“Abbott Elementary” star Chris Perfetti has the best coworkers in Hollywood

Not having that immediate gratification is really infuriating,” says actor Chris Perfetti of starring in ABC’s Emmy-nominated comedy. Abbott Elementary. The classically trained actor, who started on the stage before getting the role of young maestro Jacob (and starring) in the program created by Quinta Brunson, admits that having a television series is a completely different beast to the theater in which he nevertheless lies. inside. It’s the most comfortable. “On stage, actors have much more control over the narrative of the story. Television is a series of images: the story is told by someone else, mainly in the field of editing.

Still, Perfet admits the job was an overwhelming experience, one in which he learned a lot about himself as an actor by watching it with the cast and crew. “That’s what intrigues me the most,” he says. “I see people who are really good at it, and that’s inspiring and addictive for me.”

perfect did not expect this Abbott Elementary It would be a great opportunity when he read the pilot for the first time to prepare for his audition for the role of Jacob, but at the same time he was convinced the project was something special. “I just saw Jacob and who he was in the world,” he recalls. The show’s humor also touched him: he remembers reading the script on public transportation in Atlanta and trying to suppress an awkward laugh. “It was this alchemical thing that felt right,” explains Perfet. “I get this feeling of jealousy just thinking about someone else [the role].”

The actress also says her co-stars (she and Lisa Ann Walter appear alongside Emmy nominees Brunson, Janelle James, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Tyler James Williams) quickly found a family bond as an ensemble that didn’t seem long-term. link. Theater company in operation. “In theater, you spend a month together in a room to raise your family,” says the 33-year-old actor, whose screens he enters. In the dark, the sound of metal s looking for. “job abbot It was the most I’ve ever felt [on TV]. It’s really a beautiful arrangement of people in the right place at the right time. Everyone thinks they have the best actors and they just don’t, I do.

While the show’s success meant more work — ABC ordered the series for 22 episodes for a second season, versus 13 for the first — Perfetti still found time to return to his first love: the stage. Between seasons, he appeared in Rajiv Joseph’s play. King JamesFirst at the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago and then at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, two lifelong friends have come together as LeBron James fans. but he sees abbotIts success as its opportunity to reach a wider audience and present a thoughtful character of the same caliber.

“It’s inherent in the show’s formula that our problems are relatively simple,” says Perfet. “Broadening them is how you can make sense of the rest of the world and hopefully find the humor in it.”

This story first appeared in the separate July issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.