For Perfetti, ‘tragic circumstances’ comedy gold
Actor says timing is from being a kid seeking attention
“I’m so excited for this!” Chris Perfetti says as he approaches the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Our greeting is drowned out by a cacophony of nearby construction and clusters of energetic children on field trips shuffling down the pathway.
Perfetti is just four steps into the rotunda when he is recognized.
“Excuse me, are you Chris Perfetti ... from ‘Abbott Elementary’?” a student from Lawndale High School asks bashfully.
“Yeah,” Perfetti says with a smile.
“Oh, wow! I love that show,” the teenager says, sharing an enthusiastic look with his classmate. “Our AP bio class is here on a field trip. We’re seniors in high school. I’m sorry to bother you. This is just so cool.”
“I was in AP bio for about a month,” Perfetti says. “Congratulations. You’re so close to graduating. Just a couple of months to go. Stay motivated.”
The scenario playing out in real life is something Perfetti’s “Abbott Elementary” character, the lovably corny, socially awkward history teacher Jacob Hill, would definitely freak out over. Teenagers thinking he’s cool? He’d run to the teacher’s lounge to broadcast the news.
The mockumentary comedy created by Quinta Brunson follows a group of teachers trying to give their students the education they deserve at an underfunded primary school in West Philadelphia. The series features an ensemble cast — Brunson, Tyler James Williams, Janelle James, Lisa Ann Walter, William Stanford Davis and Sheryl Lee Ralph — in which every member delivers scene-stealing laughs. But Perfetti has made Jacob, “Abbott’s” equally sincere and absurd white liberal do-gooder, a fan favorite and meme king. During the show’s post-Oscars episode, for example, which looked at whether the school’s namesake was racist, Perfetti delivers a master class in instant GIF-ication, passionately shouting at one of Abbott’s descendants: “Where were you on January 6th?!”
But it doesn’t stop there. The casual disclosure of Jacob’s idiosyncrasies across three seasons has brought hilarious depth to what could easily be a mere caricature of a wellintentioned ally. He’s not the biggest fan of Chris Pratt. He admits to having applied to Morehouse, a historically Black college. He suspects his gluten intolerance is internalized white guilt. He listens to podcasts at triple speed when he isn’t hosting his own, “The Abbott Life.” He’s an avid viewer of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey.” He is awkward and overeager to please, but also a phenomenal friend with a heart of gold. And a good teacher.
“It was easy to make Jacob annoying without any heart or ground to stand on, but in his audition, Chris really brought more heart to the character and warmth and honesty, which, to me, was more important than being funny and nailing the jokes,” Brunson says.
Perfetti offers this explanation for his understanding of the character: Brunson “had an idea for who these characters were but also gave over permission for those people to just be those people. I trust that she saw in me where it could go, the kind anchoring characteristics of what Jacob might be. At the end of the day, we’re trying to dupe you into thinking that this is real life. You need to have characters that seem real and flawed and multifaceted and ridiculous, otherwise, we won’t really care about their struggles. It’s way more interesting for me to play a real person than a cartoon version of a person. The comedy in Jacob is sort of baked into really tragic circumstances. I kind of obsess myself with Jacob’s fears and desires and hope they’ll come out funny.
“I had a drama teacher who said that theater is not therapy,” he adds. “And I remember understanding why she was saying that. But to be fair, it is kind of my therapy. I mean, therapy is also my therapy. But acting feels like the conduit through which I can experience being a human on this planet and understand what that is. And it is the greatest high I have ever felt . ... You kind of get to become an expert on everything.”
It all works to make Perfetti a scene partner who never fails to surprise, says Williams, who plays Jacob’s more sedate colleague, Gregory.
“He preps everything like he does with theater.
He comes into rehearsal with his own idea of the melody of the scene, then he waits to see what others are doing around him to refine it down,” Williams says. “But the energy that is Jacob is there from the start.”
Perfetti’s commitment to the character can often make it difficult to keep a straight face. While the actor insists that he’s not a naturally funny person — he credits Jacob’s comic flair to what’s written on the page and, maybe, the timing he honed on stage — Williams says the blooper reel proves otherwise.
Perfetti glosses the origin story of these comedic gifts as the “stereotypical” tale of a kid seeking attention. A curiosity for theater that began in grade school turned into love as a student.
“In drama school, you’re playing characters that you would absolutely never be cast as and you’re doing it for free and you’re doing it for fun,” he says. “So I got really used to eating brown rice and sardines and not needing to make a lot of money and not really expecting validation from anybody else or expecting success in that way. To be fair, it wasn’t long before I got my first job, but I certainly wouldn’t have imagined that my life would look like this right now.”
In spring 2020, while in Atlanta on a project, Perfetti received the pilot script for “Abbott Elementary” — a series he didn’t believe would get off the ground.
“I remember sitting on this park bench and people were doing laps walking by and I was laughing out loud reading each page,” he says. “I wanted to turn to somebody and be like, ‘This is so great! You have to read this script!’ I also remember thinking that nobody would make the show. It just seemed kind of like a secret.”
“Abbott Elementary” not only made it to TV, where it premiered on ABC in late 2021, it quickly became a sensation. It’s since received 15 Emmy nominations, with four wins, including the prize for comedy series in 2022, and has already been renewed for a fourth season.
Jacob holds Perfetti’s focus these days, and he’s excited to see how the character will change: Jacob recently ended his relationship with his boyfriend, allowing the series to explore how he navigates life as a single person, and as he nears his 30s he’s begun to evaluate his evolving ambitions as an educator.
“Chris really harnesses a lot of that (character development) without even showing it and I think he’s so nuanced that his work goes unnoticed,” Brunson says. “And I hate that. I think he’s one of the most talented actors I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching, let alone being in a scene with, but he’s carrying so much with that character and making it look so easy.”
But there is recognition in the way that perhaps matters most to Perfetti — how the audience responds. While meandering toward the museum’s mammal exhibition, a fieldtrip chaperone recognizes him and asks for a selfie while praising the show and his character. It’s the sort of dynamic that still feels unexpected.
“The gift that keeps on giving from ‘Abbott’ is I’m really used to working in a bubble and being in a room where the people who are receiving your work are there as you’re doing it,” he says, referring to the audience-actor relationship in theater. “And now there’s like millions of people watching in their own room after I’ve done the thing, so I’m less aware of how people respond to it sometimes.”
Talk about a grown-up field trip.