Abbott Elementary’s Lisa Ann Walter: ‘To play a teacher and honour them is really important’
From the moment she joins our Zoom call from her Los Angeles kitchen, Lisa Ann Walter is beaming. “This is supposed to be our hiatus from filming Abbott Elementary,” she starts, “but I’m busier than ever, and won’t have any downtime until we’re back on set again. Honestly? It’s exhausting.” Usually, when promo interviews start like this, it’s a sign that what follows might be terse and testing. Walter’s ear-to-ear grin, however, makes it clear she has no complaints about the newly hectic nature of her professional life. “You don’t stop when you’re lucky enough to be on a hit,” she reckons. “You’ve got to take advantage of it.”
Since Abbott Elementary first hit US screens in late 2021, it has become a TV juggernaut. The heartwarming Philadelphia-set mockumentary school sitcom – in which Walter co-stars as nononsense teacher Melissa Schemmenti in an under-resourced but much-loved primary school – is a network show bucking trends and breaking records. It’s already bagged three Golden Globes, three Emmys and too many other awards to mention. It has proved a standout success with critics and audiences alike. The 22-episode second season is now available to view; a third is already in development. Walter is working flat out, and wouldn’t change it for the world.
“You know what,” she says. “I was on the phone with my girl Sheryl [Lee Ralph, an Abbott co-star] yesterday. We’ve both been in this business since the year of the flood, and we’re both so grateful for the opportunities that being on a hit show provides that we’re not sleeping on it.” Their shared mantra is simple: Yes, and what’s next? Soon Walter will embark on a US comedy tour, after which she will squeeze in a three-week film shoot before returning to Abbott to make season three. “I’m full steam ahead,” she says, “and taking joy in it all. Breathing in this moment. It won’t always be like this.”
Walter knows it first-hand. A jobbing comedian and actor, the 59-yearold has had her share of success through a career that has spanned four decades. There was Life’s Work, a mid-90s US sitcom she created and starred in; for a few years she masterminded Dance Your Ass Off, a weight loss-themed Strictly Come Dancingstyle show. Mostly she is recognised – by 90s parents and children alike – for her portrayal of housekeeper Chessy in the beloved 1998 Lindsay Lohan remake of The Parent Trap, plus a turn in Bruce Almighty. “You do what you have to do to stay working,” she says. “Unless you’re on the A-list or in a series with longevity, it’s a constant struggle.”
This struggle makes the unstoppable success of Abbott all the sweeter. In the show, she plays Schemmenti as a tough-nut second grade teacher who would kill for her students. Walter felt a kinship to her early on, and not only because of their shared Sicilian heritage. “My mother was a public school teacher in DC,” she says. “The only white teacher there. She was a tough-love, straighttalking broad who cared deeply about her pupils.” Schemmenti captured her mother’s essence, Philly accent aside.
“When I first read the script for Abbott,” Walter says, “I laughed and I cried. I’m pretty discerning – often I read something and think: ‘How the hell did this piece of shit get green-lit?’ Not the case with Abbott.”
Unsurprisingly, she connected to her character. The producers also felt it. “I’ve been told the execs saw the first 10 seconds of my audition and that was it. They stopped looking.” In April 2021, the Abbott cast assembled for the first time to shoot the pilot. “As soon as we stepped on set,” she says, “we could feel this was special. We just watched each other and we could see something gelling. Together we made magic. It was chemistry. That thing you hear about but so rarely feel and see.”
Walter’s mother had been unwell for a while, but by that April her health had started to deteriorate rapidly. “She’d been living with me on and off through the pandemic,” Walter explains. “I spent a lot of my life looking out for her. Not that it ever stopped her worrying about me. Much like being suspicious of outsiders, extreme pessimism is in our DNA; it’s Sicilian culture.” On Abbott, both cast and crew could sense the potential of what they were creating. Walter needed her mother to experience it, too.
“I really wanted to show her the pilot,” Walter says, “so she’d know she didn’t have to worry about me. When she was ill and intubated, I knew she would not let go until I told her that I’d be OK. I had a good job on a good show; one that was going to be a hit.” It is unheard of for a pilot to be released to anyone at such an early stage in the process. “I texted explaining the situation. Within three minutes, I had the episode. I told her this role honours her. Honours who she is, the work she did, how much she cared for her students.” By the time filming started in June, Walter’s mother had died. “It’s a gift I’ve been able to play a version of who she was, and that she left us knowing it.”
The way Walter sees it, the show is also an ode to the profession as a whole. “Teachers in the US are treated like shit,” she believes. “It’s a traditionally female profession, so there’s misogyny right off the bat, going into the pay structure and how they’re presented. And in this political atmosphere, to play a teacher and honour them with a performance? It’s really important to me.” This kind of emotional connection from the cast goes some way to explaining Abbott’s popularity.
Whatever else Walter worked on through her career, it was always the Parent Trap that members of the public would approach her for. “The day I started to get recognised as Miss Schemmenti,” she says, “I knew this was huge. The Parent Trap would still get a mention, but after decades, it was Abbott people turned to first.”
In the last 18 months, Walter’s life has transformed. “Raising four kids as a single mom, I never got to give them that rich-people life,” she says. “I was busy trying to keep a roof over our heads, taking jobs where I could earn while also being present. I couldn’t take a job out of town and have them wind up addicted to meth.” There’s a saying she often turns to: in this industry you believe or you leave. In recent years, it seemed the latter might be her best bet. “Elaine Hendrix, my Parent Trap co-star, is my best friend,” Walter says. “She moved to Atlanta. There was a time in the last couple of years where I was looking at houses near her. Because there, I could actually buy something. I can’t afford a house in LA; a shack is $1.7m. I could get jobs out of Atlanta, I was explaining to everyone. Really what I was thinking was: could I live on my pension?”
There’s no talk of retirement today. For Walter – much like other, more seasoned cast members such as William “Stan” Davis – Abbott has offered a much-deserved moment of celebration. Walter believes for Quinta Brunson, the show’s star and creator, this was an active choice. “It’s intentional on Quinta’s part to give people their flowers when she feels they’re long overdue,” Walter says. “That’s how she felt about me. About Sheryl. Stan, too. She wanted to recognise talent she feels hasn’t been recognised. But Quinta is my daughter’s age. It takes a lot for me not to just walk right up to her and tell her to eat and take a nap.”
Days before we speak, Walter was doing the Oscars parties. “This year,” she says, “people like Brendan Fraser, Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan – actors who’ve been around for ever, but were overlooked for too long – haven’t just been recognised, but they’ve won Oscars!” So why not shoot for the stars? “I will tell you,” she says, “all the way through my career, I would turn down things that weren’t great, when I could afford to, because I told myself one day I’d win an Oscar or Emmy, and I had to have a body of work that supports that. That might have seemed crazy, but in my head it was always going to happen.” This year it was Sheryl Lee Ralph’s turn to win an Emmy, and Walter couldn’t be prouder. “Who knows,” she says. “Maybe it’ll be me up there in a few years’ time.”
Series one and two of Abbott Elementary are streaming now on Disney+.
It’s a gift I’ve been able to play a version of who my mother was, and that she left us knowing it”