{"id":505177,"date":"2026-03-05T12:01:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T12:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/505177\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T12:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T12:01:09","slug":"abbott-elementarys-luke-tennie-talks-joining-comedy-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/505177\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Abbott Elementary’s Luke Tennie Talks Joining Comedy Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from Wednesday night\u2019s episode of Abbott Elementary<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tIf there\u2019s been one thing on Dominic Clark\u2019s (Luke Tennie<\/a>) agenda since he arrived at Abbott Elementary, it\u2019s please his colleagues. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI kind of think of him like a puppy,\u201d Tennie tells Deadline, joking that he sort of sought guidance on his physical comedy style from Tom Holland as Spider-Man. \u201cIf you watch his interview, what he\u2019s talking about with Spider-Man, he\u2019s like, \u2018Yeah, when I\u2019m wearing a mask, I kind of just let my head pull the rest of me wherever I go.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat is, until Wednesday night\u2019s episode, when the Dominic finds his voice and decides to stand up for himself after kindergarten teacher Barbara Howard (Sheryl Lee Ralph) makes an insensitive comment about children with ADHD, referring to medication for the disorder as a \u201cshortcut.\u201d The episode centers around Dominic\u2019s journey to eventually opening up to Barbara about how his comment made her feel.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe\u2019s visibly relieved when Barbara accepts the critique and apologizes for the insensitive remark. It\u2019s exactly the kind of response the young teacher was hoping for, Tennie says, as well as a way to lead by example with someone who is \u201calready ready to learn from her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAt that point, she\u2019s not apologizing to a student, she\u2019s apologizing to a peer. He\u2019s new, but she understands that \u2018Alright, if we\u2019re going to be working together\u2026I got to be open to other people\u2019s sensitivities,\u201d he adds. \u201cI think, especially this season, you could really see Barbara\u2019s commitment to her own growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the same way that Mrs. Howard is proving to be a positive mentor for a young educator like Dominic, Ralph, who won an Emmy for her performance on Abbott, has also been somewhat of a mentor to 31-year-old Tennie this season. After all, she exemplifies the best of the comedy series, adeptly infusing both heart and hilarity into each of her moments on camera.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI asked her about the difference between drama and comedy in terms of how she plays. She was like, \u2018It\u2019s not really about that. It\u2019s not really about playing it differently. It\u2019s about playing each one with sincerity and truth and honesty.\u2019 I was so compelled by that response, because I always feel like the greatest actors tend to agree on that,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, when I finally got the opportunity to work across from her in a one-on-one [environment], I got to see how that approach manifested. What\u2019s so cool about that commitment to sincerity and truth is nothing feels hokey, so there is an opportunity there for her to just be funny, because that\u2019s one of the funniest characters on that show, but she played that apology with such conviction.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen it came to this episode, Tennie says he wanted to strike a similar balance, given the responsibility he felt to properly advocate for people who have ADHD. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think that just provides this great opportunity, not just for the students, but for other teachers who are watching, to just feel represented,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\n\tTennie is a recurring guest star for Season 5, so he doesn\u2019t appear in every episode. When he does return, he teases that it\u2019ll be memorable.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWell, I think it is the funniest episode of Abbott that I\u2019m in,\u201d he reveals. \u201cI think they\u2019re just going to be doubled over laughing. It is hilarious.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNew episodes of Abbott Elementary air Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m. PT on ABC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from Wednesday night\u2019s episode of Abbott Elementary. If there\u2019s been one thing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[13279,88,87040,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-505177","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-abbott-elementary","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-luke-tennie","11":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}