Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Essential traits:Outlandish, self-aggrandizing, dismissive of others concerns and contributions, sarcastic.
Vain in matters of appearance and humor.
A multipotentialite cinephile, doomsday prepper, clotheshorse, and step dancer.
Intermittently, and often secretly, sensitive.
This woman used the school for her own vanity and made it her playground.
He immediately recognized Ava as crucial comic relief.
The story has a message thats good for people, he says.
you’re gonna wanna hide the peas and the potatoes sometimes.
If you put Ava in the middle, shes this thing everybody has to contend with, he says.
You have this healthy wheel trying to do its best, but the axle is broken.
Casting began via Zoom.
As soon as Janelle James appeared, Brunson thought,Were done.
Plus, James knew how to have fun with the script.
She just picked it up and ran with it, remembers Einhorn.
Janelle didnt know how good she was, he adds.
She knows shes funny; she just didnt know she could act.
She said, Why would you do that?
James remembers with a laugh.
Dont lose what makes you special.
Theres no limit to the jokes we can give her.
“….let me back my tasty ass up.”
LOL!#AbbottElementarypic.twitter.com/rYF0or6ak5
But James insistsAbbott Elementaryis a collaboration.
She wont improvise until asked, nor does she commit to memory every spontaneous moment she thinks up.
Thats thirsty, James says.
(When we were watching it being filmed, people were getting emotional, McCrory remembers.)
Like, who are you drinking with?
James says, laughing).
Its all inappropriate for school, James says.
This competence is short-lived, however.
The episode begins with Ava once again using Abbott as a place to conduct other business.
James careens through all the characters strengths and weaknesses in the episode.
Dont read too much into it.
As Dufurrena puts it: She enjoys seeing progress from these kids, but she would never admit that.
Just dont expect Ava to find her passion for education.
We are always very conscious of how we modulate her redeemability, says Einhorn.
Her growths are so small because I want to preserve that character.
I dont want to see her grow too much.
I want her to be good, then regret it.
For James, thats what makes Ava so radical.
Its hard to play someone that could very easily be hated.
I know some people hate me, but I feel like they always come around.
In their hearts, they love me.
