In my not so biased opinion, all of the Abbott Elementary stars are so talented, funny, and bring all the comedic beats necessary to make the ABC sitcom what it is. And it isn't just on the comedy series where their talent shines, but earlier in their career too. Though even great actors who have been in the business for a while still have bad auditions.
Participating in Entertainment Weekly's Awardist Comedy Actors Roundtable, Abbott Elementary's Sheryl Lee Ralph, who is the one and only Barbara Howard, shared her experience auditioning to be a part of the cast of Saturday Night Live back in the '80s! Oh, how wonderful that could have been. She explained how she was so excited about the opportunity ,though unfortunately when she got to the audition, things went south. Here's what she said during the conversation, per EW:
"They are going to add gender and color — they're gonna add a Black girl. And I am so excited to get this audition. I go in there, and I'm ready to show this side of my talent— and there was none. There was none. I can see me. I can see what I had on, I can see the camera in front of me. Nothing. Nothing at all. And that was that. There's nothing like a bad audition."
Oh my goodness, poor Ralph! It's not clear what went bad in the SNL audition exactly. It does sound like perhaps she froze and even though she has the ability to do comedy, clearly we know that, something just went wrong. It's like a job interview when you know you're right for the role, though the interview doesn't go well. It's a very unfortunate circumstance. But, hey. The lovely actress still went on to have a great career, and now we're lucky to see her on Abbott Elementary. You can see her talking about this moment at the 22-minute mark below.
The roundtable by EW also featured actors Uzo Aduba, Liza Colón-Zayas, David Alan Grier, Nathan Lane, and Michael Urie who have also won awards throughout their careers. Ralph won an Emmy back in 2022 for her role on the school-centric sitcom in the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series category.
Nominations for this year haven't come out yet, though I need Abbott Elementary to win for Best Comedy Show already! Her co-star and creator of Abbott, Quinta Brunson, also won Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series that year, and then Lead Actress the following year.
The comedy series is headed into its fifth season, which is set to return in fall 2025 on ABC. Before that, you can catch the next crossover episode between Abbott and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia when season 17 of the FX show premieres on July 9. You can also stream it on Hulu the next day. And don't forget about Saturday Night Live season 51! The sketch comedy series returns this fall on NBC.
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