Melissa. And then there’s another one coming up a little bit later in the season. It’s a huge Melissa story. It’s going to be really amazing.
Reader’s Digest: Given the deep dive into the world of education on Abbott Elementary, have you ever considered teaching as a career? Has the show sparked any new interest in or appreciation for the profession?
Lisa Ann Walter: Well, I always had an appreciation for it, because my mother was a teacher. I remember being in junior high, I had a teacher that I love, Miss Freddye Davy. She was Teacher of the Year for Montgomery County [Maryland] a couple of times. She was wonderful. And she’s very much like Barbara Howard [Sheryl Lee Ralph’s character on Abbott], and took education very seriously. She was one of the first Black kids integrated into a white school after the decision [Brown vs. Board of Education], and so she did not take any of it for granted. She spoke very formally. She also taught me how to write a term paper and I used the way she taught me through college. And when I was bored, because I was always ahead in class, she said if you know the subject, come and teach it. She would hand me the chalk, I would go up to the board and I would start teaching about gerunds or whatever we were in advanced English.
[One time]I was teaching and when I stopped she said, if you want, you can be a teacher, you’re very good. I was very complimented. I chose a different path, but I love doing it. I love teaching the kids [in Abbot Elementary] when we break or when we’re in between setups. I’ll just start teaching them whatever’s on the board of my classroom. I love it. It’s so much fun.
Reader’s Digest: Melissa is fiercely protective and has a no-nonsense approach, which makes her such a strong figure for her students. Do you see any similarities between Melissas style and your own parenting, even though your kids are older now?
Lisa Ann Walter: I see my mother in that. I think there’s a little bit of that’s who Melissa is, and there’s a little bit of, that’s who Lisa is. And so there can be a line in a script that’s very tough to another teacher, but at the same time, I’m standing there with my arm around one of my kids, or I’m helping her with her jacket, or pinching her cheeks or making a joke with one of the kids. All that stuff is just extra little pieces that we throw in because we know our kids. They’re in our class every week, every episode. So we see them sometimes, two, three days a week. You get to know them and their little quirks. Who are the ones that are going to keep asking to go to the bathroom? Who are the ones that are going to be falling asleep? I’m constantly reminding them to eat, very much like my mother again. They come up to me with their worksheets done. They really look at us like we’re their teachers.
Reader’s Digest: Youve spoken openly about your experience with menopause, even teaming up with Centrum for Hot Conversations. How has it influenced your daily life, both as a woman and in your career as an actress and comedian?
Lisa Ann Walter: It was a decision that I made when this opportunity came along to be open about it, and knowing that it might be detrimental to my career, because people don’t have an awareness. They love to pigeonhole women in particular. It affects men. Men don’t have anything comparable to this, so they just get gray hair, and we all go, oh, how distinguished. But with women, there is a really kind of backwards assumption of being low energy, or non sexualall of the dry jokes, right? So all of those things can really affect not just my workplace, but any workplace. And because we’re afraid to talk about it, it perpetuates the lack of awareness. It perpetuates being the butt of a joke, and not just in a completely natural phase of life that we all go through.
[Editors note:Hot Conversations is a first-of-its-kind workforce menopause training video. Walter is also helping to promote the launch of Centrums new line of menopause supplements, Centrum Menopause Support.]
In my experience, I was always trying to lose that 10 pounds. Then I got to the menopause stage, and it was 10 pounds over that. Now I’m trying to lose 10 pounds to get to the point where I needed to lose 10 pounds. And my OB/GYN just said, ‘Look, this is the stage of life. You can either kill yourself every day and starve or not. It’s up to you.’ And I made a conscious decision that I was not going to do that. I was going to prioritize being happy. And I think that’s one of the wonderful things about being at this stage of lifewe are smart with the wisdom that comes with it and we can make choices that are about balance in life. I had an experience where I was at a call back for a job, and I broke into a bad hot flash. And it was not just like a hot flash where I felt hotlike you could see me getting red. I could feel sweat breaking out on my forehead, and they had to think that it was nerves, that I didn’t feel confident with what I was doing with the job. It was not that at all. It was physiology. But I did not feel comfortable enough saying it’s just a hot flash, because the character that I was auditioning for had to be sexual.
Reader’s Digest: With a career that spans both television and stand-up comedy, how has your approach to storytelling and performance evolved over time?
Lisa Ann Walter: I’ve always loved performing in front of people. When I knew that I wanted to be an actress, I was doing stage play. I made people laugh and I made them cry, and I said I always want to feel like this. And so the segue into doing stand up was sort of natural, because I was in front of people and making them laugh, which is so powerful for me. It’s powerful for them. The shared experience is it’s a communal event and I loved it. It’s why I loved theater. I never thought I was going to be in movies or TV. I thought I was going to be a stage actress. If I was lucky, I thought I was going to become part of arena stage or the Guthrie [Theater], or a great repertory house somewhere in America.
The one that felt the most different was doing movies. There’s so much downtime, and then you have to be ready to go when it’s time for your scene to be called. But Abbott is kind of the best of both worlds, for two reasons. One, I have the best ensemble comedy cast on television. I believe that each one of them are at the top of their game, firing on all cylinders every single episode. It brings my performance up. I think that the work we do with each other is insane chemistry, and I never experienced the like of it in any TV show.
Because we have three cameras working at the same time, we’re cap. We’re not doing my side then your side trying to match. My level of reaction for that thing that you did is immediate. Your response is authentic and genuine in that moment. So the acting is at a whole other level and and it’s really fun to do and it’s really fun to watch. So I think I’m at the top of my game right now this season. Quite frankly, I’m doing work this season that is more more top shelf than anything I’ve done in my career.
Why trust us
AtReaders Digest,werecommitted to producing high-quality content by writers withexpertiseand experience in their field in consultation with relevant, qualified experts. We rely on reputable primary sources, including government and professional organizations and academic institutions as well as our writers personal experience whereappropriate. We verify all facts and data, back them with credible sourcing and revisit them over time to ensure theyremainaccurateand up to date. Read more about ourteam, ourcontributorsand oureditorial policies.
The post Exclusive: Lisa Ann Walter Dishes on Season 4 of <i>Abbott Elementary</i> appeared first on Reader's Digest.
from Reader's Digest https://ift.tt/AVDvpqJ
Comments
Post a Comment