Lifestyle
‘Abbott Elementary’ Star Sheryl Lee Ralph on Her Second Season Stride and the Actors Strike
[ad_1]
I caught up with Abbott Elementary’s Sheryl Lee Ralph on a very surreal day, for both her and Hollywood at large. It was the morning of the Emmy nominations, and she had just received her second consecutive nod for supporting actress in a comedy series.
“I’m so happy that we’re talking now, because up until just about an hour ago, I was just a weeping ball of emotion,” she tells me. “I was underneath the covers crying, and I said, ‘I do not know why I am underneath the covers crying with my eyeglasses on.’ I am a mess, but now I’m just feeling grateful, thankful, happy, joyful for my journey.”
But as we signed on to record Little Gold Men, Ralph, who won the Emmy in this category just last year, had other things on her mind. She had just gotten off a call with the Screen Actors Guild negotiating committee, which was deep in final discussions before announcing a strike that would take effect the very next day. As a member of the SAG-AFTRA national board, Ralph had an inside view of what was about to happen, and had a lot to say about why actors had to go on strike, even though she acknowledged how much of a strain and a stress it would be on this community.
Ralph, who plays veteran elementary school teacher Barbara Howard on the hit ABC series Abbott Elementary, told Little Gold Men all about expanding her character’s story in season two, the inspiration the writers took from her own life, and what she’s fighting hardest for in the now very real strike.
Vanity Fair: The show was such an instant success in its first season. Does this second consecutive nomination feel any different?
Sheryl Lee Ralph: I’m just so happy that anything that I have been doing has been so well received by those who look at television and say, “Yeah, I like that. Yes, I resonate with that.” That that doesn’t happen often. Honestly, in doing this role, it was so subtle in what she had to say and do, and I thought nobody was going to see my work. I really thought, I’m here to do some good work and collect a check.
It’s funny, because I know Quinta Brunson said before the first season that she wanted to give you the role that would finally get you an Emmy.
She absolutely knew. She looked at me and knew it. She literally said, “we’re going there.” She’s like a little magician. There was a moment when she and [executive producer/director] Randall [Einhorn] said, “just do nothing,” which was a challenge for me to hear the direction, and really lean on my abilities as an actor to still give this character life without trying to bring all the bells and whistles that we might have in comedy.
[ad_2]
Rebecca Ford
Source link
